Sesino - Vespasiano I Gonzaga

Vespasiano I Gonzaga founded Sabbioneta from essentially nothing — a small fortified town in the Po plain that he spent decades building into a miniature ideal city, complete with a theatre, a ducal palace, and a mint. The mint was authorized by imperial privilege from Philip II of Spain, under whose protection Vespasiano operated, and it struck a remarkable range of denominations for a domain that measured only a few square kilometers.

The sesino, a low-value billon piece, circulated locally alongside coins from Mantua and Milan in a region where small change was perpetually scarce.