ANDREA DANDOLO GOLD ZECCHINO – IMITATIVE ISSUE OF THE LEVANTINE COAST LIKELY INTENDED FOR TRADE ON ISLAND OF CHIOS – MS63 NGC GRADED VENICE GOLD COIN (Inv. 20155)

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20155. LEVANTINE COAST. Post 1478.
Gold Zecchino (Ducat) imitating an issue of Andrea Dandolo (1343–1354), 3.55 g, 20 mm.
Obv. St. Mark handing banner inscribed DUX to Doge kneeling at right, garbled legend. Rev. Christ in mandorla, garbled legend.
For prototype cf. Paolucci 1; Friedberg 1221.
NGC graded MS 63, lustrous and attractive.

Imitations of the gold zecchino of Andrea Dandalo have long been recognized as products used in Near Eastern trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and have often been associated with Genoese control of the island of Chios. The island was originally detached from the Byzantine Empire as a Venetian possession in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. However, after a brief period of renewed Byzantine rule in 1225–1304, the island was held by Genoa, first under the Lordship of Chios (1304–1329) and then under a company of tax farmers called the Moana of Chios and Phocaea (1346–1566). Genoese control of Chios ended in 1566 when the island was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. The wide recognition of Venetian gold coinage made it an obvious choice for imitation to advance Genoese trading interests. Issues copying the types and (usually blundering) the name of Andreas Dandalo belong to the period of the Moana of Chios and Phocaea.