1 Grosso Italy Silver

1339, Genoa (Republic), Simon Boccanegra (Doge). Silver Grosso Coin

Mint Period: ca. 1339-1344

References: MIR 33 CNI 165/183.

Denomination: Grosso (thick penny)

Doge: Simone Boccanegra (4th Doge of Genoa, 1356-1363)

Diameter: 22mm

Weight: ca. 3gm

Material: Silver

Obverse: Stylized castle (arms of the Genoese Republic). Sigla (G) below. All within polylobe adorned with dots in outer and three-leafed ornaments in inner fields.

Legend: + DVX : IANVENSIVM : PRIMV .

Reverse: Short cross within polylobe adorned with dots in outer and three-leafed ornaments in inner fields.

Legend: + * CONRADVS * REX * A *

The Most Serene Republic of Genoa (Italian: Repubblica di Genova, Ligurian: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean. It began when Genoa became a self-governing commune within the Regnum Italicum, and ended when it was conquered by First French Republic under Napoleon and replaced with the Ligurian Republic. Corsica was ceded in the Treaty of Versailles of 1768. The Ligurian Republic was annexed by the First French Empire in 1805, and its restoration was briefly proclaimed in 1814 following the defeat of Napoleon, but was ultimately annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1815. Today Genoa is the name of the capital city of Liguria, a northwestern region of Italy.

Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra (1843) by Antonio García Gutiérrez, whose play El trovador had been the basis for Verdi’s 1853 opera, Il trovatore. Simon Boccanegra was first performed at Teatro La Fenice in Venice on 12 March 1857. Given the complications of the original plot and the generally poor popular response – although the critical one was more encouraging – the opera dropped out of favour after 1866. Finally, 23 years later, Verdi’s publisher persuaded the composer to revise the opera, with text changes to be prepared by Arrigo Boito, the librettist who aspired to work with the aging composer on a project which eventually became a new opera, Otello, but to which Verdi had not totally committed at that time. The revised version of Simon Boccanegra, with the now-famous Council Chamber scene, was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 24 March 1881. It is this version which is the one most frequently performed today.