Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Ducato `Ongaro` - Agostino Spinola Austria coat of arms
| Issuer | County of Tassarolo (Italian States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1604-1616 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Full-length armored figure of Agostino Spinola standing facing, wearing contemporary plate armor and holding a scepter or baton in the right hand, with a shield or heraldic device at his side. The figure stands on a plain field within a beaded border. The Latin legend AVGVST SPI COMES TASSA (Agostino Spinola, Count of Tassarolo) runs around the periphery, interrupted by the figure. The portrait is rendered in the bold, somewhat schematic style characteristic of northern Italian hammered gold coinage of the early seventeenth century. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | AVGVST SPI COMES TASSA |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Tassarolo was a minuscule Imperial fief in the Ligurian Apennines, and the Spinola family's right to strike coin there derived directly from privileges granted by the Holy Roman Emperor — a technicality the Genoese republic deeply resented, as it placed an autonomous mint practically within their commercial orbit. Agostino Spinola exploited that privilege aggressively, producing ducats closely imitating Hungarian gold coinage, the so-called "ongaro" type, precisely because Hungarian ducats enjoyed universal merchant acceptance across Mediterranean trade networks.
The imitation was the point. Tassarolo's output circulated on the strength of a borrowed reputation.