Catalog
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| Issuer | Fosdinovo, Marquisate of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1668 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Lira |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Draped bust of a woman facing right, her hair arranged in loose braids, wearing a prominent earring. The effigy is rendered in a refined baroque style and is surrounded by a beaded inner border. The circular legend in Latin runs along the periphery of the field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A crowned heraldic shield bearing three fleurs-de-lis arranged two and one, with a label of four pendants in chief, imitating the arms of the Dombes principality. The shield is flanked on either side by the divided date 16-68. The entire design is enclosed within a beaded inner border, with a circular Latin legend running along the periphery. |
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| Additional information |
Luigini were struck across dozens of small Italian and Levantine mints during the mid-seventeenth century specifically for export to the eastern Mediterranean, where they circulated at inflated values in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt — often traded well above their actual silver content. Fosdinovo's issues imitated the coinage of Dombes, a French principality whose types were among the most widely accepted in the Levant trade.
The Malaspina marquisate of Fosdinovo had neither the population nor the commerce to justify a domestic currency at this scale. The mint existed almost entirely to exploit the arbitrage.