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1 Denier Tornese - Dominic Giustiniani
| Issuer | Lordship of Chios (Genoese colonies) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1529 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Denier Tornese (1⁄240) |
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| Obverse description | Central field features a stylized castle or fortified tower motif enclosed within a beaded inner circle, evoking the civic emblem of Chios. The surrounding legend in Latin reads CIVITAS CHII D I, identifying the issuing authority as the City of Chios under the administration of Domenico (di Gioantonio) Giustiniani. The design is executed in the medieval hammered tradition, with characteristic flat relief and slightly irregular flan. The lettering is gothic in style, consistent with Genoese colonial coinage of the early sixteenth century. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Giustiniani family held Chios under a formal maona — a joint-stock company arrangement unique in medieval and early modern colonial administration — from 1346 until the Ottoman conquest in 1566. Dominic Giustiniani's tenure as podestà placed this issue squarely in the island's final Genoese decades, when the mastic trade still made Chios one of the most profitable colonial possessions in the eastern Mediterranean.
The denier tornese denomination derives ultimately from the French denier tournois struck at Tours, a type that spread across Latin-controlled Greek territories after the Fourth Crusade and persisted in the Aegean long after it had vanished from Western Europe.