Medieval Italy Milan Testone Ludovico Sforza 1489 to 1508

The coin in our picture is a silver testone of Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan (Mediolani) in Northern Italy from 1489 to 1508. It carries the coat of arms of Sforza with the characteristic snakes and eagles.

These coins are more common than one might think, and a quick search of the Internet shows many examples in various states of preservation. The coin in our picture comes from Ponterio & Associates and CoinQuest thanks them for use of their image.

Typical catalog values run like this:

worn: $300
average circulated: $500
well preserved: $1200

The item that Sal describes is different than this coin. It has many of the features of this coin, but not all. Since Sal's piece is mounted in jewelry, it may be a take-off from this coin, or it may be a coin that we are not familiar with. In any case, coins mounted in jewelry carry no collector value, so the best place for Sal to go is to a jeweler. (Sal, if you would like to send a picture, use the Contact Us link to start an e-mail exchange with CoinQuest).
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Coin: 12944, Genre: Central Europe North South, Timeline: Early/Medieval
Created (yyyymm): 201209, Last review: 201705
Appearance: Normal round coin Metallic gray Letters: Latin
Years: sort: 1489, filter: 1489 to 1508
Image: italy_milan_ludovico_sforza.jpg
Tags: escutcheon encircled tiera headed shiled peace luis lud circal avs rings italians crests ludovicus italiana eagles crest tiarra eaglets type insignia chevrons 2nd italiane tiara snakes angles testone italian circling ludovico arm crown falcon encircles ludouicus circel lodovico encircle shields egals ringed italia circumference encircling pipe medieval coats ring serpent louis crowning luise circles loop circumscribed heads milan sforza crowns circumscibed circuit chevron oneheaded midieval coat pipes luiz logo crowned ludovicvs hawk arms circlet asp head circle mediolani 7th creast itali sheild ludov ditalia loops italy lvd louise one ludovigus circular incircled crested eagel angle ones snake circled eagle ludovicis lvdovicvs angled types egal shield escucheon dvx shild asps