Florins and Ducats in the Kingdom of Sicily-Aragon: The Syracuse Hoard (1313-c.1369)

This article publishes for the first time a coin hoard discovered in Syracuse in 1938 and kept at the local Museo Archeologico Regionale 'Paolo Orsi'. The hoard consists of 91 gold coins: 83 Florentine florins, seven Venetian ducats and one deceptive imitation (or counterfeit) ducat of apparently good gold, dating between 1313 and c.1369. Given the scarcity of numismatic evidence and the inadequacy of archival documentation for those years, this material provides important details about the circulation of ducats and florins in the Kingdom of Sicily-Aragon, in a period in which Sicilian and Southern Italian mints had ceased to mint gold. This study also sheds light on further aspects of these coinages, including the use of secret marks on Venetian ducats, the production of imitation ducats, the identification of individual florins and their chronologies. A die analysis reveals connections with the almost contemporary Montella hoard (1354).