Venetian Ducat
1400–1413 ・ gold ・ 15th century ・ Republic of Venice
A Venetian gold ducat from the reign of Doge Michele Steno, 1400–1413. Diameter 21 mm, 3.50 grams. The obverse shows St. Mark presenting a banner to the kneeling Doge; the reverse shows Christ standing within a star-studded mandorla. First struck in 1284 under Doge Giovanni Dandolo, this gold coin maintained its 98.6% fineness and design until the fall of the Republic in 1797, taking over from Byzantium as the key currency of the Eastern Mediterranean. It is the face of an era when Venetian coinage came to dominate daily life in the Aegean.
Diameter 21mm