Follaro of Svač — St John and the citadel

Description

The follaro is small civic change that numismatic literature attributes to **medieval Svač (Shas)**, a town by Lake Šas near Ulcinj. The obverse shows **St John the Baptist**, patron of the town, holding a sceptre topped with a double cross, with the legend S IOHANES B. The reverse shows a stylised citadel, the emblem of the town, with a legend read in catalogues as CIVITAS SOVATI or SOVACII CIVITAS — **“the city of Svač”**.

The coin is dated to the second half of the 14th century: c. 1375–1400 in the literature, 1356–1392 in the Leu catalogue. **The type is very rare**, with few known examples. According to Miodrag Kirsanov, the follaro served local retail trade.

Svač was then at its height: it reached its economic peak in the 14th century, when it also struck its own coins; under the Balšići, at the end of that century, it lost its former strength. Around 1470 it had shrunk to a village, and by 1553 it was completely deserted. [1] The Lexicon of the Archaeology of Montenegro also describes this follaro: St John the Baptist on the obverse, a stylised image of the town on the reverse. [2]

The 3D model was made after photographs of a specimen of this type: obverse and reverse were modelled separately, in full relief, and joined into a two-sided coin at true size (diameter from the catalogue, thickness derived from the weight). The model is a faithful three-dimensional rendering of the type, not a measured survey of the specimen; the mass of the model matches the published specimen (1.68 g), so the relief is lower than on the other coin models in the collection. For 3D printing, obverse and reverse were prepared as separate models.