Gian Galeazzo Visconti acquired the lordship of Milan through one of the more cold-blooded acts of the fourteenth century: in 1385 he lured his uncle Bernabò — co-ruler and rival — to a meeting under pretense of piety, had him arrested on the road, and imprisoned him until Bernabò died in custody. The coinage issued under Gian Galeazzo therefore spans the transition from contested signoria to consolidated ducal authority, culminating in his purchase of the ducal title from the Holy Roman Emperor Wenceslaus IV in 1395 for 100,000 florins.
The sesino occupied the small-change tier of the Milanese monetary system, struck in debased silver to meet everyday transactional demand. MIR 125 places this type firmly within the pre-ducal and early ducal sequence.
Gian Galeazzo Visconti acquired the lordship of Milan through one of the more cold-blooded acts of the fourteenth century: in 1385 he lured his uncle Bernabò — co-ruler and rival — to a meeting under pretense of piety, had him arrested on the road, and imprisoned him until Bernabò died in custody. The coinage issued under Gian Galeazzo therefore spans the transition from contested signoria to consolidated ducal authority, culminating in his purchase of the ducal title from the Holy Roman Emperor Wenceslaus IV in 1395 for 100,000 florins.
The sesino occupied the small-change tier of the Milanese monetary system, struck in debased silver to meet everyday transactional demand. MIR 125 places this type firmly within the pre-ducal and early ducal sequence.