Civic Badge Counterstamp for the House of Visconti

CNG 100, Lot: 783. Estimate $2000. Sold for $3200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Milano. AV Zecchino (21mm, 3.50 g, 12h). Civic badge counterstamped on a Venetian issue of Alvise Contarini (1676-1684). Biscione (crowned serpent devouring man) within oval incuse. Undertype: St. Mark presenting banner to kneeling Doge / Christ within mandorla. CNI –; Crippa –; for undertype: Paolucci 1; Friedberg 1338. EF. Very rare.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex UBS 79 (10 September 2008), lot 4191.

The biscione served as the crest of the House of Visconti from the 11th century, the design said to have been copied from the shield of a Saracen warrior slain by a Visconti ancestor. As the family gained control of Milan, the biscione gradually came to serve as an emblem of the city itself.