1 Soldo - Besso

Masserano was a tiny imperial fief in Piedmont controlled by the Fieschi family, who held minting rights as counts under the Holy Roman Empire. These small billon soldi were struck during the rule of Besso Fieschi, whose tenure coincided with the broader fragmentation of coinage authority across northern Italy's minor lordships — a situation the Spanish-dominated duchy of Milan repeatedly attempted to suppress. Coins from jurisdictions this small rarely survived in quantity; most circulated hard in local markets and were pulled from use as debased or counterfeit.