Testone
The Testone (plural: Testoni , from Italian. Testa - "head" , "head" ) is a silver coin first minted in Milan under Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza from 1474 onwards. It was modeled on the Venetian Lira Tron , bore the image of the ruler on the front like this one and, with a fine weight of a good 9 grams, was one and a half times as heavy. The coin type spread rapidly in many states in Italy and in parts of Europe. Numerous beautifully pronounced Renaissance silver coins with the portraits of the respective rulers were created. The denomination (in France Teston , in Tyrol Pfundner and in Switzerland and parts of southern Germany Dicken ) and the weight of the coin varied. These coins are now considered to be the preliminary stage to the taler .
