Testone - Francis II

Francis II ruled Mantua from 1584 until his death in 1612, but the Gonzaga mint's output during the 1584–1595 window reflects a court perpetually over-extended financially, propped up by Spanish Habsburg patronage and increasingly dependent on the sale of offices and titles. The testone denomination itself had been the prestige silver of northern Italian city-states since the late fifteenth century, and Mantua's issues competed directly with Milan and Ferrara for trade circulation in the Po valley.

MIR 416 is among the less frequently encountered Gonzaga testone types in documented collections, appearing rarely in northern Italian auction records.