Lira Tron
1472 ・ silver ・ 15th century ・ Venice
obverse
reverse
A portrait silver coin struck in 1472 by the doge Nicolò Tron. For seven hundred years since Charlemagne's ledgers, the "lira" had been only a unit of account; this is held to be the first time it became a coin one could touch. On the reverse, the lion of St Mark. The birth cry of the name that would one day be Italy's national currency.