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Number 128
NUMISMATIC NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS is devoted to essays and treatises on subjects relating to coins, paper money, medals and decorations.
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This is the third and unhappily the last of Dr. Numismatic Notes and Monographs, and an article contributed to Museum Notes in 1952 on the design of the Florentine florin as an aid to its dating. His main interest was that branch of comparative numismatics which involves the study of the spread and imitation of important commercial currencies, and his strength as a scholar lay in his talent for observing and analyzing the incidence of small details of design which could be used as evidence for classification and dating. It was only a short step from the florin to the ducat, and he had virtually completed the sketch for this monograph when he died suddenly on 13 November 1953.
In the previous summer, on the eve of his last visit to Europe, Dr.
Dr.
The manuscript of the book, in the form in which it reached me, consisted of the text as I had originally seen it, accompanied by rather sketchy notes and partially mounted plates. Full indications were available as to how Dr.
The text as printed here is basically as Dr.
The majority of the coins illustrated formed part of Dr.
In the second half of the thirteenth century two important gold coins were introduced in 1
and were extensively imitated, but the imitations followed a somewhat different course in the two cases.
The florins of 2
3
and others.
The imitations of the Venetian ducat, in contrast to those of the florin, were produced almost entirely in regions south and east of Venice :
4
in the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, and out as far as
[It must be remembered that imitations of the ducat throw light on only one aspect of its influence. The weight and intrinsic quality of the coin were as important as its external appearance, and the manner in which it was taken as a model by rulers who in the fifteenth century were reforming or creating a gold coinage is most revealing. This was equally true of the Christian west and the Muslim east. 5
and Ferdinand and Isabella, in carrying out their great monetary reform by the Pragmatic of Medina del Campo of 13 June 1497, took the value of the ducat as that which their excelente should follow.
6
In the early years of the century, when the Venetian ducat circulated in great quantities in Egypt under the name of īfranty, the Mamluk ruler An-Nāṣīr Faraj (1399–1412) made his new gold coin, called after him the nāsery, identical in weight with the ducat,
7
and so a few years later did Al-Ashraf (1422–38),
8
altun, the gold coin of the Ottoman Empire, struck for the first time in 1478.
9
Equally significant is the way in which during the fifteenth century the word ducat came to displace florin as the common expression for a gold coin. To a writer of the fourteenth century, every gold coin was a "florin" of some particular-sort, even if it bore no physical resemblance to the Italian coin and was of quite a different weight. The French masse d'or was a florenus ad sceptrum, the chaise d'or a florenus ad cathedram, and so on. But in the fifteenth century the common word was ducat; people spoke of ducats of 10
The fundamental reason for the change was the fact that the Venetian coin had been so little copied in
Cf. Numismatische Zeitschrift, XV (1883), 222–37, and the article of Dieudonné cited below, p. 4, n. 10.
NZ, XII (1880), 146–85.
Historisch-kritische Beschreibung des Bretzenheimer Gold-guldenfundes (vergraben um 1390): nebst einem Verzeichniss der bisher bekannten Goldgulden vom Florentiner Gepräge (Mainz, 1883). This article first appeared in vol. III of the Zeitschrift des Vereins zur Erforschung der rheinischen Geschichte und Altertümer zu Mainz. The most convenient listing of florin imitations is that in Traité de numismatique du moyen âge, III (
The relatively small circulation of the Venetian ducat in ducado, unidad monetaria internacional oro durante el siglo XV, y su aparacion en la peninsula Iberica," Anuario del Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros, Bibliothecarios y Arqueologicos, II (1934), 1–34.
Descripção geral e historica das moedas... de Portugal, I (Lisbon, 1874), 230. The mint specifications were a fineness of 23¾ carats and 64⅔ pieces to the mark, so the weight was a fraction above that of the ducat.
Descripcion general de las monedas hispano-cristianas desde la invasion de los Ārabes, I (Madrid, 1865), 134. The mint specifications were a fineness of 23¾ carats and 65 pieces to the mark. The text of the Pragmatic can be most conveniently consulted in Tomás Dasí, Estudio de los reales de a ocho, I (Valencia, 1950), Doc. no. 75, pp. LV-LXXIX.
A. Raugé van Gennep, "Le ducat venitien en Égypte: son influence sur le monnayage de l'or dans ce pays au commencement du XVe siècle," Rev. Num., 4th series, I (1897), 373–81, 494–508. The esteem in which the ducat was held was due to its uniformity of weight as much as to its purity, the gold coins of the Mamluks in the fourteenth century being struck to no weight standard at all. The appearance of the ducat in quantity in nāsery was of the same weight as the ducat, it was not of such fine gold and so was valued at less (Raugé van Gennep, op. cit., 499–501).
Raugé van Gennep, op. cit., 501. The coin of Al-Ashraf, known after him as the ashrafī, had a great future before it, since it provided the name and one of the main standards of weight for the later gold coins of Coins, medals and seals of the Shahs of Iran, 1500–1941,
This at least is the earliest date (A. H. 883) recorded; we do not know positively that the coin was created in this year.
See the remarks of Adolphe Dieudonné, "Des espèces de circulation internationale en Revue suisse de numismatique, XXII (1920), 15–17.
1284—c. 1840
11
The ducat of 12
its diameter was at first 20 mm., but increased later to about 21 mm. The uniform design, which varied only in small details through the centuries, is illustrated by the large, infrequently struck ten-ducat piece shown in Plate I, 1. The obverse displays (Sit tibi Christe datus, quem tu regis, isle ducatus, 'Let this duchy which thou rulest be dedicated to thee, O Christ'.)
[According to most works of reference, the name of the coin is derived from the last word of the legend. This is a
13
coined from 1202 onwards, on which no such legend occurs, and when the new gold coins came into existence eighty years later they were called ducati auri, to distinguish them from the current ducati argenti, and ultimately the word "ducat" came to be applied solely to the gold coins. The evolution was precisely similar to that of the word "florin," which was used first of silver coins of fiorini d'oro, or fiorini for short. The word ducat originally meant the silver coins struck by (ducatus or ducalis) came from the ducatus Apuliae.
14
It was presumably applied to the Venetian ducat because of a general resemblance in design,
15
and because no other word existed at that time to denote a silver coin of higher value then a penny.]
Various changes in design occur, in the character of the doge's cap, in the lettering, in the disposition of the figure of Christ and the nimbus in the oval, in the number and arrangement of the stars. These changes, which often offer a means of identifying the prototype of an imitation, are
Plates II to VI, alongside the complete list of doges. [The changes are not always exactly coterminous with the rule of the doges indicated, for there was a certain amount of overlap between some of the types, and particular details, such as the presence or absence of a beard on the doges of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, evidently depended upon the actual appearance of individual sovereigns. There are also occasionally quite inexplicable variations from the normal type. A ducat of
The method of coining the ducats was not changed throughout their history; they were all hammered coins, with the exception of a milled pattern (Plate VI,2) made under 16
In the second half of the fourteenth century this regularity was abandoned, but it seems to have been revived in the fifteenth century, at least so far as the majority of the coins were concerned, though irregularity is found from time to time in every reign.
The issue of the ducats did not end with the dissolution of the Venetian Republic in 1797, though it is not easy to discover exactly how much longer their minting continued. Coins in the name of the last doge, 17
since they were enormously popular in the Levant. The ducats with the title of FRANC.II
18
were minted during the first Austrian occupation of 19
were struck at 20
but coins with the FRANC.II legend were apparently being struck from the old dies in c. 1840.
21
These are indistinguishable from the earlier issue, but must none the less be regarded as the last Venetian ducats struck by the lawful mint of the city.]
The main works of reference are Nicolò Papadopoli, Le monete di Venezia, 3 vols. (Corpus Nummorum Italicorum, VII-VIII (Catalogo della Raccolta Numismatica Papadopoli-Aldobrandini (Civico Museo Correr), 2 vols. (
The order of the Grand Council of 31 October 1284 which created the ducat prescribed that it should be "tam bona et fina per aurum vel melior ut est florenus" (Papadopoli, op. cit. I, 123). Authors like Pegolotti regularly take it as being 24 carat gold, and modern assays have found it to be 997/1000 fine (Ibid., p. 124). The coin was struck at 67 to the mark of
The proof is a passage in the chronicle of Martino da Canale, cited by Papadopoli (I, 81), which says under Enrico Dandolo (1192–1205) "fu comencie en Venise a faire les nobles mehailles d'argent que l'en apele ducat, qui cort parmi le monde por sa bonte." Martino da Canale wrote in the early thirteenth century, before the gold ducat existed.
See the appendix on the ducats of the Norman kings in Recherches sur la numismatique et la sigillographie des Normands de Sicile et d'Italie (
The Norman ducat showed on the obverse the standing figures of Roger I and his son Roger, or
See Numismatic Chronicle, 6th series, XII (1952), 103. Cf. also below, p. 34.
So Monete inedite dei Gran Maestri dell'Ordine di S. Giovanni di Gerusalemme in Rodi (
CNI, VIII, 644, nos. 10–11. The numbering of this emperor, who ruled 1792–1835, is peculiar, since he was
Ibid., 655, no. 38.
Siegfried Becher, Das österreichische Münzwesen vom Jahre 1524 bis 1838(Mitteilungen des Clubs der Münz- und Medaillenfreunde in Wien, XI (1900), 45.
Österreichische Münzprägungen von 1705 bis 1935 (
The earliest imitations of the Venetian ducat, most closely resembling their prototype in style, are the series issued in the name of the Roman Senate
22
in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century.
23
They differ from the contemporary Venetian ducats almost solely in their inscriptions. In place of
[These ducats are usually dated 1350–1439.
24
The terminal date may be accepted, for an exchange table of 1439 de-
ducato nuovo. The date of origin is based on the assumption that the ducats were first issued on the occasion of the Papal Jubilee of 1350, since it was on this occasion that the Sudario, the cloth showing the face of the Saviour, was exhibited in c. 1340, includes romanini d'oro a carati 23 e ¾, which can only mean these ducats, in the list of gold coins current in his day.
25
They did not yet exist in 1317, since the chapters relating to coinage in the Statuti dei Mercanti di Roma of this year refer only to money of silver and billon.
26
Their origin must therefore be placed between 1317 and c. 1340.
The three stages
27
in the history of the senatorial ducat are illustrated on PlateVII. They differ according to the obverse legend. The first is that closest to the Venetian original, with S. PETRVS (corresponding to Sen)ATOR.VRBIS reading outwardly downwards, in a position corresponding to the doge's name on Venetian coins, on the right. The second series is identical with the first save that SEN reads
28
In the final period the banner on the obverse terminates below in a shield with the Condulmerio arms (Plate VII, 4), those of Pope
These coins were followed by the regular papal coinage of ducats, retaining the old size and weight but with designs in which all traces of the Venetian type are lost. [The only apparent exception to this is the ducat – a double ducat also exists – of Plate VIII, 4),but the resemblance between it and the traditional Venetian type is purely accidental. The bestowal of the keys was an obvious theme on a papal coin, and the design is one of a remarkable series of novel types produced towards the middle of the fifteenth century by an enterprising and talented moneyer and die-engraver, Miliano Orfini of Foligno, who worked for a number of years in the papal mint.
29
The existence of this Roman series of imitation ducats is at first sight an anomaly, since the only other large group of Venetian imitations was situated in the eastern Mediterranean area, and there is no reason to suppose that Venetian
Though the coins are called "senatorial" because they refer to the Senate and not to the Pope, they were issued by the city authorities with papal approbation, and after the return of the popes to Atti e Memorie dell 'Istituto italiano di Numismatica, I (1913), 129–41.
The main collections of material are the CNI, XV, 160–80, nos. 495–662, and Le monete e le bolle plumbee pontificie del Medagliere Vaticano, I (Milan, 1910), 56–63, nos. 377–463. An invaluable study is V. Capobianchi, "Appunti per servire all'ordinamento delle monete coniate dal Senato Romano dal 1184 al 1439," Archivio della Reale Società romana di Storia patria, XVIII (1895), 417–45; XIX (1896), 75–123. Edoardo Martinori's "Annali della Zecca di Roma. Serie del Senato Romano, 1184–1439," Atti e Memorie dell'Istituto italiano di Numismatica, VI (1930), 220–60, unfortunately got no further than a bibliographical introduction, and is of little use in this connection.
See op. cit., and the CNI. The reasoning is set out by Capobianchi, op. cit., 104–7, 113–14.
La pratica della mercatura, ed. ibid., xiii-xiv. Much of the material is earlier, but how much earlier it is impossible to say, since the text has not yet been critically analyzed.
Capobianchi, op. cit., 104.
The CNI and Serafini have three stages; Capobianchi makes five by further subdividing the second and third according to the way in which SPQR is written in the reverse legend.
See Annali delle Zecca di Roma: Urbano V – Giovanni XXIII (Martino V – Eugenio IV (1918), 8–9, 29.
See Annali della Zecca di Roma: Nicolò V – Pio II (Paolo II (1917), and Sisto IV – Innocenzo VIII (1917), passim; L. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, s.v. Orsini (sic.!), Emiliano.
The further imitations of the Venetian ducat in
Plate VIII, 1)closely resembling the Venetian piece, with obverse inscription DVX.ET.GVB REIP.GEN and reverse inscription DEO.OPT.MAX.GLO. This ducat, in the former King of 30
is not listed in any of the principal works on the coinage of Genoa, and should perhaps be classed as a pattern, [though the only recorded specimen shows considerable signs of wear. Its style, and the fact that a similar Venetian type was introduced on the silver testone in 1554, permits us to assign it to the mid-sixteenth century.]
In the same category of pattern is to be placed a unique silver piece of Duke Ferdinand Gonzaga of Mantua (1612–26), illustrated on Plate VIII, 2, which shows 31
The obverse inscription
Belonging also to the group of imitations of the Venetian ducat is the piece issued by Amadeus VIII of Savoy (1416–39)
32
shown on Plate VIII, 3, which, however, illustrates the breaking away from the design of the prototype which is common in imitative coinages and which will be seen again in the coins of Malta. In this case the reverse shows instead of the figure of Christ the arms of Savoy. The obverse has the standing saint and the kneeling ruler, but the sic) BN. DTM (sit nomen Domini benedictum).
The next two continental European imitations to be noted are of interest as being the most northerly excursions of the Venetian type. The first is the ducat issued by the principality of Dombes in Burgundy in the seventeenth century. This (Plate VIII, 5) has the type of
[These ducats were first ascribed by numismatists to Mademoiselle de Montpensier fit travailler longtemps à la monnaie de Trévoux; on y fabriqua des pièces de 15, 30 et 60 sols, mais surtout beau-coup de pièces de cinq sols dont il se fit un grand commerce dans le Levant et des sequins d'or au coin de saint Marc. Les Vénitiens s'en plaignirent hautement; mais la souveraine de
The name FRANC was used to preserve the resemblance to the Venetian coins, on none of which the name Marie appears, and was probably specifically intended to recall the ducats of Francesco Erizzo (1631–46), FRANC (iae) PRINC (eps or essa) being not very remote from FRANC.ERIZZO.
33
]
Of the same period are the ducats issued in 1650–72 and 1679–86 by Plate VIII, 6),bearing for obverse inscription GVIL.HENR.D on the right, and on the left, reading vertically upwards, GPRAV.E.S. The reverse legend reads SOLI.DEO.HONOR.SIT.GLORIA.
34
These, like the
The last European ducat imitation to be noted is of peculiar interest because it was issued in Divus Zenobio episcopus Florentiae). To the left of the crozier, reading vertically downwards, is AL∀X. On the reverse, surrounding the figure of Plate VIII, 7). [These ducats, which were known as Zenobini or Zanobini, were struck at the Tuscan mint for a banker named Cesare Lampronti, and were made deliberately crude in style so as to resemble more closely the last coinages of Lodovico Manin. The venture was not a success and many of the coins were withdrawn and remelted, which accounts for their present rarity.
35
There exists another version, of much better
Plate VIII, 8).]
CNI, III, 258, no. 1.
First published by Rivista italiana di numismatica, XXVI (1913), 81–2, and reproduced in CNI, IV, 355, no. 125. The coin is now in the Correr Museum at
CNI, I, 48–9, nos. 1–8.
The attribution is discussed in an excellent article by RN, 2nd series, II (1857), 264–79, from which the quotation of Boucher d'Argis cited above is taken. Trévoux was the mint of Monnaies féodales de France (RN, 2nd series, X (1865), 199–204, subsequently argued that the coins should be assigned to
Riv. Ital. Num., XXIII (1910), 333–40. The existence of the coin had been known to Poey d'Avant (II, 410), but only on the authority of Duby, who in turn relied on the description of a specimen in the imperial collection at Das neueröfnete Münzcabinet, III (Nürnberg, 1770), 36–8.
The best account is that of Guido Ciabatti in a ten-page pamphlet published at Illustrazione delb zecchino detto Zanobino (moneta inedita). Ciabatti made inquiries about it at the mint and discovered the original dies used for striking the coins; he illustrates a wax impression made from them. He was mistaken, however, in supposing the coin to be unpublished. A specimen in the Reichel collection, now in the Hermitage, was described in Die Reichelsche Münzsammlung in St. Petersbourg, IX (Numismata Veneta(Numismatic Chronicle, XVI (1853–4), 77–80. There was a specimen of the coin in the Ruchat sale, Part II (
The longest series of ducats of Venetian type, next to the series of
On Plates IX-X the complete list of Grand Masters is given, with asterisks to indicate those who are known to have struck ducats. Representative coins of all the main types are shown to the right.
The first gold ducat was struck by Dieudonné de Gozon (1346–53), with the obverse of the Venetian type: the Grand
(Magister) vertically downwards in the center, and F(rater) DEODAT downwards on the right. The reverse legend is +hOSPITALIS QVENT.RODI, the Q being an abbreviation mark for con, so that QVENT stands for conventus. This type was also struck by the next Master, Pierre de Cornillan (1354–55).
The next appearance of the ducat is under Antoine Fluvian (1421–37), who issued extremely close imitations of the Venetian coin, with the inscription
The ducats of the last six Grand Masters at Rhodes, from Jean Ursino (1467–76) to Philippe Villiers de l'Isle d'Adam (1521–22), are close copies of the Venetian ducat (including the doge's cap), differing only in the obverse inscription. This has F(rater) and the Master's name on the right, S. IOhANIS to the left, and, in place of DVX alongside the staff, M.P. (magister Petrus) or another Master's initial. The introduction of the exergual line at about 1500 in the Venetian ducat is reflected in the ducat of Emery d'Amboise (1503–12).
The two chief works are Gustave Schlumberger, Numismatique de l'Orient latin (Supplément (1882), 14–15, 21–22, and Mémoires numismatiques de l'Ordre souverain de saint Jean de Jérusalem, 2nd ed. (Die Münzen des Johanniter-Ordens auf Rhodus, 1309 bis 1522 (Procès-Verbaux et Mémoires du Congres International de Numismatique, Bruxelles, 1910, 349–58.
The coinage of ducats by the Knights of 1522,was resumed at Malta after 1534with pieces still closely copying the contemporary Venetian designs. Certain changes, however, were made at this time, to continue for nearly a century. The obverse inscription no longer mentions
Early in the seventeenth century, with
At the end of the seventeenth century a major change of design was introduced with the abandonment of the figure of Christ on the reverse in favor of the arms of the Grand Master, and the date reappears. Under the two Grand Masters issuing these pieces, Grégoire Caraffa (1680–90) and Adrien de Wignacourt (1690–97), there were also struck four-ducat pieces of the same general style (Plate I, 2), on which, however, the kneeling figure on the obverse is no longer robed, but appears in contemporary costume.
Under the last three rulers who issued ducats of the Venetian type (1697–1736) the obverse figures are again changed.
This series ended in 1725. After it the ducat continued for a time as a monetary denomination, but with the portrait of the Grand Master on the obverse, thus losing all resemblance to the Venetian coin so long imitated.
The chief authorities are the book by Furse, cited in the preceding note, and H. Calleja Schembri, Coins and medals of the Knights of Malta (
Concurrently with the coinage of ducats by the Knights of
The most complete series of these pieces was issued on the island of Chios,
38
under Plate XI, 1).
39
The figures of the saint and duke on the obverse, and of Christ on the reverse, with the usual reverse legend Sit tibi Christe, etc., are closely copied from the contemporary Venetian coins.
Following the reign of Tommaso di Campofregoso, Chios, together with Plate XI, 2) have the inscription
(ux). MEDIOLANI for 40
After 1436until 1443 Sius, one of the ways in which the name of the island was spelled (Plate XI, 3). The last of this series is a ducat issued in 1458–61 by Plate XI, 4). [The initial L of Laureti is written like a V to recall the word Veneti.]
To be included in the Chios series also are the ducats issued by Plate XI, 5)
41
. They are of rather crude workmanship, with the obverse inscription entirely encircling the figures.
In this same general category are the ducats coined for the island of Mytilene by its rulers, the Gattilusi, between 1376 and 1462, with the ruler's name and D. METELI[NI] (Plate XII, 2–3).
42
Still farther east are to be noted the ducats of
Plate XII, 4), with the inscription D.FOLIE.
43
Most easterly of all are the ducats of Chiote type struck by Filippo Maria Visconti and Tommaso di Campofregoso for Pera, the Genoese quarter of Constantinople.
44
They have a large P at the base of the staff, taking the place of the S on the ducats of Chios.
In the series of eastern Mediterranean ducats must also be included certain close copies of the ducat of Plate XII, 1). These have been attributed to Robert of Anjou, duke of Achaia (1346–64), and if this is correct they were presumably struck at Chiarenza.
45
The best accounts of the ducats of Chios are in Schlumberger, op. cit., 418–23, and Supplément (1882), 17–18, and Paul Lambros (Lampros), Μεσαιωνικά νομίσματα τῶν δυνάστων τῆς Χίου (Athens, 1886). The older monograph of Domenico Promis, La zecca di Scio durante il dominio deiGenovesi (Turin, 1865), is still of use. The two articles by Gnecchi in the Rivista italiana di numismatica for 1882 do not touch on the ducats.
A specimen of the coin in the imperial collection at Numismatische Zeitschrift, XXIII (1891), 181–90. He attributed it to Milan itself, and supposed it to have been struck to commemorate the bestowal of the title of duke on Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1395. Notizie -peregrine di numismatica e d'archeologia, III (Trieste, 1856), 65–70), had equally incorrectly attributed it to Giovanni Visconti.
The name scioti and the design are known from a Venetian exchange table of 1543 reproduced in Papadopoli, Monete di Venezia, II, facing p. 178. There was a specimen of the coin in the Biblioteca Reale at Turin (Papadopoli, op. cit., II, 179) as well as the one illustrated here.
Schlumberger, op cit., pp. 432–46 (by Lambros); Supplément, pp. 18–19.
Ibid., pp. 442, 445–6. Suppl., pl. XXI, 16, 18; cf. p. 19. In my view the legends are merely blundered and the attributions quite uncertain.
Schlumberger, op. cit., pp. 447–54. It is largely a summary of P. Lambros, Ἀνέκδοτα νομίσματα κοπέντα ἐν Πέραν ὑπò τῆς αὐτόθι ἀποικίας τῶν Γενουησίων (Athens, 1872). In his Supplément, 22, Schlumberger notes the acquisition of a further specimen by
Schlumberger, op. cit., pp. 320–1. There is a long series of them in the Papadopoli collection, now in the Museo Correr at op. cit. (above p. 5, n. 11), nos. 16216–32. For one struck in silver, see below, p. 26 and Pl. XIII, 2. The attribution to Robert of Anjou was made by P. Lambros in his Ἀνέκδοτα νομίσματα κοπέντα ἐν Γλαρέντσα κατὰ μίμησιν τῶν Ἐνετικῶν ὑπὸ Ροβέρτου τοῦ ἐξ Ἀνδηγαυῶν ἡγεμόνος τῆς Πελοποννήσου, 1346–1364 (Athens, 1876). It is certain that the Greek workmen who made these coins often substituted K for R, a letter which did not exist in their alphabet; cf. ANDK for ANDR on the obverse of many of these coins. Nevertheless the attributions seem to me rather hazardous, and Papadopoli apparently did not accept them.
The Venetian ducat circulated widely in the eastern Mediterranean or Levant; this we know from the written records,
46
and it is confirmed by the frequent occurrence of ducats with a Turkish counterstamp (Plate V, 1) meaning "standard" or "genuine."
47
In addition to the Venetian and other "official" issues of Rhodes, Malta, Chios, etc., there was a very wide circulation of imitations, often of poor workmanship, with jumbled or illegible inscriptions, of metal of varying degrees of baseness. These can only be attributed to a place of origin if their provenance happens to be known; usually they are merely described as "Levantine imitations." A few selected specimens are shown in Plate XIII, which together with the impressions from dies described in Sec-
Plate XVI will serve to illustrate the whole series.
[The first and second specimens are imitations of ducats of Andrea Dandolo (1344–54), the legends in both cases being perfectly recognizable. The first of the two is of the same size and style as the original, and clearly a contemporary imitation. They are fairly common,
48
and it is probable that one of their chief centers of manufacture was in Chios. The second coin, which belongs to the class ascribed conjecturally to
The third specimen is typical of very large numbers with semi-legible inscriptions cut by illiterate engravers. In this case the character of the doge's cap, the occurrence of the exergual line, and the nimbus of Christ projecting beyond the oval, date the prototype as of about 1500, but the doge's name cannot be deciphered or identified with any doge of this period. Other specimens of this kind can be identified by their more legible inscriptions as copies of doges through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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The fourth specimen is of extreme crudity in the rendering of the figures, and the inscription can be recognized as a bungled PAVL.RAINER (1779–89). [No. 5 is an imitation of some unidentifiable eighteenth century doge, but its aberrent weight (2.95 g.) makes one suspect that it is a trinket made by a jeweller and was not intended as a coin at all.
No. 6 is a nineteenth century imitation of a ducat of the last doge, Lodovico Manin (1789–97). The counterstamp is of a type which during the past half-century has, at least in theory, been placed on all gold objects passing through the hands of goldsmiths in 50
The last two coins illustrated belong to a different class. No. 7 is an imitation ducat of Marino Falier (1354–5). This doge ruled for only seven months, and his short reign makes his ducats among the rarest in the Venetian series. It is in the highest degree improbable that they would have been imitated in the Levant, and it seems likely that this piece is a crude modern forgery produced with the interests of the collector in mind.
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]
The final specimen, No. 8, is of peculiar interest in the domain of imitations, because it copies not one current gold piece but two. It is of base gold and scyphate, like the later Byzantine nomismata, and the obverse type is that of two standing figures clearly derived from Byzantine models; the figures in fact closely resemble those appearing on the coins of such twelfth century sovereigns as
For many later medieval records, see the article by Raugé van Gennep cited above, p. 3, n. 7. One of his most striking instances is that of an Arab historian of the fifteenth century giving the price of wheat at
Riv. ital. num., XXIII (1910), 119–26. This particular countermark is found on ducats ranging from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth century, and appears to have been imposed on coins entering
See op. cit., 497 and Pl. XIX, 25–26, and Supplément, 21 and Pl. XXI, 19–22, for illustrations of other specimens. There is a long series in the Papadopoli collection (Castellani, nos. 16197–16215). The coins assigned to
See op. cit., nos. 16086–94 (14th–15th century imitations attributed to Chios), 16233–70 (14th–18th century imitations), 16275–81 (imitations in copper).
I owe this information to Dr. Museum Notes.
There are other forgeries of the rare coins of this doge. See op. cit., no. 16544 for a specimen of an otherwise unknown denaro scodellato, and a copper piece published by "Schweitzer Münzblätter, IV (1954), 86–90.
Venetian ducats, "checkens," "checkeens," chequeens,"
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played a prominent role in the commerce of 53
They were known in southern śāṇārak-
kāśu, "the coin of the śāṇār," the śāṇār being a toddy-drawer, a person whose profession it is to climb the palm trees and draw off the sap from which toddy is made. It has been supposed that the figures of either śāṇār, the staff between them being the palm-tree, but this is scarcely likely. An alternative explanation is that the word comes from Venetiano; the dropping of the unaccented first part of the word would leave something like shano, and the assimilation of this to śāṇār would provide an obvious popular etymology.
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]
Imitations are found of all degrees of degradation of inscriptions and of quality of metal. It is difficult in many cases, without knowledge of provenance, to differentiate these copies from the "Levantine" imitations,
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but in some instances the types take on a distinctively Hindu character which makes the attribution to Plate XIV.
Attention may be called to the transformation of the staff bearing banner or cross into a staff or tree with trident-like top; to the appearance of a floral pattern at the feet of the figures, which Aravamuthan identifies as a lotus in bloom; and to the transformation of the figures into Hindu deities. This transformation is shown most completely in Nos. 6 and 7, where the standing figures on the obverse are the Hindu deities 56
The obverse inscription of No. 6 is a recognizable rendering of ALOY.MOCEN S.M.VENET. In the last piece, No. 7, although the workmanship is excellent in the figures of the deities, the inscription is a mere jumble of pseudo letters. The place of issue of these pieces is unknown.
It is probable that many of these pieces were made not for currency but to be used in necklaces or other jewelery, where their broad flan was more acceptable than the small thick native Indian gold coins. [57
In Travancore such necklaces were much worn by the Syrian Christians, who prized them as religious medals.
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]
For variant spellings, see the Oxford English Dictionary, s. v. "chequeen." It comes from It. zecchino, an alternative word for the Venetian ducat, and appears in English in the late sixteenth century; it has only recently been driven out by the form sequin, imported from Zecchino in turn derives from It. zecca, "mint," from Arab. sikka, originally a die used in coining but by transference the mint where the work was done. Cf. such terms as "sikka" rupees, common in the literature of the East Zecca is sometimes supposed to be connected with Giudecca, the quarter of Giudecca is traditionally supposed to mean "ghetto," from giudeo, "Jew."
See Catalogue of Venetian coins in the Madras Government Museum (Bulletin of the
So Aravamuthan, op. cit., 6–7.
Nos. 1 and 2 on Plate XIV may well be Levantine, not Indian, since No. 2, which is of silver, was procured in the Levant.
Pp. 4–6. Aravamuthan illustrates such a piece, one of eight in the possession of a Cawnpore family which had owned them for several generations.
Quoted by op. cit., p. 4.
loc. cit. The Portuguese colony of Coins of southern India: hints for coin collectors (
The design of the Venetian gold ducat is clearly recognizable in certain gilt copper pieces frequently found either isolated or as ring-mounted charms in the Levant. Two such pieces are shown on Plate XV, 1, 2. They are well struck, of good workmanship, but both figures and inscriptions are mere caricatures of the originals. On the obverse the central staff and exergual line are prominent; the figures of 59
A later and apparently final form of these tokens has the same obverse and reverse type and the same obverse legend, but with the reverse legend altered to JOANNES.ILLE. COQVVS. SUI. FILIIQUE (Plate XV, 3,4). These tokens, which are of two sizes and are usually gilt, are reputed to have been struck by
With these shoddy tokens the long line of ducats, which flourished for over five hundred years as a "universal" coinage of high esteem, comes to an end.
A specimen of this piece illustrated by NC, 3rd series, VI (1886), p. 81 and Pl. V, 100) is attributed to
Interesting evidence regarding the places of origin of ducat imitations is furnished by dies which have been discovered and recorded from time to time. The first to be noted is a die described in the Indian Antiquary for 1873.
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This die, which is of bronze, was found at Plate XVI, 1. The figures are fairly close copies of the standard Venetian type; the inscriptions are blundered, but that of the obverse is recognizable as one of the doges named
The second die is described and illustrated in the Numismatic Chronicle for 1952,
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and an impression from it is shown on Plate XVI, 2. In this the figures are of poor workmanship and the inscriptions somewhat blundered, but recognizable as those of
The third die to be noted is in the possession of the American Numismatic Society, which secured it from a visitor who
Plate XVI, 3 and an impression from it is shown on Plate XVI, 4.The figures are of neat but barbaric workmanship; the inscriptions are meaningless, but obviously blundered from those of a ducat of Paolo Renier (1779–89). The similarity of this impression to certain of the imitations shown in Plate XIII is quite close.
[These three dies are of the traditional medieval type, being simply bars or blocks of metal which in striking would be aligned by the eye of the workman without further mechanical aid. Two more elaborate pairs of dies are known to exist. One of them, found in Crete and now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, was published and illustrated by 62
It consists of two blocks of iron into which steel dies had been fitted. The blocks were held in place, when a coin was being struck, by projecting iron pegs on the upper block fitting into corresponding holes in the lower one. In view of the good style of the coins which these dies would have produced, Mr. Plate XVI, 5). This pair of dies, which would strike ducats of the same doge, is of a slightly different pattern from the ones found in Crete, having four pegs instead of two, but was clearly intended to be used in the same way.]
Indian Antiquary, II (1873), 213–14. The pair of dies was seized by the police in the house of a suspected receiver of stolen property, and was accompanied by another for striking counterfeit gold coins in the name of
NC, 6th series, XII (1952), 113–14.
"Pegged Venetian coin dies," Ibid., 99–105.
The coins are ducats, and are in the ANS (