of Rome (476) to the accession of Charlemagne (768); (2) true medieval age, during which the Carolingian money was the Periods of other European coinage. currency of western Europe, from Charlemagne to the fall of the Swabian house (1268); (3) early Renaissance, from the striking of the florin in Florence (1252) to the classical Renaissance (1450); (4) the classical Renaissance, from 1450 to 1600; (5) the modern period.
1. The various coinages of the transitional period will best be considered together (see below).
2. The inconvenience of gold money when it represents a very large value in the necessaries of life must have caused its abandonment and the substitution of silver by the Carlovingians. The denier (denarius) or penny of about 24 grains was Medieval. at first practically the sole coin. The solidus in gold was struck but very rarely, perhaps as a kind of proof of the right of coining. The Byzantine solidus or bezant was used and probably the equivalent Arab gold. The Arab silver piece, the dirhem, was almost exactly the double of the denier, and seems to have been widely current in the north. The new coinage spread from France, where it was first royal and then royal and feudal, to Germany, Italy, where the Byzantine types did not wholly disappear, England, Scandinavia, Castile and Aragon. In Germany and France feudal money was soon issued, and in Italy towns and ecclesiastical foundations largely acquired from the empire the right of coinage, which was elsewhere rare. The consequence of the extended right of coinage was a depreciation in weight, and in the middle of the 12th century the one-sided pennies called bracteates appeared in Germany, which were so thin that they could only be stamped on one side. The types of this whole second coinage are new, except when the bust of the emperor is engraved. The most usual are the cross; and the church as a temple also appears, ultimately taking the form of a Gothic building. There are also sacred figures, and more rarely heads in the later age.
3. The true herald of the Renaissance was the emperor Frederick II. In restoring the gold coinage, however, he followed in the steps of the Norman dukes of Apulia. With a large Arab population, these princes had found it convenient to continue Of early Renaissance. the Oriental gold money of the country, part of the great currency at that time of all the western Moslems, and Roger II. (1130–1154) also struck Latin coins of his own as DVX APVḶIAE, the first ducats. Frederick II. (1215–1250), continuing the Arab coinage, also struck his own Roman gold money, solidi and half solidi, with his bust as emperor of the Romans, Caesar Augustus, and on the reverse the imperial eagle (Pl. III. fig. 7). In workmanship these were the finest coins produced in the middle ages. But the calamities which overwhelmed the Swabian house and threw back the Renaissance deprived this effort of any weight, and it was left to the great republics to carry out the idea of a worthy coinage—a necessity of their large commercial schemes. The famous gold florin was first issued in 1252 (Pl. III. fig. 8). The obverse type is the standing figure of St John the Baptist, the reverse bears the lily of Florence. The weight was about 54 grains, but the breadth of the coin and the beauty of the work gave it dignity. The commercial greatness of Florence and the purity of the florin caused the issue of similar coins in almost all parts of Europe. Venice was not long in striking (in 1284) a gold coin of the same weight as the florin, but with the types of a standing figure of Christ, and the doge receiving the gonfalon at the hands of St Mark (see Pl. III. fig. 9). It was first called the ducat, the name it always bears in its inscription; later it is known as the zecchino or sequin. Though not so largely imitated as the florin, the extreme purity of the sequin was unquestioned to a time within the memory of living persons. Genoa likewise had a great gold currency, and the other Italian states struck in this metal. It is significant of the power of the Italian republics that the later Mameluke Sultans of Egypt found it convenient or necessary for their position between Europe and India to adopt the weight of the florin and sequin for their gold money. Many varieties of gold money appear in course of time in France, England and to a less extent in other countries. The need for a heavier silver coinage caused the issue of the large denier (grossus denarius, gros or groat). This coin appears early in the 14th century. The types from the 14th century onwards are very various and distinctly worthy of the art of the time, which as yet is purely decorative and conventional, so that portraits are not possible. The religious intention also is gradually giving way to the desire to produce a beautiful result, and the symbol of the cross is varied to suit the decorative needs of the coin. Heraldic subjects also a pear, and in the shield, which is frequently a reverse type, we see the origin of the usual modern reverse of the most important coins.
4, 5. With the classical Renaissance we find ourselves in the
presence of modern ideas. The elaborate systems of coinage of the
various states of Europe are soon to begin, and the
prevalence of a general currency to become for the time
Of classical Renaissance,
and modern.
impossible. Silver money now gains new importance with
the issue of the thaler or dollar in Germany, in 1518.
This great coin speedily became the chief European
piece in its metal, but as it was coined of various weights and
varying purity it failed to acquire the general character of the denier.
The style of this age is at first excellent. The medals gave the tone
to the coinage. Art had wholly thrown off the rules of the age before
and attained the faculty of portraiture and the power of simply
representing objects of nature and art. Great masters now executed
medals and even coins, but speedily this work became a mere matter
of commerce, and by the beginning of the modern period it was fast
falling into the poverty and barbarism in which it has ever since
remained. The details of the numismatics of these two periods
belong to the notices of the money of the several countries.
A word must be added on money of account. While the denier was the chief and practically the sole coin, the solidus passed from use as a foreign piece into a money of account. The solidus, like the German schilling (shilling), contained Money of account. usually 12 deniers. As there were 20 shillings to the pound of silver, we obtain the reckoning by £ s. d., librae, solidi and denarii. The pound as a weight contained 12 oz., and its two-thirds was the German mark of 8 oz.
It would be interesting, did space permit, to notice fully the art of this entire class, to examine its growth, and to trace its decline; but, as with that of Greek and Roman coins, we must mainly limit ourselves to the best period. This is a space Art. of about a hundred and fifty years, the age of the classical Renaissance, from the middle of the 15th century to the close of the 16th. The finest works are limited to the first half-century of this period, from a little before 1450 to about 1500, in Italy, and for as long a time, beginning and ending somewhat later, in Germany. The artists were then greater than afterwards, and medal-making had not degenerated into a trade; but with the larger production of the period following the work was more mechanical, and so fell into the hands of inferior men. The medals of this first period may not unworthily be placed by the side of its sculpture and its painting. Not only have some of its medallists taken honourable places in a list where there was no room for ignoble names, but to design medals was not thought an unworthy occupation for the most famous artists. There are, as we should expect, two principal schools, the Italian and the German. The former attained a higher excellence, as possessing not merely a nobler style but one especially adapted to coins or medals. The object which the artists strove to attain was to present a portrait or to commemorate an action in the best manner possible, without losing sight of the fitness of the designs to the form and use of the piece on which they were to be placed. For the successful attainment of this purpose the style of the later pre-Raphaelites was eminently suited. Its general love of truth, symmetrical grouping, simple drapery and severely faithful portraiture were qualities especially fitted to produce a fine portrait and a good medal. It is to be noted that their idea of portraiture did not depend on such a feeling for beauty as influenced the Greeks. Rather did it set before it the moral or intellectual attainments and capabilities, what the Italians called the virtù, of the subject. The German art, as seen in the medals, is mostly the work of carvers in wood or honestone, or goldsmiths. It excels in vigorous, realistic portraiture, and in decorative treatment of heraldic subjects, but is lacking in breadth of style and in the imagination shown by the best Italian medallists. Both these schools, but especially the Italian, afford the best foundation for a truly excellent modern medallic art. The finest coins and medals of Italy and Germany have an object similar to that which it is sought to fulfil in the English, and their nearness in time makes many details entirely appropriate. Thus, without blindly imitating them, modern artists may derive from them the greatest aid.
There are some delicately beautiful Italian medals of the 16th century, too closely imitated from the Roman style. A vigorous realistic school, the only great one of modern times, arose in France before the close of the 16th century and lasted into the next. It was rendered illustrious by Dupré and the inferior but still powerful Warin. From this age until the time of Napoleon there is nothing worthy of note. The style of his medallists is the weak classical manner then in vogue, but yet is superior to what went before and what has followed.
It is not intended here to enter in any detail into the various divisions of the subject already treated in its main outlines. The questions that would require consideration are of too complicated and technical a nature to be illustrated within reasonable limits; the principal matters of inquiry may, however, be indicated.
We begin with a survey of the transitional coinages in the various countries of the West. They cover the period from the 5th to the 8th centuries, and are of immense historical significance. The types throughout are monotonous: Transitional coinages. the bust of a Roman emperor or local ruler, a cross of some kind, a Victory, &c. The style is quite barbarous. The classification of the earliest servile imitations of Roman and Byzantine money rests solely upon provenance and is uncertain. The following general series are distinguished: (A) The Vandals (in Africa, 428–534) issued gold (?), silver and bronze from Hunneric (477–484) to Gelamir (530–534); the gold is anonymous. (B) The Suevians (Spain, 409–585) had little but imitations of
