1 Sezzino - John George Palaeologus

John George Palaeologus inherited Montferrat through the Byzantine Palaeologan line that had held the marquisate since 1305, making the Italian statelet one of the last remnants of Palaeologan rule anywhere — Constantinople had fallen nearly eighty years before these coins were struck. His reign ended without a male heir, extinguishing the dynasty in Montferrat entirely. The marquisate passed to the Gonzaga of Mantua in 1536 following imperial arbitration by Charles V.

Billon issues of this type circulated in a territory perpetually squeezed between French and Hapsburg ambitions during the Italian Wars.