Masserano was a tiny lordship in Piedmont whose coinage rights were exercised by the Fieschi family during a period when the Italian north was being pulled apart by French and Milanese ambitions. The anonymous attribution — no ruler named on the coin — reflects the political instability of the period; the Fieschi lords had every reason to avoid conspicuous claims of sovereignty while larger powers renegotiated control of the region repeatedly between 1494 and 1521.
CNI II records multiple die variants within the #20/30 sequence, and misattributions to neighboring Piedmontese mints are not uncommon in older collections.
Masserano was a tiny lordship in Piedmont whose coinage rights were exercised by the Fieschi family during a period when the Italian north was being pulled apart by French and Milanese ambitions. The anonymous attribution — no ruler named on the coin — reflects the political instability of the period; the Fieschi lords had every reason to avoid conspicuous claims of sovereignty while larger powers renegotiated control of the region repeatedly between 1494 and 1521.
CNI II records multiple die variants within the #20/30 sequence, and misattributions to neighboring Piedmontese mints are not uncommon in older collections.