Mark (Pl. These types were not entirely new; they had been already used in a less elaborate form on silver.
It must have been the florin that suggested to Henry III., that enlightened patron of art, the introduction of his beautiful gold "penny" in 1257 (Pl. 111-19). His example was followed by St. Louis in his denier d'or in 1266—an admirably executed coin of heraldic design (P1. 111.-20). St. Louis must also be credited with a far-reaching innovation in the shape of the large silver piece or gros (Pl. 111.-21) of 12 deniers, the forerunner of the English groat or fourpence, though that coin did not come into regular use until 1351. The enlarged size eventually made possible the introduction of more interesting designs, though France con tinued to cling to conventional patterns, and England to the conventional facing head and cross. In the grossi of Wenceslas II. of Bohemia (1278-1305) the opportunity afforded by the larger flan was seized for a fine heraldic design.
The 14th Century.—But the time of Edward III. and his contemporaries is the golden age of European coinage. There is no distinction in style between the Anglo-French coins and those of the French kings, and foreign workmen were employed at the English mint. At this period there is no evidence of an independent English art. The fine period of the Anglo-French coinage closes about 1368; the gold coin of the Black Prince issued at that time is a distinct attempt at portraiture on a small scale (P1. IV.-5). In England we have the beautiful, but abortive first issue by Edward III. in 1343 of the gold florin (Pl. IV.-3) and smaller denominations: the most beautiful coins in the whole English series, but demonstrably the work of two Florentines, Giorgio Chierichino and Lotto Nicolini. These coins are followed by the gold noble, the obverse bearing the king in his ship as type (Pl. IV.-4). In 1465 Edward IV. introduced a type of rude strength, the angel (Pl. IV.-8), in which there is something peculiarly English, especially in contrast with the St. Michael on the French coins of a century and a quarter earlier (Philip VI., Pl. IV.-2) and the angelot of Louis XI.
Towards the end of the 15th century the Tudor coinage makes its appearance with a flourish; the sumptuous "sovereign" of Henry VII., first struck in 1489, is still Gothic, but effete : it mis
takes restlessness and over-decoration for strength (Pl. As in England, the art of coinage in the Low Countries in the 14th and 15th centuries presents no essential difference from what is to be seen in France; Germany during the same period lags far behind the West, its coinage being monotonous and crude.
Italian Influence.—It was from Italy that the new revival was to come; and the splendour of its coinage in the last quarter of the 15th century was directly due to the sister art of the medal. The portrait-medal founded by Pisanello, with his in comparable series of portraits made between 1438 and showed the possibilities of the profile relief. After a few artists, like Enzola of Parma, had in the '6os and '7os made groping experiments in die-cut portraits on small medals, others, notably in Milan—though the attribution of the Sforza series to the Milanese Caradosso may be baseless—succeeded towards the end of the century in producing pieces which, as we have said, reached the high-water mark of portraiture in coinage. Early in the i6th century the influence made itself felt outside Italy. It was a German, Alexander of Bruchsal in Baden, who was employed by Henry VII. from 1494 to 1509, but the beautiful profile portraits by which, from 1503 onwards, he left his mark on the English coinage are obviously inspired by the Italian fashion (P1. W.-12). His work sealed the doom of the facing-head on English coins although examples lingered on to the reign of Edward VI.
The Thaler.—Meanwhile Germany had taken an important step in the invention of the thaler, again the size giving greater scope to the designer (Pl. IV.-10). The Tyrolese guldengroschen of 1484—the earliest of the class afterwards generally known as thalers—is evidently inspired, clumsy though it be, by an Italian model. It is the ancestor of all the large silver coins, thalers, dalers, dollars, scudi, crowns, of the i6th and 17th centuries. It did not add greatly to the art of coinage, which attains its highest per fection on a field of not more than an inch and a quarter. For a larger field, the medallic art, unrestricted in relief by its nonuse as currency, is proper.