10 Ducats - Charles III

Charles III of Savoy spent much of his reign watching his duchy dismembered — France occupied Piedmont from 1536, and the Duke himself was reduced to holding little more than Nice and a handful of Alpine valleys. Multiple-ducat gold pieces of this period were almost certainly struck as presentation pieces or diplomatic gifts rather than circulating currency; there was neither the economic infrastructure nor the political stability to support high-denomination trade coinage in any meaningful volume.

The CNI I#1 designation indicates this piece opens the entire first volume of the Corpus Nummorum Italicorum — a reflection of its exceptional rarity rather than any cataloging convention favoring common types.