1 Testone - Ercole I

Ercole I d'Este ruled Ferrara for thirty-four years, but his monetary policy was defined by a single ambition: competing with Milan. The testone — a large-flan silver denomination introduced by the Sforza in the 1460s — was adopted by Ercole as a deliberate assertion of ducal parity with his northern rivals. Ferrara's version circulated widely across the Po Valley trading network, where its weight standard made it a practical instrument for merchants moving between Este and Sforza territory.

The CNI X listing distinguishes several die variants across the long reign, a consequence of continuous production over three decades at the Ferrara mint.