1 Ducato - Andrea Dandolo

Andrea Dandolo was the last doge to be buried in the Basilica di San Marco — a privilege revoked by decree immediately after his death in 1354. A close friend of Petrarch and a legal scholar of genuine distinction, he governed during the Black Death's catastrophic sweep through Venice in 1348, which killed an estimated half the city's population. The ducato itself had been standardized in 1284 under Giovanni Dandolo, and Andrea's issues continued that unbroken weight and fineness that made Venetian gold the preferred trading currency across the eastern Mediterranean for three centuries.