1 Grosso - Francesco Dandolo - 'Matapano'

The matapan — Venice's dominant trade silver from the late twelfth century — was already over a century old when Dandolo's issues were struck, a longevity almost unmatched in medieval European coinage. It circulated across the Levant, the Black Sea ports, and into the eastern Mediterranean with a reliability that made it the de facto benchmark for silver transactions in the region, widely imitated by Byzantine and crusader mints alike. The Venetian Senate actively defended its standard against debasement, understanding that the coin's value as a trading instrument depended entirely on merchants trusting its fineness.

Dandolo himself negotiated the 1335 peace with Genoa following the War of the Curzola straits' aftermath — a commercial rivalry that defined much of what these coins were actually financing.