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1 Grosso - Tomaso Mocenigo initials
| Issuer | Republic of Venice |
|---|---|
| Year | 1414-1423 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | The obverse depicts the Doge of Venice kneeling in supplication before Saint Mark the Evangelist, both figures shown in full length facing one another. The Doge, identified by the distinctive ducal corno headgear, receives a gonfalon or banner from the standing saint. Saint Mark is portrayed with a halo and holds a book of the Gospels in his left hand while extending the standard with his right. The initials of Doge Tomaso Mocenigo appear in the field, serving as the identifying mintmaster's mark for this issue. The scene is rendered in the characteristic Gothic style of early fifteenth-century Venetian coinage, with the figures surrounded by a circular Latin legend. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Tomaso Mocenigo's dogeship coincided with Venice at perhaps its peak as a Mediterranean commercial power, the city extracting enormous profit from eastern trade routes before the Ottoman consolidation that would follow his successor Foscari's disastrous mainland wars. Mocenigo himself, on his deathbed in 1423, reportedly warned the Great Council explicitly against electing Foscari — a speech preserved in the chronicles and remarkable for its detailed accounting of Venetian wealth and military capacity.
The use of initials rather than the full ducal name on this grosso reflects a minting convention of space economy on the smaller silver denominations, distinguishing it from the more expansive legends carried on the ducat series.