1/4 Ducato - Manuele and Paleologo Zaccaria

The Zaccaria lordship of Chios was a Genoese commercial venture as much as a political one — the family had acquired the island primarily to control its alum deposits, among the most valuable industrial mineral sources in the medieval Mediterranean. Manuele and Paleologo Zaccaria co-issued this fractional gold piece during their joint rule, a brief window before Genoese political pressure and Byzantine maneuvering ended the family's grip on the island by 1329.

Fractional ducato issues from minor Aegean lordships of this period are exceptionally rare survivors. At 0.85g, this denomination served interregional trade circuits where Venetian ducats dominated but local fractions were operationally necessary.