Masserano was a tiny feudal lordship in Piedmont, and the joint rule of Ludovico II and Pierluca I Ferrero — brothers holding the territory in condominium — represents an unusual dynastic arrangement that briefly gave this otherwise negligible fief the right to strike silver. The testone denomination was itself a northern Italian innovation of the late fifteenth century, designed to compete with the heavier silver coinages flooding Italian markets from the Swiss cantons and the Empire.
CNI II records only a handful of die pairings for this type. Production almost certainly ceased when Pierluca I's ecclesiastical career — he became Bishop of Vercelli in 1528 — ended the joint secular authority that justified the mint's operation.
Masserano was a tiny feudal lordship in Piedmont, and the joint rule of Ludovico II and Pierluca I Ferrero — brothers holding the territory in condominium — represents an unusual dynastic arrangement that briefly gave this otherwise negligible fief the right to strike silver. The testone denomination was itself a northern Italian innovation of the late fifteenth century, designed to compete with the heavier silver coinages flooding Italian markets from the Swiss cantons and the Empire.
CNI II records only a handful of die pairings for this type. Production almost certainly ceased when Pierluca I's ecclesiastical career — he became Bishop of Vercelli in 1528 — ended the joint secular authority that justified the mint's operation.