Bozzolo was a tiny Imperial fief in Lombardy controlled by the Gonzaga family, and its rulers exploited their nominal minting rights aggressively — producing coins deliberately sized and weighted to imitate Dutch Leeuwendaalders for circulation in the Levant trade. The Dutch originals were the dominant commercial currency across Ottoman markets, and Italian counterfeit operations from small sovereign states like Bozzolo, Castiglione, and Desana flooded those same channels with underweight imitations throughout the mid-seventeenth century.
At roughly 23 grams against the Dutch prototype's nominal 27, the weight discrepancy was substantial enough to matter in bulk silver transactions.
Bozzolo was a tiny Imperial fief in Lombardy controlled by the Gonzaga family, and its rulers exploited their nominal minting rights aggressively — producing coins deliberately sized and weighted to imitate Dutch Leeuwendaalders for circulation in the Levant trade. The Dutch originals were the dominant commercial currency across Ottoman markets, and Italian counterfeit operations from small sovereign states like Bozzolo, Castiglione, and Desana flooded those same channels with underweight imitations throughout the mid-seventeenth century.
At roughly 23 grams against the Dutch prototype's nominal 27, the weight discrepancy was substantial enough to matter in bulk silver transactions.