Historic Medieval World Trade Coin (Venice Italy - Grossi, Grosso, Groat)- Basic Data

I finally got an example of this historic medieval Venetian coinage. You have probably seen these popular World trade coins that have the image of Jesus Christ seated on a throne. I don’t know where to start describing this world trade coin so I’ll begin with a little background information.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

For something like 500 years the pfennig was the trade coin circulating in Europe. It had apparently spread all over the area as either the German pfennig, Latin denarius, French denier, English penny, and the Italy denaro. All these different flavors of pfennigs were issued in different weights but they all kind-of & sort-of traded everywhere. Like all money in history, they progressively got lighter & the precious metal content became more diluted over time.

By the time of the crusades, these pfennigs were not worth very much which made it difficult to pay for major military actions & purchases. In Italy the purchasing power of the denaro had dropped so that paying for crusades with denaro became very complicated. Italy began issuing a silver coin (grosso) that initially weighed about 2 grams and was supposedly worth about 12 to 20 denari. These grosso coins (like my new coin) became prolific during the period between 1200 and 1400. Early grosso coins emulated the designs of the previous coins. However, the reverse of grosso like mine began depicting Jesus Christ on a throne. The Grosso apparently became a World trade coin much as other famous coinage like (1) the tetradrachem, (2) the piece of eight and (3) the US dollar from some years ago. These grosso are the forerunners of the groat coins that subsequently prevailed in the European money scene.

The first grosso may have originally been issued in Milan around 1200. My new coin was minted much later in Venice between 1275 and 1280. Note that the leader of Venice was called the “Doge” or “Duce” (Dux in Latin & Duke in English) My new coin originates from 1275-1280 under the reign of the Doge Jacopo Contarini. As noted, the reverse depicts Jesus Christ on a throne. The obverse apparently depicts Doge (Jacopo Contarini) together with the Venetian city’s Saint Mark. The Doge is on the left receiving a tall flag from St. Mark on the right.

Jacopo Contarini was the 47th Doge of Venice, from 1275 until his abdication in 1280. The last Doge of Venice was Ludovico Manin, who abdicated in 1797 when Napoleon came to town.

 

Post ‘em if you got ‘em

Thanks for clarifying “trade coin”. The grosso may not technically be a trade coin (but they could certainly make change for the Ducat trade coins ).

According to sources on the Web, other Italian trade cities issued their own grosso and they were also copied in the Balkans and in Byzantium. Grosso coins were pretty widely used I think.

Do any of our fellow CoinTalkers have examples of these rather famous World coins? Do you have a grossi, grosso, (groat) or a coin with JC on the reverse? Post ‘em if you got ‘em.

 

Fascinating stuff.

 

Web link

Here is a good link describing my particular Grosso coin from 1275-1280 under the Venice Doge Jacopo Contarini. The link further describes how the Muslims were in Palestine & Jerusalem and the crusaders mustered in Venice Italy.

http://www.moneymuseum.com/moneymus...=en&i=3&m=&c=110&t=&p1=975&p2=1544&pi=3&ps=10


http://www.rarecoinsandtokens.co.uk/venice-ar-grosso-jacopo-contarini-127580-p-822.html

 

My new coin photos have been here for two full days & nobody at CT commented that the nice Jesus coin may be x-jewelry. Note the issue at precisely 12:00.

:whistle:

 

The design comes from the Byzantine anonymous follis, I believe Class D. You can see the IC XC which is greek, (the language of the Byzantines), for Jesus Christ.


The Romans, (Byzantines), still had a very strong influence on all of Europe.

 

Btw, there is a book called Zecca, which is about the Venetian mint published by the ANS. The Venetian mint probably has more data available about its operations than any other mint in medieval times, so the book is a must have for Venetian coin collectors, medieval coin collectors, or even those who are interested in how pre-machinery mints operated. It was sold cheaply when the ANS moved their book inventory to David Brown booksellers, but not as cheap today.