2 Soldi

The Ionian Islands operated under a distinct Venetian administrative structure — the Provveditori system — that granted them considerable local autonomy, including the right to issue their own copper coinage for small transactions. This 2 Soldi type served the everyday commerce of islands like Corfu, Cephalonia, and Zante across nearly a century of continuous issue, an unusually long run that accounts for the considerable variation in die quality seen across surviving examples.

Venice's grip on the Ionians ended not through Ottoman conquest, as had long been feared, but by French decree following Bonaparte's dissolution of the Republic in 1797.