The last Byzantine gold coin (a piece of John V., 1341-91) shows a figure of John the Baptist imitated from the Florentine coinage. Cognate Groups.—Besides the regular series of the Byzantine empire, there are several groups connected with it, either because of their similarity, or because the sovereigns were of the imperial houses. These are the coinages of various barbarians, and the money of the emperors of Nicaea, of Thessalonica, and of Trebi zond (Pl. V.-2, 3). The last groups consist of small silver pieces, which were prized for their purity; they were called Comnenian white-money (&rzrpa tanavivara), the princes of Trebizond hay ing sprung from the illustrious family of the Comneni.
The coinage of the other states of the West falls into well defined periods which have been distinguished as (I) transitional period, from Roman to true mediaeval coinage, i.e., from the fall of Rome (476) to the accession of Charlemagne (768) ; (2) true mediaeval period, during which Carolingian money was the cur rency of Western Europe; this covers the period from Charle magne to the end of the Swabian house in 1286; (3) early Renais sance from the first issue of the florin at Florence in 1252 to the beginning of the classical Renaissance in the middle of the i 5th century; (4) the Renaissance and (5) modern period.
Mediaeval.—The main feature of the mediaeval period is the disappearance of gold and rise of silver and the return of gold from the 15th century onwards. The inconvenience of gold money when it represents a very large value in the necessaries of life must have caused its abandonment and the substitution of silver by the Carlovingians. The denier (denarius) or penny of about 24 grains was at first practically the sole coin. The solidus in gold was struck but very rarely, perhaps as a kind of proof of the right of coining. The Byzantine solidus or bezant was used and probably the equivalent Arab gold. The new coinage spread from France, where it was first royal and then royal and feudal, to Germany, Italy, where the Byzantine types did not wholly dis appear, England, Scandinavia, Castile and Aragon. In Germany and France feudal money was soon issued, and in Italy towns and ecclesiastical foundations largely acquired from the empire the right of coinage, which was elsewhere rare. The consequence of the extended right of coinage was a depreciation in weight, and in the middle of the 12th century the one-sided deniers called bracteates appeared in Germany, which were so thin that they could only be stamped on one side. The types of this whole second coinage are new, except when the bust of the emperor is engraved. The most usual are the cross ; and the church as a temple also appears, ultimately taking the form of a Gothic building. There
are also sacred figures, and more rarely busts in the later age. The great precursor of the Renaissance was the emperor Fred erick II. (1215-5o). In his restoration of the gold coinage he had already been preceded by the Norman Duke of Apulia, who for the convenience of these Arab subjects and for commercial reasons also had continued the gold coinage of the Fatimids, the great cur rency at that time of all the western Muslims. Roger II. (113o 54) also struck Latin coins of his own as DVX APVLIAE, the first ducats. Frederick II., continuing the gold standard, also struck his own Roman gold money, solidi and half solidi, with his bust as emperor of the Romans, Caesar Augustus, and on the reverse the imperial eagle, in keeping with the obverse title. In workmanship these were the finest coins produced in the middle ages. It is not till the great Swabian that we get the final estab lishment of a worthy coinage, a necessity of their large commercial schemes. The famous gold florin was first issued in 1252 and at once became popular. The obverse type is the standing figure of St. John the Baptist, the reverse bears the lily of Florence. The weight was about 54 grains, but the breadth of the coin and the beauty of the work gave it dignity. The commercial greatness of Florence and the purity of the florin caused the issue of smaller coins in almost all parts of Europe. Venice was not long in strik ing (in 1248) a gold coin of the same weight as the florin, but with the types of a standing figure of Christ, and the doge re ceiving the gonfalon at the hands of St. Mark, a type suggested by Byzantium. It was first called the ducat, the name it always bears in its inscription ; later it is known as the zecchino or sequin. Though not so largely imitated in type as the florin, the extreme purity of the sequin made it a world currency down to the 19th century. Genoa likewise had a great gold currency, and the other Italian states struck in this metal. Many varieties of gold money appear in course of time in France, England and to a less extent in other countries. The need for heavier silver coinage caused the issue of the large denier (grossus denarius, Bros or groat). This coin appears early in the 14th century. The types from the 14th century onwards are many and distinctly worthy of the art of the time, which as yet is purely decorative and con ventional, so that portraits are not possible. The religious inten tion also is gradually giving way to the desire to produce a beauti ful result, and the symbol of the cross is varied to suit the dec orative needs of the coin. Heraldic subjects also appear, and in the shield, which is frequently a reverse type, we see the origin of the usual modern reverse of the most important coins.