1 Ducatone - Lodovico Manin

Lodovico Manin was elected Doge in 1789 — the same year France descended into revolution — and would prove to be Venice's last. Eight years after this coin was struck, Napoleon's ultimatum forced Manin to abdicate, dissolving a republic that had endured over a thousand years. By contemporary accounts, he wept when removing the ducal bonnet, handing it to his servant with the words that he would not be needing it again.

The ducatone denomination had been a Venetian monetary staple since the sixteenth century, widely accepted across Adriatic and Levantine trade networks. This 1789 issue is among the final emissions of a sovereign Venetian mint.