There remains to be described the second and less important basis of the Venetian system, that of the lira di grossi. It was throughout--i.e. from the thirteenth century, when it originated, to the close of the sixteenth, when it disappeared--an ideal system, i.e. of account only. A supposititious lira di grossi was taken and divided into 40 soldi, each soldo was subdivided into 12 denari, and each one of these denari was equivalent to the grosso, the actual coin existing in the system--already described. The lira di grossi therefore maintained at first the same relativity to the lira di piccioli that the actual grosso did to the actual picciolo, namely, 26:1. This relation, however changed subsequently with the depreciation of the actual grosso (the lira). In 1278 the ratio of the two was 28:1 " 1282 " " 32:1 " 1343 " " 48:1 " 1472, onwards to the discontinuance of the system 62:1 A curious feature about this system was that in its turn it subdivides. In 1343 a double (hypothetical) grosso was adopted; one of 48 piccioli, the other of 32, both of them subdivided into thirty-two parts as, again, an ideal system. In 1472, therefore, the Venetian silver system consisted of-- 1. _Lira di piccioli_, an actual coin represented by the Troni, and containing 128 grs. of silver, .9472 fine. 2. The ideal _lira di grossi_, then equivalent to 10 ducats, divided into 20 ideal soldi, each equivalent to 1/2-ducat, each soldo again subdivided in 12 grossi, the grosso being now no longer the actual coin of that name but ideal, like the above multiples; and each grosso in its turn subdivided into 32 parts, to which the name of _piccioli_ was given, though as ideal as its multiple the grosso. For distinction's sake probably, these ideal grossi and piccioli occur in history as _grossi a oro_ and _piccioli a oro_. TABLE OF THE GOLD DUCAT OR SEQUIN OF VENICE. (According to Nicolo Papadopoli, _Sul Valore Delia Moneta Veneziana_, p. 33.)