Douzain - Ercole Radicati

The Radicati family held Cocconato as imperial vassals, and Ercole Radicati's right to strike billon coinage in the late sixteenth century was the kind of small-scale minting privilege that the Holy Roman Emperor periodically granted to minor Italian lordships — more a revenue concession than a monetary policy. These fractional billon issues circulated locally in the Monferrato borderlands, where the patchwork of petty signorie meant that a traveler might handle coinage from a half-dozen different authorities within a day's ride.