Owner Comments:
This is a common ducat thanks to this Doge's long reign covering 18 years. I had three or four of these that were very worn and piled in a dish with some other beat-up raw gold. I still look to replace this coin because it looks like Saint Mark is wearing a mask. It won't be 2020-2022 forever.
NGC has graded four others MS65 and none higher. PCGS has graded 2 in MS65 and 1 in MS65+, and none higher.
Antonio Venier was the 62nd doge of the Republic of Venice . He was known to be an incorruptible man and a very strict discipline. In the period in which it was Doge, the Venetian economy recovered and became particularly prosperous. A fruitful policy of alliances was adopted which allowed the republic to expand in the Venetian hinterland.
In the last years of his tenure there were the first clashes between the Venetians and the Ottoman Empire, which had already begun to conquer territories in Europe and in the following decades would oppose Venetian rule in the East.
He distinguished himself during the wars against Genoa and, around 1380 , he reached the rank of administrator in the fortress of Tenedos. In 1381, on the eve of his election as doge, he was sent with the rank of captain to Crete.
On the death of his predecessor Michele Morosini, in October 1382, Venice seemed in disarray: it had just come out of a heavy and bloody war that had seen the enemy (Genoa) at the gates of the city, many citizens were ruined, the trade routes interrupted, the treasury in disarray and the plague had broken out. In this tragic situation many nobles competed to be Doge , always very coveted. The excessive number of candidates prevented them from being elected and it was therefore decided to choose a person "out of the game". Thus it was that Venier found himself doge on October 21, 1382 in general surprise and of himself, which he learned of while he was in Crete and could only return three months later.