1 Grosso    (售价 $24.0)

1428, Dalmatia, Ragusa (Republic). Silver Grosso (Grossus) Coin. Clipped VF+

Mint Year: ca. 1428 Mint Place: Dubrovnik Reference: CNI 14/26. Rare! Denomination: Grosso (Grossus) Condition: Clipped (a so-called reduction - the coin was probably adjusted to the later lightweight grosso coinage of the 1600s and kept in circulation along with the newly introduced types), otherwise a nice VF+ Diameter: 17mm Weight: 0.97gm Material: Silver

Obverse: St. Blasius standing facing, right hand raised in   benediction and left hand holding crosier.  Legend: ST   BLASIVS RAGUSII Reverse: Christ standing facing within pearled mandorla, raising right hand in benediction and left hand holding Gospels. Christogram (IC-XC) at sides.

Saint Blaise (Greek: Agios Vlasios) was a physician, and bishop of Sebastea, Armenia (modern Sivas, Turkey). According to his Acta Sanctorum, he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron carding combs, and beheaded. St. Blaise is the patron saint of the city of Dubrovnik (where he is known as Sveti Vlaho) and formerly the protector of the independent Republic of Ragusa. At Dubrovnik his feast is celebrated yearly on 3 February, when relics of the saint, his head, a bit of bone from his throat, his right hand and his left, are paraded in reliquaries. The festivities begin the previous day, Candlemas, when white doves are released. Chroniclers of Dubrovnik such as Rastic and Ranjina attribute his veneration there to a vision in 971 to warn the inhabitants of an impending attack by the Venetians, whose galleys had dropped anchor in Gruz and near Lokrum, ostensibly to resupply their water but furtively to spy out the city's defenses. St. Blaise (Blasius) revealed their pernicious plan to Stojko, a canon of St. Stephen's Cathedral. The Senate summoned Stojko, who told them in detail how St. Blaise had appeared before him as an old man with a long beard and a bishop's mitre and staff. In this form the effigy of Blaise remained on Dubrovnik's state seal and coinage until the Napoleonic era.

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The   Republic of Ragusa (or   Republic of Dubrovnik) was a maritime republic   centred on the city of   Ragusa (Dubrovnik, today in southernmost   Croatia), in Dalmatia, from   the 14th century AD until 1808. It reached   its peak in the 15th and   the 16th century before being conquered by   Napoleon Bonaparte's Empire   of France in 1808. It had a population of   about 30,000 people, of   which 5,000 lived within the city walls.

The Republic ruled a compact area of southern     Dalmatia - its final borders were formed by 1426 - comprising the     mainland coast from Neum to the Prevlaka peninsula as well as the     Pelješac peninsula and the islands of Lastovo and Mljet, as well as a     number of smaller islands off Lastovo and Dubrovnik such as Koločep,     Lopud, and Šipan.

In the 15th century the Ragusan republic also     acquired the islands of Korcula, Brac and Hvar for about eight years.     However they had to be given up due to the resistance of local minor     aristocrats sympathizing with Venice which was granting them some     privileges.

In 1684, the emissaries renewed an agreement contracted in Višegrad in the year 1358 and accepted the sovereignty of the Austrian Emperor over Ragusa as a Croatian-Hungarian King, with an annual tax of 500 ducats.     At the same time Ragusa continued to recognize the sovereignty of     Turkey; which was nothing unusual in those days. After this even greater     opportunities opened up for Ragusa ships in ports all along the     Dalmatian coast, in which they anchored frequently.

In 1683 the Turks were defeated in the Battle of     Kahlenberg outside Vienna. The Field marshal of the Austrian army was     Ragusan Frano Dživo Gundulić/Gondola. In the Treaty of Karlowitz of     1699, the Ottomans ceded all of Hungary, Transylvania, Slavonia,     Dalmatia and Podolia to the victorious Habsburgs, Venetians, and Poles.

The Ottoman Empire was no longer a threat to     Christian Europe. After this, Venice captured a part of Ragusa's inland     area and approached its borders. They presented the threat of   completely   surrounding and cutting off Ragusa's trade inland. In view   of this   danger and anticipating the defeat of the Turks in 1684 Ragusa   sent   emissaries to the Austrian Emperor Leopold in Vienna, hoping   that the   Austrian Army would capture Bosnia. Fortunately for the   Republic, the   Ottomans retained their control over their hinterland.   With the 26   January 1699 peace agreement, the Republic of Ragusa ceded   two patches   of its coast to the Ottoman Empire so that the Republic   of Venice would   be unable to attack from land, only from the sea. One   of them, the   northwestern land border with the small town of Neum, is   today the only   outlet of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina to the   Adriatic Sea. The   southeastern border village of Sutorina later became   part of Montenegro,   which has coastline to the south. Ragusa   continued its policy of strict   neutrality in the War of Austrian   succession (1741–48) and in the Seven   Years' War (1756–63).

In 1783 the Ragusan Council did not answer the     proposition put forward by their diplomatic representative in Paris,     Frano Favi, that they should establish diplomatic relations with the     USA. Although the Americans agreed to allow Ragusan ships free passage     in their ports.