September 18, 2019 – Sibenik was the first city in Croatia to mint its own money during the Venetian period. Today, the city has released a new sweet souvenir in its honor.
HRTurizam writes that back in 1485, the Venice Council of Nine approved the minting and use of Sibenik’s coins – known as the bagatin, which was a means of payment in the city for more than two centuries. The bagatin was one-twelfth of a Venetian soldo, which was worth 30 Venetian ducats.
As stipulated by the Decree on Forging, on one side of the coin was the figure of St. Marcus, the patron saint of Venice, and on the other, the figure of St. Michael, patron saint of the town of Sibenik. The towns of Split, Zadar, Trogir, and Hvar began minting their bagatin shortly after.
NP Krka writes that the bagatin was saved from oblivion in 2008 by Sibenik goldsmith Ljazir Čivljak.
“He had visited the Bagatin cafe near his shop to closely examine the replica of this coin hanging on the wall in the cafe, and this inspired him to develop a version as a traditional souvenir. Civljak’s bagatin is somewhat larger than the original and made of silver, unlike the original coins that were minted from copper and brass. In addition to creating this as a stand-alone souvenir, Civljak has also incorporated the coin into different jewelry pieces, such as necklaces, bracelets and rings,” reads the NP Krka website.
The Sibenik bagatin is now the city’s new sweet souvenir.
Namely, the Sibenik Bagatin Project was presented on Tuesday at the Museum of the City of Sibenik.
The project is a collaboration between the School of Tourism and Hospitality and the Technical School, which is funded by the Ministry of Tourism through a program to promote and strengthen the competence of vocational professions for tourism. The idea was to design the bagatin as a delicacy and as a souvenir, which was succeeded in the form of chocolate coins.
The developer of the project is the School of Tourism and Hospitality, and the Museum of the City of Sibenik plans to use this delicacy as a souvenir.
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