1/2 Scudo - Giovanni Bembo

Giovanni Bembo's term as Doge lasted only three years, from 1615 to 1618, cut short by his death in office. Venice was at that moment deeply entangled in the Uskok War — a grinding proxy conflict fought largely through piracy in the Adriatic, with Habsburg-backed Uskoks raiding Venetian shipping lanes until the Peace of Madrid finally ended hostilities in 1617. Coin production under short-lived doges is inherently constrained, and the Paolino and Pappadopoli references cataloguing multiple die pairings for this type suggest active but compressed minting across the reign.