Massimiliano Sforza's tenure as Duke of Milan was never truly his own — installed in 1512 by Swiss mercenary forces after the French were expelled, he governed as a dependent of the cantons that had put him there, paying for their protection with territorial concessions and revenue he could barely spare. The trillina circulated through this fractured administration, a minor denomination grinding through a duchy that changed hands three times in a single generation. Crippa's attribution places this among a small range of dies, all sharing the compressed flan characteristics typical of the Milan billon output under Sforza's brief and constrained rule.
Massimiliano Sforza's tenure as Duke of Milan was never truly his own — installed in 1512 by Swiss mercenary forces after the French were expelled, he governed as a dependent of the cantons that had put him there, paying for their protection with territorial concessions and revenue he could barely spare. The trillina circulated through this fractured administration, a minor denomination grinding through a duchy that changed hands three times in a single generation. Crippa's attribution places this among a small range of dies, all sharing the compressed flan characteristics typical of the Milan billon output under Sforza's brief and constrained rule.