1/4 Zecchino - Carlo Ruzzini

Carlo Ruzzini's dogeship lasted only three years, cut short by his death in January 1735 at age eighty-four. The fractional zecchino denominations saw limited production under any doge, but the brevity of Ruzzini's reign combined with Venice's already-declining mint output in the early eighteenth century makes pieces attributable to his tenure genuinely scarce. By this period the Venetian gold zecchino — once the dominant trade coin of the Mediterranean — had largely ceded that role to competing issues, though Venice continued striking them more from institutional inertia than commercial necessity.