Carlo Contarini's dogeship lasted barely fourteen months, from June 1655 until his death in May 1656 — one of the shortest reigns in the later Republic's history. Coinage issued under him is scarce for the simple reason that the mint had little time to produce it, and what was struck circulated in a Venice already under enormous financial strain from the ongoing War of Candia against the Ottomans, a conflict that had been bleeding the treasury since 1645.
Carlo Contarini's dogeship lasted barely fourteen months, from June 1655 until his death in May 1656 — one of the shortest reigns in the later Republic's history. Coinage issued under him is scarce for the simple reason that the mint had little time to produce it, and what was struck circulated in a Venice already under enormous financial strain from the ongoing War of Candia against the Ottomans, a conflict that had been bleeding the treasury since 1645.