Casale Monferrato

EVillageProwler

Casale got its beginnings as an ancient Roman town on the river Po, and located about 40 miles southwest of Milan. It was the capital of Monferrat, a marquisate erected in 967 by Otto I. In 1464, the marchese was elevated to Prince of the Empire. Emperor Charles V (1516-56) assigned the succession to the Gonzaga Duke of Mantua. The first Gonzaga Duke to take seat was Vincenzo I in 1587 (until 1612), followed by Francesco IV from Feb to Dec 1612.

Ferdinando Gonzaga ruled from 1612 to 1626, and died heirless. While history shows that Ferdinando was a nondescript ruler, this coin from his rule is quite significant.

Undated, this Tallero (of 16 Bianchi) is scarce in any grade (Krause lists this as $3,700 in VF and $5,500 in XF, which offers you some idea of relative rarity). This particular coin (Dav-3870) is of very high quality, with decent strike, clean surfaces and light to medium grey patina. While this coin did cost me a non-trivial amount of money, I felt lucky that I didn't have to pay even more for it. I think my high bid was about 25% higher.

The shield side shows a crowned shield of Mantua arms, with central shield of manifold Monferrat arms, chain of order around, with legend FERDINANDVS. D. G. DVX. MAN. VI. The cross side has a large cross in circle, small cross in each angle, with legend ET. MONTIS. FERRATI. IV.

(The pictures were taken by Doug Plasencia of NGC; I just did the editing via PSE because I didn't want the NGC logo.)

marcmoish

wow - I guess that's really rare if the prices are for circs as noted - what's the grade?

Looks AU53 actually - nice looking piece there!

JCMhouston

Very nice.

EVillageProwler

Thanks for the responses.

Normally, I'd say that the grade is secondary. In this case, I think that is still true since this coin is scarce in any grade.

But, this coin has been graded MS by NGC. I've always thought that this coin's correct grade range is AU58 to MS63. I bought it as an UNC in NGC slab. It failed to cross at PCGS, so I sent it in to NGC for a glamour shot. Since a regrade is only modestly more, I did that too. Not only did I get a very nice picture, I also got an upgrade. Its current grade is actually what I think is the correct grade; that is, it's what I think it'll most likely grade if I were to constantly resubmit raw.

EVP

LochNESS

<< <i>Casale got its beginnings as an ancient Roman town ... capital of Monferrat, a marquisate erected in 967 ... in 1464, the marchese was elevated to Prince of the Empire. ... Ferdinand Gonzaga ruled from 1612 to 1626 ... >>

Ancient origins aside, the marquisate existed for 500 years before their first "Prince" and another 150 years until good old Ferdinand assumed reign. That's 659 years of history. All those generations of artisans, farmers, perhaps scholars. Makes me feel so small and insignificant. I wonder how many people can truly fathom 6.6 centuries of culture. I'm not sure that I can.

And in all that time, the monarch on this coin only ruled for 14 years. And now you've got an MS-grade tallero of his in your hands. That's pretty amazing.

I bet he never sat around thinking, "some day my tallero is going to be a rare collectible."

EVillageProwler

LochNESS,

History is largely silent on Ferdinando Gonzaga, and probably for good reason: maybe because he was an entitled, vacuous noble who did little for his people. That he sat around thinking of anything truly important is unlikely. History has been unkind to many of the European noble families.

EVP

Zohar

<< <i>History is largely silent on Ferdinando Gonzaga, and probably for good reason: maybe because he was an entitled, vacuous noble who did little for his people. >>



Sounds like Congress (bi-partisan)!

Nap

Nice coin EVP.



<< <i>LochNESS,

History is largely silent on Ferdinando Gonzaga, and probably for good reason: maybe because he was an entitled, vacuous noble who did little for his people. That he sat around thinking of anything truly important is unlikely. History has been unkind to many of the European noble families.

EVP >>



From his brief wiki bio, he was noted to have been a cardinal, but resigned when his brother died to become the duke. He later secretly married a woman and then divorced her.

Having thus upset the church by leaving his post, getting married, and getting divorced, and probably upsetting the noble family of his first wife, along with the people who expected their duke to have a big wedding party, he probably had few if any friends left to write anything nice about him for posterity.

Iosephus

An interesting coin, and thanks for providing a bit of history to go with it!

WillieBoyd2

Very interesting historical piece!

I believe that this kind of coin is around 42mm in diameter which would make it
larger than a US silver dollar.

According to Stacks, this coin has a "very busy obverse design".
I have never seen the term "busy" applied to a coin before.

The reverse has a Jerusalem Cross, an old Crusader emblem, possibly Ferdinando might be
claiming that he is a "good Christian".

NiceCurrency

sounds like a real miracle of survival

neat imagery and mint state, wow, beautiful rare coin

nicholasz219

Super piece, EVP! I love Italian and German states coins, but its too many rulers over too many states for too much money for me to even get started. I'm glad you are sharing yours on here though. I live vicariously.

LochNESS

<< <i>Super piece, EVP! I love Italian and German states coins, but its too many rulers over too many states for too much money for me to even get started. I'm glad you are sharing yours on here though. I live vicariously. >>

+1. The best part of this forum is the vicarious ness