CNG 90, Lot: 2279. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Genova. Tommaso di Campofregoso. Doge, first tenure, 1415-1421. Pale AV Half Ducat (21mm, 1.67 g, 6h). Uncertain mint in the Black Sea region. S/L/Λ/V/R/Є/T/[I] D/V/X TC DVX IΛNVЄ, St. Laurentius standing right and Doge kneeling left, holding banner between them / SIT T XPЄ DΛT Q T [RЄGIS] ISTЄ DVCΛT, Christ standing facing, raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels, surrounded by mandorla containing nine stars. CNI III -; cf. Ives pl. XI, 1 (Chios) and pl. XII, 6 (half ducat attributed to Pera); cf. Papadopoli (Castellani) 16172 (half ducat attributed to Pera); cf. Schlumberger pl. XVII, 22 (Pera); cf. Gamberini 370 (half ducat attributed to Pera). VF, rough strike. Very rare.

Although full weight Genoese and Milanese colonial ducati or zecchini are frequently encountered, only one or two examples of imitative half ducats have ever been noted. Gamberini, citing a mezzo zecchino, attributed it to the Pera mint and illustrated his description with a line drawing of a standard Pera mint ducat. He also cross-referenced the coin to Schlumberger p. 454 (pl. XVII, 22). Castellani also noted the existence of a half ducat (unillustrated), bearing the same description and attribution as Gamberini. Castellani's description of the coin, however, ends with his mentioning a P mintmark, but following this with a question mark. Either he imagined seeing the P, or supposed that one ought to exist, since, in all other respects, the legends of the half ducat matched those of the Pera mint full ducat.

While attributing this half ducat to the Pera mint (part of a section of Constantinople once under the control of Genoa) is an attractive possibility, Pera mint coins are rather well-made, being nicely engraved and struck well-centered on flans of high purity gold. Similarly, the default attribution to Chios can also be disounted. Although that mint issued crudely produced coins of pale gold, during the reign of Tomaso Campofregoso, such coins appear to have either a pellet trefoil mint mark in the legend, or a large ‘S’ below the flag pole. Since this half ducat lacks the diagnostics for attributing it to Chios or Pera, this coin may then have been struck at one of the Genoese-controlled areas in the Black Sea area, where the local needs of commerce required such coins to be struck.