With the classical Renaissance we find ourselves in the presence of modern ideas. It is a period of innumerable small states and kingdoms with no uniformity of coinage yet most modern series can be traced back to it. Its most remarkable characteristic is the revival of portraiture and from the 16th century with the opening of the new world the enormous increase in output of coins in gold and silver. With the institution of the German thaler in 1518, it speedily became the chief European piece in its metal, and to its popularity is no doubt due the large silver pieces of other coun tries—crowns, ecus and scudos.
In the west a number of coins carry on the Roman tradition. They cover the period from the 5th to the 8th centuries, and are of considerable historical significance. The types throughout are monotonous : the bust of a Roman emperor or local ruler, a cross of some kind, a Victory, etc. The style is quite barbarous. The classification of the earliest servile imitations of Roman and Byzantine money rests only on origin and is uncertain. The following general series are distinguished: (A) The Vandals (P1. V.-I) (Africa, 428-534) issued gold (?), silver and bronze from Hunneric (477-84) to Gelamir ; the gold is anonymous. (B) The Suevians (Spain, 409-585) had little but imitations of Byzantine gold ; but Richiar (448-456) issued a denarius in his own name. (C) The Ostrogoths (Italy, 489-553) were preceded by the Herulian Odoacer (476-94), who coined silver and bronze; their kings (including Theodoric, 493-526, and Totila or Badulla, issued gold, silver and bronze in their own names, from Rome, Ravenna, Milan, etc. (D) The Lombards (Italy, had no coins in their own names before Grimoald, duke of Bene ventum (662-71); later there are gold solidi and thirds and silver from many mints. Gold was issued for the duchy of Beneventum in the 8th century. (E) The Burgundians (Gaul, to 534) first issued recognizable coins under Gondebald (473-516). (F) The Visigoths (South Gaul and Spain) had imitative gold thirds in the 5th and 6th centuries; the kings' names appear from Leovigild (573-586) to Roderic (7io–i 1). Sixty-one mints were in opera tion. (G) The Meroving Franks first issued under Clovis I. (48I 1) coins recognizably Frankish (solidi and thirds). Royal names first appear on silver and copper under Theoderic of Austrasia and Childebert I. of Paris (511-58). The chief Frank ish inscribed coinage is, however, of gold solidi and thirds, from Theodebert I. who broke down the Roman imperial
prerogative and issued gold with his own name in full, to the be ginning of the 8th century. The last Merovingians issued no coins in their own names, being mere puppets. From the middle of the 6th century the coins with kings' names are far less numerous than those bearing the names only of mints and moneyers; some Boo places (not only in what is now France, but in Germany, the Low Countries and Switzerland) are thus named. This coinage seems to have been intimately connected with the fiscal organization, though the generally accepted theory that the taxes collected in each place were there and then converted into money is by no means proved. Certain religious establishments also possessed the right of coining in their own name. The close of the Merovingian dynasty saw a revival of silver in the saiga, which heralded the introduction of the denier. (H) In England the Anglo-Saxons began with an imitative coinage similar to the Merovingian, viz., gold, solidi and thirds, and silver sceattas of about 20 grains troy, and stycas, first of silver, then of copper. The gold is rare and confined to the south; only two solidi are known, imitations of Honorius, with Runic legends on the reverse.
Portugal.—The coinages of the various countries of Europe from the end of Roman coinage and its imitations can be briefly mentioned in geographical order from west to east. The money of Portugal begins, after the expulsion of the Moors, with Alphonso I. (1112); it is exclusively regal, and not of great interest except as affording indications of the wealth and com mercial activity of the state in the early part of the 18th century.
The early golds are of interest as by the arrangement of their type and inscription they try to look as like Moorish coins as possible.
Spain.—The coinage of Spain, after the reconquest from the Moors, is almost without exception regal. The Kingdom of Navarre had a coinage from the time of Sancho III. (moo-35). The series of Castile and Leon begins with Alphonso VI. (1053) with deniers and obols. Aragon first has coins under Sancho Ramirez I. (1063). Gold (as in Portugal imitated from Moorish money) is introduced in the middle of the 12th century. A plentiful coinage was issued after the union of the crowns in 1479. The Spanish dollar of the 17th and 18th centuries was one of the most widely circulating currencies in the West.