Baiocchella - Rodolfo Fano type, church

Castiglione delle Stiviere's coinage authority in the late sixteenth century rested with the Gonzaga cadet branch established there, operating under imperial privilege. The Rodolfo Fano attribution links this type to a specific local die-cutter rather than a mint master — an unusually precise piece of documentary survival for a minor lordship issue of this scale. Billon struck for local circulation in this period frequently incorporated church imagery as a deliberate assertion of confessional loyalty during the Counter-Reformation, when even small signorie were advertising their Catholic credentials in tangible, transactional form.