The Medieval Serbian Empire rose from Byzantine patronage to become a threat to the very existence of Constantinople itself. Under a string of accomplished leaders, from Stefan Demanja, through the great Stefan Dusan, and culminating with the death of Prince Lazar at Kosovo in 1389, the medieval Serbs created a political entity which today still resonates strongly in the Serbian culture. These pages are interested in the Serbian kingdom from the ascent of Stefan Nemanja to the Turkish conquest.

The medieval Serbian coinage contains an extraordinarily broad array of types, with iconography drawn from a variety of sources. Numerous types followed a Venetian model. It is telling how by this period the Venetian grosso was the international currency of trade, Byzantium too weak and its solidii too debased to maintain the position it had held for nearly a millennium. Of course, the St. Mark of the Venetian currency was replaced with the Serbian St. Stephan.