Genovino / Ducat - Raphael Adorno As 23d Doge

Raphael Adorno's dogeship was the product of factional violence, not election — he seized power in 1443 backed by the Milanese Visconti, who were then effectively running Genoa as a client state. The Genovino issued under his authority circulated in a republic that was, functionally, anything but. Francesco Sforza's subsequent takeover in 1464 would eventually sever the Visconti grip, but coins struck during Adorno's tenure belong to the most politically compromised stretch of Genoese monetary history.

MIR 82/1 distinguishes this emission from adjacent Adorno-period pieces by subtle die characteristics. The Fr. 370 attribution places it firmly within the established Genoese gold sequence, though Adorno's four years produced limited output.