Ragusa 1627 3 grosetti
This specimen was lot 1595 in Jean Elsen sale 165 (Brussels, June 2026), where it sold for €440 (about US$606 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"DALMATIE, RAGUSE, AR artilucco (3 grossetti), 1627. D/ B. de saint Blaise à d. R/ Porte de ville à trois tours, entre deux écus couronnés. Rare. Fines griffes. presque Très Beau. (Dalmatia, city of Ragusa, silver artilucco of three grossetti of 1627. Obverse: St. Blasius right; reverse: city gate with three towers between two crowned shields. Rare, scratches, about Very Fine.)"
The Republic of Ragusa was a Christian enclave on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. In the eighteenth century, it was an independent city-state surrounded and protected by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled most of the Balkans. Ragusa was occupied by French troops in 1805 and annexed by Austria in 1814. This obscure type was struck 1627-35, 1642-49, 1654, 1675, 1683-86, 1692 and 1701. Sixty grossetti made a tallero.
The figure on the obverse is St. Blaise, of whom Wikipedia comments, "Blaise of Sebaste (Armenian: Սուրբ Վլասի, Surb Vlasi; Greek: Ἅγιος Βλάσιος, Hágios Blásios; Latin: Blasius martyred 316 AD) was a physician and bishop of Sebastea in historical Lesser Armenia (modern Sivas, Turkey) who is venerated as a Christian saint and martyr. Blaise is...the patron saint of wool combers and of sufferers from ENT illnesses. In the Latin Church, his feast falls on 3 February. In the Eastern Churches, it is on 11 February. According to the Acta Sanctorum, he was martyred by being beaten, tortured with iron combs, and beheaded."
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 1.82 g, silver, 21 mm diameter, this specimen 1,85 g.
Catalog reference: KM 4, CNI VI, 479, 8 var.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
- [1]Elsen, Philippe, et al., Vente Publique 165, Brussels: Jean Elsen et ses Fils S.A., 2026.
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