1 Quattrino - Gian Giacomo de` Medici Cross

Gian Giacomo de' Medici — the so-called "Medeghino" — seized the fortress of Musso on Lake Como in 1523 and held it by a combination of piracy, mercenary violence, and opportunistic alliance-switching throughout the Italian Wars. His tiny lakeside lordship was never a legitimate political entity in any conventional sense; it existed because the chaos of competing French and Habsburg claims over northern Italy left local strongmen briefly ungoverned. The quattrino was struck during that window, and the marquisate itself was dissolved in 1532 when he sold Musso to the Habsburgs.