1 Zecchino - Franz II Christ with globe

This is almost certainly the final zecchino struck under the name of a doge, though the Republic that authorized it no longer existed. Venice fell to Napoleon in May 1797, ending over a thousand years of continuous republican government. Austrian rule began formally in January 1798 under the Treaty of Campo Formio, yet dies already prepared — likely under the last doge, Ludovico Manin — continued to be used into that transitional period. The zecchino's legendary fineness, maintained at effectively .9986 for centuries, had made it the gold standard of Mediterranean trade; the Austrians had every commercial reason not to disrupt it immediately.