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1 Scudo - Giovanni Bembo
| Issuer | Venice, Republic of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1615-1617 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
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| Mintage | ND (1615) CG - - ND (1615-1617) - - ND (1615-1617) - With inverted `A` for `V` - ND (1616-1617) IM - - |
| Additional information |
Giovanni Bembo served as Doge for barely two years before his death in March 1618, making his coinage among the shorter-lived issues of the late Republic. The scudo da 140 soldi — this denomination — had only been introduced a generation earlier as Venice struggled to compete with the large silver thalers flooding European trade routes from the Habsburg mines at Joachimstal and, later, Potosí. Venice needed a coin that could hold its own in Levantine commerce, where merchants weighed pieces rather than counted them.
The high fineness, .948, was not accidental — it was a deliberate policy of the Zecca to maintain a silver standard that Mediterranean trading partners trusted absolutely.