Very Rare Issue of the Maona

Sale: CNG 76, Lot: 1720. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 12 September 2007.  Sold For $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CRUSADERS, Chios. Genoese occupation. The Maona. Circa 1347-1566. AR Gigliato (2.02 g, 5h). Lorenzo Giustiniani-Banca. Struck 1520. +CONRADVS REX RO (+ stops), large ornate cross pattée; c/m: crowned half-length eagle facing, head left, with wings displayed, arising from three-towered castle façade / +CIVITAS CHII (saltire stops), crowned half-length eagle facing, head left, with wings displayed, arising from three-towered castle façade. Lunardi S41; Tzamale 208 var. (obv. legend); Schlumberger p. 430 and pl. XV, 10 var. (no c/m). VF, toned. Very rare.

Ex Alistair Lilburn Collection.

The Maona was a medieval Italian association of investors formed to manage the purchased shares of the revenue due to the relevant city-state through tax farming; the shares were individually sold to wealthy merchants, but the collection could be difficult and so these merchants would band together. These organizations were usually temporary, and could sometimes be extremely aggressive in extracting the monies due them; their actions went up to, and included, outright conquest. The Maona was especially common in Genoa; thus the historical significance of this coin.