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1 Ducato d`oro - Francesco I Sforza COMES
| Issuer | Milan (Italian States) |
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| Year | 1462-1466 |
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| Diameter | 24 mm |
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| Obverse description | Armored bust of Francesco I Sforza facing right, depicted with close-cropped hair and wearing a suit of plate armor with a prominent gorget, all within a beaded inner circle. The legend, rendered in Gothic uncial characters, commences at the lower left with the Visconti biscione (the serpent device), serving as a dynastic emblem of the Visconti heritage claimed by Sforza. The portrait is boldly struck in high relief, characteristic of the refined Milanese goldsmithing tradition of the mid-fifteenth century. The field surrounding the bust is plain, directing full attention to the finely modeled effigy. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Francesco I Sforza seized Milan in 1450 not through inheritance but through mercenary muscle — he had spent decades as a condottiere before marrying into the Visconti line and exploiting the power vacuum left by Filippo Maria Visconti's death. This ducato, struck between 1462 and 1466, belongs to his COMES series, a titulature choice that reflects deliberate political signaling: by styling himself count rather than duke on certain issues, Sforza navigated the complex legitimacy questions that dogged a self-made lord ruling what had been a formal imperial duchy.
MIR 171/3 distinguishes this from adjacent varieties by specific legend punctuation and die characteristics documented by Crippa.