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1 Ducato - Giovanni Dandolo
| Issuer | Zecca di Venezia (Mint of Venice) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1280-1289 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Lira (1156-1471) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Christ in Majesty (Christus Pantocrator) stands facing front within a beaded mandorla, nimbed, robed in flowing garments, his right hand raised in benediction and his left hand holding the Gospels. Seven stars are arranged within the mandorla on either side of the figure. The surrounding peripheral legend, divided into two segments by pellets, bears the votive inscription invoking Christ as ruler of the ducat. The design is executed in the refined Byzantine-influenced Venetian style characteristic of late 13th-century Zecca coinage. |
| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Giovanni Dandolo's dogeship (1280–1289) coincided almost exactly with the consolidation of the ducat as Venice's dominant trade coin in the eastern Mediterranean. The type had been introduced under his predecessor Lorenzo Tiepolo, but it was under Dandolo that Venetian commercial networks — stretching from the Levant to Flanders — fully priced contracts and settled debts in ducats, displacing Byzantine hyperpyra and Genoese coins on the same routes.
The Zecca maintained the ducat's fineness at .986 fine gold with extraordinary consistency, a deliberate policy enforced by the Council of Ten. Merchants across the Silk Road accepted Venetian ducats by weight without assay.