NTTMISMATICS
155
NUMISMATICS
sides the Italian tesione and the French franc, the
German Taler was the most important. In 1485
the Archduke Sigismund of tlie Tyrol caused the issue
of a new silver coin weighing 2 Loth, and of a fineness
of 15 Lolh; its value at the rate of exchange of that
time corresponded to that of the gold gulden and it
was therefore called Guldengroschen. The example of
the Tyrol was soon followed by many nobles who had
the right of coining; the Joachimslaler (shortened to
Taler), made in the mint of the counts of Schlick, at
Joachimstal, originated the name of Taler (Dollar),
which has been retained to the present day. Among
the most interesting of the coins of this kind are the
Ruhenlaler, coined by Leonard of Keutschach, Arch-
age, thereby causing serious losses to those of their
subjects who were engaged in trade. The cities,
therefore, which had not yet obtained the right of
coinage, endeavoured to gain some control over the
system, either by obtaining for themselves the right
of coining or by farming mints, or by inducing the
owners of mints to exercise their privileges in a more
reasonable manner.
Of the German medieval coins, the "bracteates" (Lat. bractea, " a thin sheet of metal ) deserve special mention. They were not personal ornaments, like the Scandinavian bracteates of earlier times, but genuine coins. As the denier had become thinner and thinner in the course of the eleventh century, it was
RosrHEN — Maurice of Saxony, 1544 — by
shows a aj-mbolical representation of the Holy Tn
bishop of Salzburg, and named from his armorial bear-
ings, a turnip (Rube) ; these are counted among the
rarest and most frequently counterfeited coins of the
Middle Ages.
The monetary systems of the German Empire dur- ing the Middle Ages are of the greatest interest with respect not only to the number of its types of coin, but also the peculiarity of its evolution. Charle- magne, it is true, had established uniformity of coin- age and had caused the right of coining to be acknowl- edged as exclusively belonging to the sovereign; but his weaker successors were gradually compelled to yield this, as well as most of the other royal preroga- tives, to the feudatory lords, whose power continued to increase as that of the paramount government weakened. Among these feudatories were, not only all archbishops and bishops, but also the leading ab- bots and abljesses within the empire. The evolution was gradual. At first permission was granted to hold a fair (mercatus), levy a tax {telonium), and erect a mint (monela) at some place belonging to one of the feudatories. At first the mint may have been only an exchange, the profits of which, however, in the Middle Ages were often very considerable, and accrued to the lord. Then he was permitted to have coins struck Ijearing hi.s portrait, but had to maintain the uniform standard. At length these feudatory lords obtained the privilege of coining without any restric- tions. When this was done uniformity in the cur- rency of the empire was at an end, a great diversity in the coinage was rendered possible, and the right of coining, instead of being a prerogative of the emperor, became a privilege of every feudatory. These sought to exploit this privilege as a productive source of in- come by constantly debasing and changing the corn-
replaced, early in the twelfth century, in some parts
of Germany, by very thin but rather large silver coins,
made with one die, showing the same design, in relief
on one side and depressed on the other. These coins,
especially in the beginning, were carefully executed
and not without artistic merit. The city of Halle in
Swabia (Wurtemberg) issued a small fractional coin
which had a wide circulation, and was called Heller
from the place of its origin. In some respects the
evolution of French coinage resembles that of German:
here too we find, in the tenth century, coinages of lay
and ecclesiastical barons (the archbishops of Vienne,
Aries, Reims, etc. in particular) , characterized by a fixed
type (liipe immohilise) which is maintained unaltered
for a long period. But by the close of the Middle Ages
this coinage is confined to a very few powerful feu-
datories and in comparison with the royal coinage, is
no longer of importance. From France we have the
chaise d'or, a gold coin that was also largely minted in
other countries; it represents the king seated upon a
Gothic throne. In England sterlings and nobles were
struck, both of them often counterfeited. Coins of
the archbishops of Canterbury and York are extant.
In Italy, because of its numerous political divisions, we
find a diversity of coinages similar to that of Germany.
The scarcity of coins of ecclesiastical mints is notice-
able: with the exception of some isolated examples and
the series of Aquileja, Trent, and Trieste, we have only
the papal coinages, which, following chiefly the Byzan-
tine model, begin with Adrian I, but do not become
important until Clement V (the first of whose coins,
however, were struck at Avignon). While eastern
Europe was for the most part under the influence of
Byzantine, the Crusaders nevertheless brought West-
ern types into the states founded by them in the
