Owner Comments:
Doge Giovanni Delfino presided over a tough time for Venice. IO DЄLPhYNO DVX | • S • M • VЄNЄTI, St. Mark standing right presenting banner to kneeling Doge left / • SIT T XPЄ DAT' Q' TV | RЄGIS • ISTЄ • DVCAT •, Christ standing facing, holding gospels and raising hand in benediction, surrounded by mandorla and stars.
Giovanni Dolfin, also known as Giovanni Delfino or Delfin was the fifty-seventh Doge of Venice, appointed on August 13, 1356. Despite his value as general, during his reign Venice lost Dalmatia. He was blind from one eye after a wound received in battle.
Dolfin was elected while defending Treviso, then besieged by Hungarian troops; being denied safe passage by his enemies, he broke the encirclement and reached Venice to be enthroned.
In the war which had broken out under Dolfin's predecessor, Hungary under King Louis I had conquered Dalmatia and was pushing other Venetian colonies to revolt. The Venetian defeat at Nervesa in February 1358 forced the Republic to sue for peace. In the resulting Treaty of Zadar the Venetians lost Dalmatia, Zara and Split, but maintained their naval predominance in the Adriatic Sea as the King of Hungary accepted not to build a fleet of his own. Also in 1358–1359 Padua started to menace the Venetian trades on the Brenta River and forced the city to stop trading with Egypt. These events triggered an economical crisis in Venice, which ended only after the War of Chioggia, in 1382.
This is the last of the accessible Venetian ducats of the 1300's that I got. I still need a better Lorenzo Celsi, but the remaining four Doges only cover about 4 years of the whole century. That's why they are so rare; they only were Doge for a year each, or less.
I tried to obtain an already-graded example of this coin by making an offer of $1300, which was countered at $1600. When I countered at $1500, they countered at $2000! Then I disappeared for a while, came back and offered $1680, and they just rejected it. Fine. Then I won this one through CNG, raw, for almost $1950 including my NGC fees.