I'm a great Venice addict - Venice, Italy, that is. This year I visited the Serenissima (=the Most Serene City) for the 13th time. We attented Mass in the golden vault of the San Marco Basilica (the frankincense was suffocating) and walked the city from end to end. I already had a few insignificant Venetion billon coins of the 14th century, but finally I found some real nice ones in an auction on the Continent. In the 15th century, Venice was the great hub of trade and finance of the central sea of civilisation, the Mediterranean. Of the great inventions of the late medieval era, the printed book was arguably the most important (although more militant types might favor the cannon). Although invented in Germany, in the industrial spread of books in the 15th century, the fair city of Venice had the greatest share. I always wanted a coin that might have been used to buy a printed book, and now I have one. It's a large and thin coin of blinking silver. Venice, Doge Agostino Barbarigo (1486-1501). AR mocenigo or lira, no date, but 1494. Mintmaster Marco Pesaro. Obv: San Marco and kneeling doge. Rev: Nimbate Christ with cross. Plugged hole. 33 mm, 6.43 gr.
Here’s an earlier grosso of Pietro Gradenigo, who ruled from 1289-1311. He managed to get the whole of Venice excommunicated. At first, the Venetians used the purest possible silver in their grossos, like they used the purest gold for their ducats. Pietro was the second doge with a ducat. Neat coin and reason for buying it! I’d like to visit Venice one day to see the treasures taken from Constantinople.
I never studied Venician coins closely - and am curious about the move towards high weight in this silver piece. Here is a rough background story line taken from memory of the general picture I have. Am open to correction and seeking extension of the suggestions. Back around 1200 the traditional penny at Venice and elsewhere in continental Europe was being heavily debased. The English penny sterling was still firm. The Venice matapan seems to have been fixed against the sterling penny at exactly 3/2 (c. 1.46g x 3/2 = c. 2.19g). However, seigniorage at Venice was way lower than London - really only covering brockage at about 2% - so Venice began to suck silver to its mint, and thus get partial control of Europe's money supply. Another change of gear happened around 1280, when the even higher denomination gold ducat appeared. The next bit is controversial - but it seems that Venice and others started to suck the silver right out of Europe, using it for international payments, and sucking in gold. This led to a lack of silver that spread all over Europe. Coin use itself started to decline for the ordinary guy, who in many instances would be pushed towards credit arrangements often with only occasional settlement in gold coin. Seems to me this push was tied up with Europe becoming a pretty horrible place to be from the late 14th century onwards. The draining of silver reached a sticking point around 1450 - when just about all the mints in continental Europe closed for several years. Somehow this seemed to press the restart button for the whole economy - oddly driven by the appearance very big silver coins - the Thalers. If I have it right - these were really silver-worth-gold pieces - an attempt to dignify silver again as a coining metal. I have no idea what exactly was going on in Venice in the very late 15th century when Pellinore's coin was issued - but it is way heavier than the old matapan - almost 3x its weight - so it looks as if it might fit into this general story(?) On Europe becoming a horrible place - I found that well known account "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" by Barbara Tuchman very informative - although she does not get into the coinage/economics side of things. From a personal and British perspective - this rolling out of horrible events reached its high point at Towton in 1461. And these heavy silver coins seem to me to mark a crucial revision of all that had gone before. All that is a particular strand of thought pulled out of 20th century scholarship, and I am curious, amongst other things, to get 21st century reactions.... Rob
What a great piece of thinking, Rob, that I yet have to ponder. (And it set me into a short but enjoyable read of British history of 1460-1485.) Do you think the great city of Venice on its own could be responsible for draining Europe's silver and gold in the 13th century? Probably other city states in the north of Italy were nicely coming along. Can't say that I know much about that subject. Anyway, here's another nice silver Venice coin, a soldino, much much smaller than that large Lira. The soldino was introduced in 1331 (Alan M. Stahl, Zecca. The Mint of Venice in the Middle Ages, p. 43. There were 64 soldinos in one gold ducat), but this one is from 1356-1361, issued during the reign of Doge Giovanni Dolfin. Obv. Kneeling Doge with staff. Rev. Lion of St. Mark. 16 mm, 0.55 gr. I believe soldinos are being found often in British soil, so, Rob, that might be an argument you can use.
Holed Grosso from Venice _ 1382 AD. Obverse : Christ. Reverse : Saint Marc and the Doge( Chief-Magistrate) of Venice, Antonio Venero.
What a fantastic and huge coin Pellinore! Issued at a turning point for Venice, too... following their ruinous wars against the Ottomans, just after the discovery of the New World, and just before Vasco da Gama would find the sea route to India. The Venetian economy depended on a near monopoly on trade with the East, meaning Venice was now doomed! Do you know how the exact date of this coin was determined?
Well, for sure, Venetian history knew a number of serious dips in the early 16th century. And maybe Venice was doomed, but that took another 300 years, until Napoleon and the Austrians. As for the date, I don't know how it was determined, but Venice had excellent archives, it's all in the books - not in books I have though.
Nice coin @Pellinore ! I do wish I could explore Vemetian coins a little more - particularly after reading Stahl. Italy - Venice Pietro Zani, r. 1205-1229 AR Grosso, 19.79 mm, 1.9 grams Obv.: [·+·]P·ZIANI· ·S·M.VENETI outside (Z retrograde), D/U/X down banner held between doge and St. Mark facing Rev.: [I¯C] X¯C across field, Christ enthroned facing @EWC3 - ignore Tuchman. If you want a history of medieval econmics, read Peter Spufford
Neat coin of Pietro Zani, I always figured I’d buy a grosso of his, or if possible one of Enrico Dandolo.
As I said, I am no expert of these matters - just offering some opinions and clues that came my way that might interest others You are correct to suggest there were many others involved. The best paper I read on this was by Andrew Watson (EHR 1967 "Back to Gold, and Silver"). He had data suggesting a vast amount of European silver went to North Africa as fake square dirhems made in Spain and perhaps France. This seemed to me to be on the mark - since these coins - called millares - are very common even today. Watson's clear and direct work on this matter stopped abruptly in 1967 straight after this paper, and I wrote him to ask why. He told me that immediately after publication he was contacted by a senior university guy (the dean?) who told him the Ford Foundation were giving him a big grant to study Islamic agriculture instead. (I feel there are jokes in that to do with Diocletian, and Lewis Carroll, but I will leave that to others to figure) Most certainly. There have been a good number of Brexit type scenarios in British history, but probably the most violent was to do with the peasant's revolt 1381. As I read that, well, the bottom line story seems pretty simple - Edward III took out huge loans to cover his attempted conquest of France, loans from Florentine Bankers. He failed to pay up, and they sent the bailiffs in to collect, so to speak. Poll tax etc etc were a kind of "austerity" measure, and did not go down well at all. If we look at the push towards big silver and gold in England and elsewhere, it does seem to be Florentines rather than Venetians who turn up at the scene Yes - this is well documented. I have very occasionally seem soldinos turning up as English finds - but personally - not so often. Have not checked the portable antiquities scheme to see how common this really was - but that would be the place to start. Galley halfpence are linked to a shortage of official small silver, and part of this very story of the growth of consumer debt, as I see it. One place Venice was definitely involved in export was to do with ducats of course. They turn up quite a lot as far away as India. I mention this because years back a fine young American numismatist Benjamin Bell visited me. As I recall he wanted to study the flow of gold to India from Venice - but his supervisor at UCL diverted his attention to the jewellery copies of these things instead, interpreted through the thinking of Michael Taussig, Annette Weiner and Franz Boas. I leave it to anyone interested to google these people to get a flavour. When I expressed surprise that these people figured so prominently in shaping a numismatic study, Benjamin was delightfully frank. He said he just would not get the degree unless he highlighted their work. (Wither scholarship? I thought). Sadly I since discovered Benjamin died much too early - perhaps some knew him in US collector circles? Rob
I’d love one of Enrico Dandolo, but they are far too expensive from what I’ve found (I’ve actually only ever seen one, amd that was when I first bought the above coin, and posted about it here). As it is, I feel lucky to have grabbed the Pietro Zani when I did, as I have yet to see another...
He was a terrible loss to the profession. I didn't know him personally, but I do have a coin from his collection, of the last emperor of the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty. Bell had eclectic interests. Yüan Dynasty: Huizong/Toghon Temür (1333-1370). 3 cash. His denari scodellati are affordable, though I don't have one... yet.
