1/2 Ducato - Alvise Mocenigo IV

Alvise Mocenigo IV served as Doge from 1763 until his death in 1778, but this denomination was struck only through 1774, when Venice undertook a monetary reform that suppressed several silver fractional types. The half ducato occupied an awkward position in Venetian trade silver — large enough to matter in domestic accounts, but increasingly marginal against the heavier tallero denominations that dominated Adriatic commerce by the mid-eighteenth century.

Venice's mint, the Zecca, was by this period operating well below its earlier output. State finances were under sustained pressure from the cost of maintaining neutrality during successive European conflicts, and the reduction in silver coinage types after 1774 reflects that squeeze directly.