Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Ducat - Antonio Venier
| Issuer | Chios, Lordship of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1354-1382 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Ducat |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Christ standing facing in an upright, frontal posture, robed in imperial Byzantine fashion, raising His right hand in a gesture of benediction while His left hand holds the Gospels. The figure is enclosed within an almond-shaped mandorla adorned with nine stars arranged around the perimeter. The surrounding legend, in abbreviated Latin, is disposed within the coin's border in the characteristic Venetian ducat style. |
| Reverse script | Latin (uncial) |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Genoese Mahona — a consortium of merchant families who purchased administration of Chios from Genoa in 1347 — struck ducats deliberately imitating the Venetian zecchino in weight and fineness to ease trade across the Aegean. Venier's name appears on this issue despite him being Doge of Venice, not a ruler of Chios; the practice was to borrow Venetian ducal nomenclature as a mark of monetary credibility rather than political authority.
The island's mastic monopoly funded this coinage. Chios controlled the only productive groves of Pistacia lentiscus in the medieval world, and that single commodity made the lordship wealthy enough to sustain a gold issue through most of the fourteenth century.