Trillina - Johann Franz Trivulzio

The Trivulzio family acquired the Val Mesolcina — and with it the right to strike coin — through the military and political dealings of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, the Milanese condottiere who served as Marshal of France under Louis XII. Johann Franz inherited a lordship already in decline; the Graubünden leagues were steadily absorbing these alpine jurisdictions, and the Trillina was struck during the final decades before the family's temporal authority in the valley was extinguished entirely. Small copper issues of this type circulated hard in mountain communities where silver was scarce.