1 Zecchino - Carlo Ruzzini

Carlo Ruzzini served as Doge from 1732 until his death in 1735, a tenure brief enough that zecchino production under his name was limited. He had spent decades as a diplomat before his election at age eighty-two — the oldest man elevated to the dogeship in Venice's history — and died in office before completing a full three years.

Venetian zecchini held a remarkable consistency enforced by law: the .999 fineness and 3.494g weight had been essentially unchanged since the thirteenth century, making them the dominant gold trade coin of the eastern Mediterranean for over five hundred years. Ruzzini's brief reign accounts for the relative scarcity of his issues against those of longer-serving doges.