Catalog
Denier anonymous with temple
| Issuer | Venice, Republic of |
|---|---|
| Year | 823-840 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ✠ DS CONSERVA ROMANO IMP (Translation: Lord, protect our roman emperor.) |
| Reverse description | A stylized temple or church facade depicted with four base columns supporting a simple capital, a cross standing between the central columns. Above the temple, a second cross divides the encircling Latin legend. The architectural rendering is schematic and hieratic, reflecting the early medieval Venetian artistic tradition. The legend XPE SALVA VENECIAS (Christ save Venice) surrounds the design within the beaded border. |
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| Additional information |
The anonymous deniers of early Venice occupy an awkward transitional moment: the lagoon city technically remained under Byzantine suzerainty while simultaneously minting coinage that drew formal and iconographic inspiration from Carolingian prototypes — a diplomatic balancing act that the coins themselves embody without resolving. The 823–840 bracket places this issue squarely under Doge Giovanni I Participazio, whose reign saw Venice begin asserting the kind of commercial independence that would define the republic for centuries.
The multiple reference numbers reflect genuine scholarly disagreement over die attribution and sequencing within this anonymous series, with Papadopoli and Paolucci working from overlapping but non-identical die studies.