Author: Alberto Guardia
Language: English
2015
It is said that fortune favours the bold, but it also seems certain that misfortune favours the superstitious.
This story is set in the seventeenth century, in the Italian town of Masserano, the moment of glory of the mint owned by the Princes Besso Ferrero.
The speciality of the house lies in their flexibility and their lack of scruples when minting their coins, even those made for others are barely legal.
A Spanish captain commissions, on behalf of the Governor of the Dukedom of Milano, ten gold coins to be used in a political plot.
The coins lead to events that go well beyond the initial intentions and it seems that they continue to bring misfortune to all those who own them.
In 1929 Carlo, an antique dealer from Ticino, tries to purchase the last coin still available at auction and, as time passes he begins to believe that the strange stories he has heard… might just be true.
