Fosdinovo's luigini were struck not for domestic circulation but almost entirely for export to the Levant trade, where French-style silver coins were in high demand across Ottoman markets. Dozens of petty Italian lordships — Fosdinovo among them — exploited this arbitrage in the 1660s, producing lightweight imitations of French louis that Near Eastern merchants accepted by type rather than by assay. The practice was lucrative enough that it briefly constituted the marquisate's primary fiscal activity.
Maria Maddalena Centurioni Malaspina, who governed Fosdinovo as regent, was one of the few women among these issuing lords — a detail that distinguishes Fosdinovo's output within what was otherwise an entirely male-dominated corner of seventeenth-century Italian minting.
Fosdinovo's luigini were struck not for domestic circulation but almost entirely for export to the Levant trade, where French-style silver coins were in high demand across Ottoman markets. Dozens of petty Italian lordships — Fosdinovo among them — exploited this arbitrage in the 1660s, producing lightweight imitations of French louis that Near Eastern merchants accepted by type rather than by assay. The practice was lucrative enough that it briefly constituted the marquisate's primary fiscal activity.
Maria Maddalena Centurioni Malaspina, who governed Fosdinovo as regent, was one of the few women among these issuing lords — a detail that distinguishes Fosdinovo's output within what was otherwise an entirely male-dominated corner of seventeenth-century Italian minting.