5 Lira Italian city-states Silver

1848, Republic of Venice (Provisional Government). Large Silver 5 Lira Crown.

Mint place: Venice
Denomination: 5 Lire
Mintage: 11,000 pcs.
Reference: Davenport 208, Pagani 177, KM-186.
Material: Silver (.900)
Weight: 24.85gm
Diameter: 38mm

Obverse: Winged and nimbate lion of St. Mark left, holding book with gospels.
Book Inscription: PAX TIBI MAR/CE EVAN GELI/STA MEVS ("May Peace be with you, Mark, my evangelist!")
Legend: REPUBLICA VENETA * 22 MARZO 1848 *

Reverse: Denomination (5 LIRE) inside wreath. Mint initial (V) below.
Legend: UNIONE ITALIANA / V

In 1814 the viceroy Eugene , to save Lombardy, retroceded Venetia to Austria. The news of the Revolution of Vienna and the Milanese Insurrection , in 1848, found a ready echo in Venice, where the Austrian garrison, the Italians excepted, departed after peacefully capitulating . Daniele Manin was at the head of the provisional government, which the cities of the mainland accepted; they soon after joined the union with Piedmont under Carlo Alberto, as had already been done by Venice, and in a few days news arrived of the cessation of hostilities between Piedmont and Austria. The Venetian republic was then re-established (11 August, 1848). The Neapolitan general Guglielmo Pepe commanded the Venetian troops against the Austrians who came to retake the city. It was besieged in October; on 24 August, 1849, after a bombardment of twenty-four days, it surrendered. In 1866 Austria ceded Venice to Napoleon III, who gave it to the Kingdom of Italy.

Edge Inscriptoin: * DIO BENEDITE L’ITALIA "God bless Italy!"

The Lion of Saint Mark, representing the evangelist St Mark, pictured in the form of a winged lion, is the symbol of the city of Venice and formerly of the Republic of Venice.

Venetian tradition states that when St. Mark was traveling through Europe, he arrived at a lagoon in Venice, where an angel appeared to him and said “Pax tibi Marce, evangelista meus. Hic requiescet corpus tuum.” (May Peace be with you, Mark, my evangelist. Here your body will rest.) This (possibly apocryphal) tradition was used as justification by Rustico da Torcello and Bon da Malamocco in 828 for stealing the remains of St. Mark from his grave in Alexandria, and moving them to Venice, where they were eventually interred in the Basilica of St. Mark.