Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Denier - Sebastiano Ziani
| Issuer | Republic of Venice |
|---|---|
| Year | 1172-1178 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Billon |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse presents a cross pattée at centre enclosed within a beaded or toothed inner circle, mirroring the obverse composition and consistent with the standard Venetian denier type of the 12th century. The surrounding legend + • S • MARCVS invokes Saint Mark, patron saint of Venice, in abbreviated Latin. The outer border displays a ring of decorative elements consistent with the obverse treatment. The flat, lightly struck surfaces and irregular flan edges are characteristic of hammered billon coinage produced at the Venice Mint during this period. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Venice Mint |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Sebastiano Ziani's dogeship, though brief, was among the most consequential in Venetian history — he presided over the reconciliation between Pope Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa on Venetian soil in 1177, an event that cemented the Republic's diplomatic prestige across Latin Christendom. The denier issued under his authority represents the earliest documented Venetian billon coinage, the foundation series from which all subsequent Venetian small change descends.
The extreme lightness of these pieces meant they circulated hard and fast in the Rialto markets, and survivors with any meaningful surface detail are genuinely scarce.