1 Osella - Paolo Renier

The osella was an annual silver presentation piece issued by the Venetian doge as a substitute for the live birds (uccelli) once distributed to members of the Great Council each January — a custom formalized under Doge Leonardo Loredan in the early sixteenth century. Paolo Renier, elected doge in 1779, was the second-to-last man to hold that office; the Republic fell to Napoleon in 1797. Each year's osella carried a unique reverse type, making the annual sequence a de facto medallic chronicle of the final dogate.

CNI VIII remains the standard reference for attributing die varieties within this series.