The fiorino vecchio predates Florence's more famous gold florin by decades, circulating as the city's primary silver denomination during a period of explosive commercial expansion across Tuscany and the wider Mediterranean trade networks. Its minting coincided almost exactly with Florence's brutal conflict with Siena — the Guelph-Ghibelline rivalry that would culminate in the Florentine disaster at Montaperti in 1260, after which the city's monetary administration was temporarily disrupted.
The MIR 38 attribution covers a broad emission span, and die studies have identified meaningful variation across the type.
The fiorino vecchio predates Florence's more famous gold florin by decades, circulating as the city's primary silver denomination during a period of explosive commercial expansion across Tuscany and the wider Mediterranean trade networks. Its minting coincided almost exactly with Florence's brutal conflict with Siena — the Guelph-Ghibelline rivalry that would culminate in the Florentine disaster at Montaperti in 1260, after which the city's monetary administration was temporarily disrupted.
The MIR 38 attribution covers a broad emission span, and die studies have identified meaningful variation across the type.