NUMISMATICS
154
NUMISMATICS
particularly remained in use for many years. The
mint was managed by a commission {trestnTt are ar-
gento auro flando feriintdo) , the members of wliioh soon
placed upon the coins their names or initi:ils, and later
glorified the members of their families and their deeds
(family or consular coins). Even at that time, but
much more frequently in the imperial period, there
were denarii of base metal which were often thinly
coated with silver {denarii subcevati) . It rarely hap-
pened that gold was coined.
Csesar marks the transition to the imperial coinage: in 44 n. r. the Senateonlered the iiJsueof coins bearing his portrait. Even Brutus follmved this example, and with .-Augustus begins tlu' uninterrupted series of por- trait coins. While C\esar had already claimed the right of coining gold and silver, .Vugustus claimed this right for himself alone and left to the Senate only the coinage of copper; and these copper coins are char- acterized by the letters S. C. {xnintus cuiisiillo). Aure- lian (270-76) took even this jirivilege from the Senate. Beginning with the empire we find a copious coinage of gold. The principal coin is the a ureua, weighing about 123§ grains; its obverse bears the name, title and por- trait of the emjjcror; its reverse, historical representa- tions in rich variety, buildings, favourite divinities of the emperor, and personifications of the virtues that adorned, or should have adorned, him; the members of his family are also represented. In this respect the series of Trajan and Hadrian are especially rich. With Xero begins the debasement of the coinage, par- ticularly of the silver; and this continued until Con- stantine again established some degree of order. He introduced a new gold coin, the solidun, equal to /i of a pound (about 70 grains), which for centuries re- mained an important factor in the development of the monetarv system.
Special mention should be made of the medals, pecu- liarly large and carefully executed works of the mint, issued in commemoration of some event. They were made of gold, silver, or copper, and in the precious metal, generally coined in conformity with the legal standard. There are also specimens made of copper surrounded by a circle of yellowish metal [viedailles des deux cuivres). The term conlorniate is applied to a large circular copper coin with a raised rim, used principally in connexion with the circensian games.
The coins of the Roman emperors of the East, which are designated as Byzantine, belong, chrono- logically at least, to the Middle Ages, but, judged by the standard observed in their coinage and, in the be- ginning, also by the character of the coins themselves, the entire series is closely connected with the issues of the Roman Empire. Copper was coined abundantly, silver rarely, but the greatest importance attached to the gold coinage. For many years gold was coined only at Byzantium, and these gold pieces served as a model, not only for the gold coinage of the West, which was not resumed until the thirteenth century, but also for that of Islam. Artistic merit is entirely lacking in the Byzantine coins: their type is rigid and monotonous. In place of the former wealth and vari- ety of devices on the reverse, we find religious sym- bols, the monogram of Christ, and saints. The coin- age of John VIII, the last of the emperors but one, about the middle of the fifteenth century, was the last of the Byzantine series.
C. Medieval Coins. — The new states that arose within the territorial limits of the old Roman Empire at first made use of the Roman coins, of which a suffi- ciently large number were in existence. The rare autonomous issues of the period of the racial migration are very closely connected with the Roman series; only the Merovingians, in France, made themselves to some extent independent. Very soon, however, a general decline began in all matters connected with coinage; the coins steadily become coarser, gold cur- rency disappeared, copper was coined only excep-
tionally; small silver coins were the only medium of
l)ayment. Charlemagne restored some kind of order;
claiming the right of coining as a royal prerogative, to
be exercised by the king alone, he suppressed all pri-
vate coinage, which at that time had assumed disas-
trous proportions. He furthermore enjoined greater
care in minting and made regulations on this point
which became the standard for the greater part of
Europe, and which, in their essential features, are
operative in England to the present day. The basis
was the talent, or pound, of silver (about 11; oz.
Troy); it was divided into 20 shillings (pound and
shillings being both merely money of account) each
equal to 12 pence (deniers). The penny therefore
weighed 23^ grains. The most conuijon designs on
the Carlovingian coins are tin- nprrscntation of the
cross and a church adorned with (H)luuins, .surrounded
by the legend Christiana religiu.
The peculiar economic conditions of the Middle Ages gave rise to the issue of silver coins of constantly diminishing weight and fineness, so that they steadily became more and more worthless and, as a result of the general rise in values, could no longer be used as currency. In this way a process began which was re- peated several times during the Middle Ages: as a re- sult of the depreciation of the older small coins, new coins, larger and more valuable, were struck in some city whence they made their way triumphantly through the whole of Europe. In course of time these in turn became depreciated and were replaced by a new issue. In the thirteenth century the shilling (equal to 12 pence) was first coined at Tours; in con- tradistinction to the denier, which at that time had become very thin, it was called nummus grossus
SiLV
S.\XONY, 1537 — BY Flotner
(thick coin), and, from the name of the place where
it was first coined, grossus luronensis, or gros tourriois.
One side has a cross with the name of the king and a
legend, most commonly Benedictum sit nomen domini;
the other, a church. The lournois spread rapidly
through France and along the Rhine, and led to the
minting of a similar coin at Prague (the grossus pra-
gensis, or Prager Groschen), which in its turn was imi-
tated in many countries. After the Merovingian
period the only gold coins minted were the Auguslales
of the emperor Frederick II. These were copies of
the earlier Roman coin and were struck in Sicily.
A regular gold coinage does not begin until about 1250,
in the Republic of Florence. These coins bear, on the
one side, St. John the Baptist, and, on the other, a
lily, the emblem of Florence. From this device (flos
lilii), or from the name of the city, they received the
name florin. Their weight was a little more than .540
grains. A few decades later the Doge of Venice,
Giovanni Dandolo, began the minting of a gold coin
which bears the representation of the doge kneeling
before St. Mark and the effigy of Christ with the
legend: Sit libi Christe datus quern tu regis iste ducalus.
The last word of this legend gave the coin its name,
ducato (ducat); in Venice it was also called zccchino
(sequin) from la zecca, "the mint". The type of the
florin and the name of the ducat soon became current
throughout the world.
The transition to modern times is marked by the introduction of still larger silver coins. Of these, be-
