Simon Boccanegra is the first doge of Genoa, dux Ianue as it appears from the legend of the coin

It is the first gold coin minted in Genoa and perhaps in Italy by the free communes after the death of Emperor Frederick II. In order to support in fact the increase of the genoese commercial traffics there is in 1200 urgent need of coins from the greater value.

These coins are the first coins minted independently from Genoa, after 1138 when the Emperor Conrad II authorized the creation of a mint in the city

Before the establishment of its own mint, Genoa used coins from other cities such as this silver coin from nearby Pavia