1 Zecchino - Lodovico Manin

Lodovico Manin was the last Doge of Venice — a title he held for less than a decade before Napoleon's ultimatum dissolved the Republic in May 1797, ending over a thousand years of continuous governance. Manin reportedly wept and removed his ducal bonnet on the day of abdication, handing it to his servant with the words that he would not be needing it again. The zecchino struck under his name thus carries a peculiar finality: a coin type that had remained essentially unchanged since the 13th century, terminated not by monetary reform but by military conquest.

The Venetian zecchino's extraordinary .999 fineness was maintained obsessively across centuries precisely because its reputation as a trade coin depended on absolute consistency. That standard died with the Republic.