Denier - Henry III / Henry IV as emperors, Venice mint, St. Marc bust

This issue owes its existence to the chrysobull of 1082, by which Alexios I Komnenos granted Venice extraordinary trading privileges throughout the Byzantine Empire — essentially duty-free access to Constantinople and its ports — in exchange for naval assistance against the Normans. The concession was so commercially valuable that it effectively launched Venice's Mediterranean commercial dominance a full century before the Fourth Crusade. The denier itself circulated through that same network of Byzantine and Adriatic trade routes the privilege opened.