1 Scudo - Pietro Berard

Desana was among the smallest feudal lordships in the Po Valley — a scrap of territory between Vercelli and Casale Monferrato that nonetheless held imperial minting rights. Pietro Berardo ruled during the Italian Wars, when French and Habsburg armies churned repeatedly through Piedmont, making the survival of any gold coinage from so minor a mint genuinely improbable. The county's minting activity was sporadic at best, dependent entirely on the lord's political standing with whichever great power currently controlled the region.

Fr#233 is among the rarest citations in Friedberg's *Gold Coins of the World* for Italian States issues of this period.