Mediaeval and Later European Coins

France.—In France in 755 Pepin the Short abolished the gold coinage of his Merovingian predecessors and introduced the silver denier (denarius =penny) ; the coinage became a royal prerogative once more and confined to a few mints. The denier (Pl. V.-6), which at first weighed c. 1.28 gramme grains), was for cen turies the chief of European silver coins. Under Charlemagne the weight was slightly raised; the Caroline monogram appears and there are other modifications in the types. Charlemagne also issued money from various Italian, German and Spanish mints. He also introduced the obol, and struck gold (chiefly at Italian mints). Among his types must be noted the temple with the in scription XPISTIANA RELIGIO. Louis le Debonnaire (814 840) was the last Carolingian to strike gold. In the 9th century are perceptible the first traces of the movement which led to the extensive feudal coinage. The advent of the house of Capet made no great change in the system, but the feudal issues now become important. The most widespread denier was that of the abbey of St. Martin at Tours (denier tournois) ; the royal coinage was known as the monnaie parisis. Louis IX. (1226-7o) effected a great reform late in his reign, making the sou (hitherto a money of account) into a real coin as the gros and introducing a gold coinage. Henceforward the coinage increases in complexity; in the 14th century it has great artistic merit, especially the gold; from the end of the 16th century it becomes conventional.

Belgium.

Passing on to Belgium, its coinage, which, except for the few mints operating under the Merovingians and Carolin gians, does not begin until the 11th century, comprises many pieces struck by foreign rulers, and has little of an independent character in either the regal or the seignorial class. The most important coinages are those of the house of Burgundy and Charles V. and his son, and of the bishops of Liege. The coinage of Belgium ap proaches the French on the one side, the German on the other.

Switzerland.

The multitudinous coinage of Switzerland illus trates the varying fortunes of this central state, and its gradual growth and consolidation. First we have the gold money of the Frankish kings, among whose mints Basel, Lausanne, St. Maurice en-Valais and Sitten (Sion) already appear. The silver deniers, which Charlemagne made the coinage of the empire, are issued by fewer mints; the dukes of Swabia began to strike at Zurich in the loth century, and the empire granted during the loth and down to the i3th century the right of coinage to various ecclesiastical foundations, bishoprics and abbeys. Bern was allowed a mint by the emperor Frederick II. in 1218, and other towns and seigneurs subsequently gained the same right. The demi-bracteate appears about the middle of the iith century, and about 1125 is superseded by the true bracteate, which lasts until about 130o. The 14th cen tury witnessed the rise of the Swiss confederation, and by degrees the cantons struck their own money. These, together with the coins of some few sees and abbacies, form the bulk of Swiss money of the mediaeval and modern periods. The separate cantonal coinage, interrupted by the French occupation, was finally suppressed in 1848, when a uniform currency was adopted.

Italy.

Italy, with Sicily, has special features. Here the bar baric coinages were mixed with the Byzantine issues which marked the recovery of the Eastern empire, and left a lasting influence in the north at Venice, and in the south at Beneventum. Later the Arab occupation of Sicily and the predominance of Arab coins left their mark in the curious Oriental coinages with Arabic in scriptions of the Normans of Sicily and of the Emperor Fred erick II., mixed after his fashion with Latin coinage. The earliest

money is that of the barbarian Ostrogoths and Lombards, and local Byzantine issues in Sicily. This is followed by the deniers of Charlemagne and his successors, succeeded by the gold currencies of the Normans and Frederick II. The age of the free cities is marked by the great coinages of Florence, Venice and Genoa, while the Angevin and Aragonese princes coined in the south, and the popes began to issue a regular currency of their own at Rome. The Italian princes of the next period coined in Savoy, and at Florence, Modena, Mantua and other cities, while Rome and the foreign rulers of the south continued their mintages, Venice and Genoa of the republics alone surviving.

The money of Florence, as may be observed, is disappointing in its art, for the great commercial currencies have to be con servative. The silver florin was first struck in 1189. It is heavier than the denier, weighing about 27 grains, and bears the lily of Florence and the bust of St. John the Baptist. These are thence forward the leading types, the flower never changing, but the representation of the saint being varied. On the gold florin, first issued in 1252, the Baptist is represented standing, while in the contemporary silver florins he is seated. The latter have a rhym ing legend, "Det tibi florere Christus, Florentia were." Venice as a mint rivals Florence in conservatism, and the early style is distinctly Byzantine; commercial reasons had to prevail in keeping coin types unchanged even in a great artistic city. The famous Venetian zechino or sequin, the rival of the florin of Florence, appears to have been first issued under Giovanni Dandolo (1284). On the obverse St. Mark gives the gonfalon to the kneeling doge, and on the reverse is a standing figure of the Saviour within an oval nimbus and a rhyming legend, "Sit tibi, Christe, datus Quem to regis, iste ductus." The series of the coins of Rome is rather of historical than of artistic merit. The popes begin to strike money under Adrian I. (A.D. 772-795), whose deniers are in a Byzantino-Lombard style. The coins of his successors, excepting few, down to Leo IX. (1049) associate the names of pope and emperor (Pl. V.-5). From Leo IX. to Urban V. (1362) there is no papal coinage. The Roman senate strikes from 1188 onwards. We then see on the silver the style of the senate and Roman people, and ROMA CAPUT MUNDI. Some coins have the figures of St. Paul and St. Peter, others Rome seated and a lion. Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily (1263-85), strikes as a senator, and Cola di' Rienzo (1347-48) as tribune. The gold ducat of about 1300 imitates the types of the Venetian sequin. St. Peter here gives the gonfalon to a kneeling senator. The arms of the moneying senator next appear in the field. The papal coinage is resumed at Avignon; and Urban V., on his return to Rome, takes the sole right of the mint. From Martin V. (1417) to Pius IX. there is a continuous papal coinage. The later coins, though they have an interest from their bearing on the history of art, are disappointing in style (Pl. V.-1o). We have beautiful gold coins of Giovanni Benti voglio, lord of Bologna, who employed Francia at his mint, and we know that the artist remained at his post after Julius II. had taken the city. There are also pieces of Clement VII. by Cellini, vigorous in design but careless in execution. There were papal mints at Ancona, Bologna, Piacenza, Parma, Ferrara and other Italian towns; and coins were also struck at Avignon from 1342 to 1700. When the City of the Vatican state was created in 1929 it was accorded the right of issuing its own coinage.