Ancona And Venice - 13th C. Italian Grossi

In the century before the gros tournois emerged to lead a transformation of larger silver coinage in northern Europe, somewhat smaller "grossi" of various types were popping up on the Italian peninsula, beginning with the Sicilian ducalis of 1140, then the Venetian grosso of Enrico Dandolo in the waning years of the 12th century. Both of these "new" types appear to have been inspired by contemporary silver/billon Byzantine types that showed Christ on one side, and the emperor being anointed by another holy figure (Mary, the archangel Michael, St. Demetrius etc.) on the other. The Venice take was to have Saint Mark on the right, handing a staff to the doge on the left.

Dandolo's grosso is a bit pricey, but I just landed this one from his successor, doge Pietro Ziani (1204-1229), Biaggi 2766:



Ancona was a latecomer, but came up with a novel grosso type about 50 years later, which became a standard for the small city-states of central Italy (Ancona, Ascoli, Rimini, Pesaro, etc.). The grosso agontano features a standing, facing local saint who is named on one side, and the city name around a cross on the other (the Milanese grosso differs a bit in having a seated St.Ambrose). While the reverse looks more or less the same as the Hohenstaufen era denari that preceded it, the standing bishop-saint is new. Here is an anonymous grosso agontano of Ancona (c. 1250-1350), Biaggi 34:



After keeping an eye out for both types at various far-flung autions, I was pleased to get them recently from a SoCal dealer that a few of us here have done lots of business with over the last few decades.