1/3 Gold Genovino 'Terzarola'- Simon Boccanegra

Simon Boccanegra's first dogeship — from which this coin dates — ended not in triumph but in exile, when the Grimaldi and Fieschi factions forced him from power in 1344. He would return decades later as the subject of Verdi's opera, but in 1339 he was the Republic's first-ever Doge, a title created specifically for him after the popular uprising that ended noble factional rule. The terzarola itself was Genoa's answer to fractional gold demand in the Levantine trade networks, where precise small-denomination gold was essential for settling accounts.