The money of the Byzantine empire forms a link between the subject of ancient and that of modern coins. portrait of the emperor on the obverse is, after the 10th c., supported by some protecting saint. The reverse has at first such types as Victory with a cross, afterwards a representation of. the Saviour or the Virgin; in some instances, the Virgin supporting the walls of Constantinople. Latin is gradually superseded by Greek in the inscriptions, and wholly disappears by the time of Alexius I. The chief gold piece was the solidus or nomisma, which was long famed in commerce for its purity, and circulated largely in the west as well as the east of Europe. • Of the coins of the middle ages, the most important is the silver denier or penny, derived from the Latin denarins. Its half was the obole, first of silver, afterwards of billon. Coins of this description were issued in the German empire, France. England, and the Scandinavian states, and in many cases by ecclesiastical princes and feudal lords as well as sovereigns. The obverse of the regal coin of the early middle ages is generally the bust of the sovereign, and the reverse a Greek cross, accompanied by the royal name or title. and the place of mintage or the moneyer (see MINT). The arms of the country were introduced in the 12th c., in conjunction with the cross, and afterwards superseded it. In the 13th and 14th centuries, coins began to be issued by free imperial cities or corporations of towns; and there prevailed extensively throughout Germany and other parts of Europe a thin piece called a braeteate, in relief on one side, and hollow on the other, often not bearino. alsingie letter, and rarely a full inscription. Down to the the relief of the m&limval coins is very inconsiderable, the pieces thin, and the art poor.
Britain received the Roman money on its subjugation. Constantine seems to have had a mint in London, and the Roman currency continued to circulate for a time after the departure of the conquerors. The first independent coinage, however, shows hardly a trace of the influence of Rome; it consists of two small coins, called the skeatta and styca, the former of silver, the latter of copper. Both seem to belong solely to the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria; they are without inscriptions; a bird, a rude profile, and several unintelligible symbols appear on them, and their art is of the most debased kind. In the other kingdoms of the heptarehy silver-pennies were coined, first intended t•o of a poimd. weight:on „tile .disappearance ,okskeattR and -stycte, they form, with the occasional addition of the sole currency of England down to the reign of Edward III. The pennies of the heptare:ty bear die name of the king or of the moneyer; a cross sometimes appears after the introduction of Christianity, and in later times a rude head of the king or queen. The pennies of the Saxon and Danish sole monarchs of England have a somewhat similar character. Alfred's earlier coins have a grotesque-looking portrait, and on the reverse a monogram of London; in his later coins the head disappears, and a cross and circle take its place. A cross variously ornamented with three pellets in each angle continues to be the usual reverse of the Saxon, Norman, and Plantagenet coins. The coins of Edward Ill. are a great artistic advance on those that preceded them. The silver coinage of that king consisted not only of pennies, half pennies, and farthings, but also of groats and half-groats. The obverse of the groat bears a conventional crowned head within a flowered circle of nine arches, the words "Dei Gratia" and the title "Rex Francite" appearing for the first time in the legend. The reverse has the motto " Posui Dennl adjutorem meum," which continued on the coinage till the tune of Edward V. But the great numismatic feature of Edward M.'s reign is the issue of gold nobles, worth six shillings and eightpence. The obverse of those beautiful coins represent the king in a ship, a sword in his right hand, in his left a shield with the quartered arms of France and England. The reverse is a rich cross
tlory within a circle of eight arches, and a lion under a crown in each angle of the cross, the being " Diesus autcm transiens per medium illorum that." Half and quarter nobles were also coined. The noble haviug increased in value, a coin called an angel, of the former value of a noble, was issued by Henry VI. and Edward IV. The obverse represented St. Michael transfixing a dragon, the reverse a ship, with a cross for the mast.
As we approach the period of the reformation, the coinage gradually becomes more ornate. The nobles coined by Edward IV., after the value of that coin had been fixed at 10 shillings, were called rids (a name derived from a French coin), and the double vial or sovereign was first coiued by Henry VII. The obverse has the king on his throne with scepter and orb, and on the reverse,in the center of a heraldic full-blown rose, is a shield with the arms of France and England. The testoon, or shilling, valued at twelve pence, also first appeared in this reign, with the royal profile crowned on the obverse, and the royal arms quartered by the cross on the reverse. A great debasement of the coinage took place in the reign of Henry VIII. The reverse of the farthings of that monarch beam a, portcullis-, that of the shillings a rose surmounted by a crown, and of the sovereigns, the royal arms supported by a lion and dragon. A noble was coined with St. George and the dragon ou the obverse, and on the reverse a ship with three crosses for masts, and a rose on the center mast, On the 'coins of Henry VIII. the title " Hibernim Rex" first appeared, former kings having only styled themselves "Dominus Hibernim," Ireland not being accounted a kingdom. Tinder Edward VI. the silver coins called crowns and half-crowns appear, having for device the king crowned on horseback in the armor of the period. They derived their name from coins circulating on the continent, which had for device a crown. The royal arms iu an oval shield without the cross are introduced as the reverse of the shilling. From this period there is a very obvious decline in the artistic feeling of the English coins. On some of the shillings of Mary, her bust and that of Philip face each other, the insignia of Spain and England impaled occupying the reverse; afterwards the king's head occupies one side of the coin, and the queen's the other. Half sovereigns, or rials, and angels were coined of the old type of Edward IV. The great event in the coinage of Elizabeth's reign was the temporary introduction of the mill and screw, instead of the hammer and punch, producing coins of a more regular and workmanlike appearance. The profile bust of James L. crowned and in armor, appears on his shillings and smaller pieces; cn his crowns and half-crowns he is repre sented on horseback; on the reverse are the quartered arms of the three kingdoms (the harp of Ireland appearing for the first time on the coinage), with the motto " Quo Deus conjunxit nemo separet." Copper farthings, with crown, scepter, and sword on the obverse, And a harp on the reverse, were coined for England as well as Ireland, the first copper money issued in England since the styca. Private tokens of copper, issued by tradesmen and others, had, however, been in circulation before, and caine again into use to a large extent at a later period. Charles I. coined ten and twenty shilling pieces of silver, the former a very noble coin, with a representation of the king on horseback. A crown, struck at Oxford, bears: on the obverse the king on horseback, with a representa tion of the town, and on the reverse the heads of the Oxford declaration. The guinea, first coined in this reign, was so 'called from the metal being procured from the coast of Guinea; its original value was but twenty shillings.