Skadar or Papal? A Few Words on a Type of Copper Coins Attributed to Medieval Skadar

Abstract

When speaking of the emissions of medieval mints located in the Eastern Adriatic area, the most important literature are still articles that Karl Stockert wrote for various numismatic journals starting from the early 20th century. All later scholars dealing with this topic based their research on the results presented in Stockert’s valuable studies. Thus, those who dedicated themselves to the numismatics of medieval Skadar included the so-called Type VI of the Skadar follaro among the coins attributed to this city, with an incomplete depiction of a coat of arms on the obverse and of a city fort / gate on the reverse, accompanied by partially preserved legends. The aim of this paper is the proper attribution of these coins, which proves that they do not belong either to the coinage of medieval Skadar or to that of any other Eastern Adriatic city, but were, in fact, coins of Pope Alexander VI Borgia, minted in Ascoli.