1 Zecchino - Pietro Gradenigo

Pietro Gradenigo is better remembered for engineering the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio in 1297 — the constitutional lock that permanently restricted membership in Venice's governing council to established noble families — than for his coinage. The Serrata effectively created a closed hereditary aristocracy and triggered the failed Tiepolo-Querini conspiracy of 1310, which nearly ended his reign violently.

The zecchino itself had been standardized under his predecessor Lorenzo Tiepolo's era and maintained its .998 fineness with extraordinary consistency across doges, a discipline that made the Venetian ducat the dominant trade coin of the medieval Mediterranean.