1 Perpero Stara Perpera

Ragusa — the small but remarkably durable republic centered on modern Dubrovnik — maintained its independence through careful diplomacy and tribute payments to the Ottoman Empire, which shielded it from the territorial ambitions of Venice and the Habsburgs alike. The perpero was a denomination with deep medieval roots in the region, the name derived from the Byzantine hyperpyron. By the time this issue entered production in 1683, the coinage was largely serving internal trade and the republic's merchant class rather than wide Adriatic circulation.

The 1667 earthquake that devastated Ragusa killed a significant portion of the population and destroyed much of the city — the minting of this type beginning sixteen years later reflects the republic's gradual fiscal recovery.