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1/4 Soldo - Francesco Filiberto Ferrero Fieschi
| Issuer | Marquessate of Masserano (Masserano, Italian States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1584-1629 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | A bold cross of Mauritian (crosslet) type occupies the full field, its four arms each terminating in a trefoil or club-shaped finial, forming a cross-crosslet appearance characteristic of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. The cross is enclosed within a four-lobed (quadrilobe) cartouche, with a small roundel or pellet placed at each of the four inter-lobe angles. No surrounding legend is present. The design is rendered in the coarse, high-relief hammered style typical of small Italian feudal billon issues of the period. |
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Francesco Filiberto Ferrero Fieschi ruled Masserano from 1584 until his death in 1629, one of the longer tenures among the minor Piedmontese lords who jealously guarded their minting rights as symbols of autonomy within the tangled web of Savoyard and Spanish influence in northern Italy. Masserano's coinage output was small by any measure, and billon fractions like this quarter soldo were workhorse pieces — low-value, high-attrition currency ground down in everyday market transactions.
The Ferrero Fieschi family had acquired the marquessate through the merger of two notable Piedmontese-Ligurian dynasties. Surviving examples of this denomination are correspondingly scarce.