Sjevernodalmatinski nalazi mletačkog novca za Kandiju od 2 ½ soldina ili 10 torneza

In northern Dalmatia, 12 coins of anonymous Venetian money for Candia with a nominal value of 2 soldini or ten tornesi (cat. no. 1-12) have been found so far. They were discovered individually at six sites (Map 1). It is one of the two fractions of Venetian coinage for Crete, which is to a lesser extent represented in our area. It was minted in the second decade of the 17th century. Interestingly, some specimens were subsequently countermarked by the Venetian military administration in besieged Candia to pay the military salaries. It is most often a GM countermark. Four pieces with this imprinted abbreviation were found in northern Dalmatia (cat. no. 2, 7-8, 12). Uncountermarked Venetian coins for Candia had reached the Dalmatian area by trade before 1645, or at the latest by the beginning of the Candian War, where it circulated until its demonetization (before 1669). On the other hand, countermarked Venetian coins for Candia were never, nor could they be, in circulation in Dalmatia. Their use was exclusively limited to the payment of veterans in Candia. The authors believe that the coinage with subsequently imprinted markings came with the Venetian army, which was allowed to pass after the city’s fall into Turkish hands. It is pretty logical to expect that some mercenaries on their way passed along the eastern coast of the Adriatic or were transferred to one of the northern Dalmatian fortifications. That said, this countermarked coinage reached the wider Zadar area after September 1669. It was not used here as a legal tender, so its appearance should chronologically be placed at the very end of that year. In any case, it is a curiosity in studying the phenomenon of Venetian coins in northern Dalmatia, and this study has the task of expanding the horizons and knowledge of this type of early modern numismatic material.