Denier - Sebastiano Ziani

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.