INDIA/Venice Zecchino (Ducat) ca. 1850s Imitative "Putali" type.

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1850s, INDIA/Venice. Imitative Gold Zecchino Coin.

Mint Period: ca. 1850s
Reference: Gamberini 418 var.
Denomination: Zecchino ("Putali")
Condition: Minor deposits in reverse, light edge-nicks, otherwise a nice AU-UNC specimen, struck in good (high purity) gold!
Material: Gold
Diameter: 21mm
Weight: 3.4gm

Obverse: Stylized and little doge left, holding cruciform staff, while being blessed by St. Mark standing right. Large inital (M), flanked by pellets in exergue.
Legend: IONHAI - AHTMOIA .
Exergue: . M .

Reverse: Christ the Redeemer standing facing within mandorla of sixteen stars.
Legend: OMAIOIIMAO - OINASOIMO



Through the lucrative spice and textile trade, genuine Venetian gold ducats (Zecchini) flooded into Western and Southern India, particularly via the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. Because Venedig maintained a strictly guaranteed gold purity and weight for centuries, these coins earned absolute trust among Indian merchants, shroffs (moneychangers), and rulers, circulating alongside local currencies.

Local Indian goldsmiths (Sonars), predominantly in regions like Maharashtra and Gujarat, began striking their own imitations using brass, bronze, or iron dies.

Early imitations attempted to replicate the original Venetian design—St. Mark presenting a banner to the kneeling Doge on the obverse, and Christ inside an oval mandorla on the reverse. Because the local artisans did not speak Latin, the inscriptions devolved into unreadable, stylized dots and lines (pseudo-legends) used purely for decoration.

In India, these coins became widely known as "Putali" (derived from the Sanskrit/Hindi word for a small statue or idol, referring to the figures on the coin) or "Potli" (referring to the traditional cloth bags used to hold dowry gold).

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