1 Scudo - Vincent I Gonzaga

Vincenzo I Gonzaga inherited Montferrat through his mother Eleonora, the arrangement having been bitterly contested by the House of Savoy for decades. The duchy's coinage under his rule was produced under persistent pressure from Turin, and the gold scudo issues of this period are partly a political assertion — Mantua reminding its neighbors that Montferrat remained a functioning sovereign entity with its own mint. Vincenzo was an extravagant ruler, a patron of Monteverdi and Rubens, and chronically in debt; the financial strain is reflected in irregular output across his minting years.