1 Zecchino - Gian Giacomo Medici

Gian Giacomo de' Medici — known as "il Medeghino" — was a Milanese adventurer who seized the castle of Musso on Lake Como in 1523 and held it as a personal fiefdom for nearly a decade, extorting tolls from merchant traffic and conducting what amounted to licensed piracy on the lake. His right to strike coinage was never formally granted by any emperor or sovereign; he simply did it. The Marquisate of Musso was less a state than a strongman's territorial bluff, and the coins it produced reflect that — minted in small quantities over a compressed window before Francesco II Sforza and the Spanish forced his surrender in 1531.