Ragusa 1628 3 grosetti
This specimen was lot 1093 in Stephen Album sale 50 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2024), where it sold for $360. The catalog description[1] noted, "RAGUSA: Republic, AR 3 grosetti, 1628, in the style of a Polish 3 groschen, head of St. Blasius with open mitre right // city view, date and legend, VF-XF, ex Dr. Robert A. Rosenfeld Collection." 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 reverse 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.
Specifications: 1.82 g, silver, this specimen 2.01 g.
Catalog reference: KM-4.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 50, featuring selections from the Dr. Robert A. Rosenfeld Collection, the Hakim Hamidi Collection, the Almer H. Orr III Collection and the Solar Collection, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
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