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Grosso of 1 Soldo

Issuer Genoa, Republic of (1139-1797)
Year 1290-1300
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Currency Genovino (1139-1528)
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Obverse lettering ✠ CIVNAS ஃ IANVA
(Translation: City of Genoa)
Reverse description A plain cross pattée, with slightly expanded terminals, occupies the central field within a beaded inner circle, its arms extending nearly to the beading. The flat, open field surrounding the cross is unadorned, lending the design a austere, early Gothic character consistent with late 13th-century Genoese minting practice. The circular legend in uncial Latin letters runs between the beaded inner circle and the outer rim, invoking the name of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad as nominal overlord. The hammered flan is irregular and exhibits natural surface undulation typical of medieval silver coinage.
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Additional information

Genoa's grosso coinage emerged directly from the republic's commercial dominance in eastern Mediterranean trade, where Genoese merchants required a heavier silver denomination capable of competing with the Venetian grosso and the Byzantine hyperpyron in Levantine markets. The 1290s were particularly fraught — the fall of Acre in 1291 effectively ended the Crusader states and forced a rapid reorientation of Genoese trading networks toward the Black Sea and Crimean routes.

MIR#11 places this among the earlier grosso emissions, before the type underwent the gradual weight reductions of the following century.

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