Bagattino - Alfonso I Reggio Emilia

Alfonso I d'Este held Reggio Emilia intermittently — the city changed hands repeatedly between the Este duchy and papal control throughout the early sixteenth century, and small copper issues like this bagattino functioned as the workhorse of local exchange precisely because larger denominations were too valuable for daily market transactions. The CNI reference places this squarely among the minor municipal copper struck under Este authority during the decade Alfonso spent consolidating his hold over the Reggiano territory following the upheavals of the Italian Wars.