VENICE GOLD ZECCHINO - DOGE PAOLO RAINIER 1779-1789 Start Price USD 450.00 Current Price USD 450.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, September 01, 2008 End Time Monday, September 08, 2008 Location Scottsdale, AZ See more about 'VENICE GOLD ZECCHINO - DOGE PAOLO RAINIER 1779-1789' Description 1779-1789 GOLD ZECCHINO (HAND STRUCK) VENICE THE COIN IN THE PHOTO IS THE ONE YOU ARE BIDDING ON VERY NICE DETAIL 3.48 grams GUARANTEED AUTHENTIC NO RETURNS - ESTATE SALE MAKE SURE YOUR CUSTOMS WILL ALLOW THIS ITEM TO ENTER YOUR COUNTRY PLEASE, NO BIDS FROM RUSSIA - CUSTOMS RESTRICTIONS APPLY DOGE PAOLO RAINIER - DOGE OF VENICE   For about a thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge (in ven. Doxe), a rare but not unique Italian title derived from the Latin Dux, as the major Italian parallels Duce and Duca and the English Duke. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city. The Venetian combination of elaborate monarchic pomp and a republican (though "aristocrati") constitution with intricate checks and balances makes La serenissima Venice a textbook example of a crowned republic. Origins According to the chronicler John the Deacon, author of the Chronircon Venetum ("Chronicle of Venice"), written about AD 1000, the office of doge was first instituted in Venice about 700, replacing tribunes that had led the cluster of early settlements in the lagoon. Whether or not the first doges were technically local representatives of the Emperor at Constantinople, the doge, like the emperor, held office for life and was similarly regarded as the ecclesiastical, the civil and the military leader, in a power structure termed caesaropapism. This proved that the military was true to high power. Place a Bid!