(Vendue pour $5.0)

1550, Mantua (Duchy), Guglielmo Gonzaga. Nice Copper Quattrino Coin. F+/aVF!

Condition: F+/aVF!   Mint Place: Mantua Denomination: Quattrino Mint Period: 1550-1587 Reference: CNI 84/96, MIR 528. Material: Copper Diameter: 15mm Weight: 0.89gm

Obverse: Young bust left. Legend: GVLI . DVX . MAN . III . E . M . M . E

Reverse: Ciborium, surrounded by legend. Legend:  SANGVINIS XPI IHESV

A ciborium is a vessel, normally in metal. It was originally a particular shape of drinking cup in Ancient Greece and Rome, but the word later came to refer to a large covered cup designed to hold hosts for, and after, the Eucharist, thus the counterpart of the chalice.

Mantua  is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes, created during the 12th century, as the city's defence system. These lakes receive water from the Mincio River, a tributary of the Po River which descends from Lake Garda. The three lakes are called Lago Superiore, Lago di Mezzo, and Lago Inferiore ("Upper", "Middle", and "Lower" Lakes, respectively). A fourth lake, Lake Pajolo, which once served as a defensive water ring around the city, dried up at the end of the 18th century. The area and its environs are important not only in naturalistic terms, but also anthropologically and historically; research has highlighted a number of human settlements scattered between Barche di Solferinoand Bande di Cavriana, Castellaro and Isolone del Mincio. These dated, without interruption, from Neolithic times (5th–4th millennium BC) to the Bronze Age (2nd–1st millennium BC) and the Gallic phases (2nd–1st centuries BC), and ended with Roman residential settlements, which could be traced to the 3rd century AD. In 2017, Legambiente ranked Mantua as the best Italian city for the quality of the life and environment.

Guglielmo Gonzaga (24 April 1538 – 14 August 1587) was Duke of Mantua and Montferrat from 1550 to 1587. He was the second son of Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Margaret Palaeologina of Montferrat. In 1574, Montferrat was elevated to a Duchy and he became its first duke. He was succeeded by his son Vincenzo.