150 Kuna Dubrovnik Carrack / Argosy

The kuna denomination takes its name from the marten pelt used as a unit of value in medieval Croatian trade — a monetary tradition that predates coinage in the region by centuries. Dubrovnik's carracks, the large merchant vessels that made the city-state's fortune, were so dominant in Mediterranean and Atlantic trade by the 15th century that the English word "argosy" derives directly from "Ragusa," the city's Italian name. Shakespeare used the term; so did insurance underwriters in London who had never seen the Adriatic.