Maona Society

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 1719. Estimate $100.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CRUSADERS, Chios. Maona Society. Circa 1347-1566. BI Tornese (0.62 g, 7h). Lazaros Giustiniani. Struck 1548. + · CONRADVS · REX · R · (double crescent stops), cross fourchée / + · CIVITAS · CHII · (double crescent stops), familial coat-of-arms of Giustiniani; L-I across field. Tzamale 215; Schlumberger p. 429 and pl. XIV, 28. Good VF, brown patina. Rare.

From the Leonard O. Greenfield Collection.

The Maona was a medieval Italian association of investors, especially common in Genoa, 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.