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Small Grosso
| Issuer | Republic of Genoa |
|---|---|
| Year | 1236-1289 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Genovino (1139-1528) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A bold cross pattée, with arms of equal length that flare toward their terminals, centered within a beaded or cabled inner circle. The arms of the cross divide the inner field into four equal quadrants. The surrounding legend in uncial Latin letters runs continuously around the outer field between the inner circle and the coin's irregular periphery. The design is executed in the characteristic flat, high-relief hammered style of 13th-century Genoese silver coinage, with the cross serving as the principal heraldic device invoking imperial and ecclesiastical authority. |
| Reverse script | Latin (uncial) |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Additional information |
Genoa's adoption of the grosso in the mid-thirteenth century was a direct commercial response to the expanding volume of Levantine trade following the Crusades, where small denari were simply inadequate for large mercantile transactions. The Republic struck these pieces without dating them — a deliberate policy that kept the coinage legally fungible across decades of issue and insulated it from debasement suspicion.
The MIR and MEC references cited here reflect several die groupings distributed across the full production span, suggesting the type was revisited and subtly adjusted at least three times during circulation.