The money of Ireland is more scanty and of less importance than
that of Scotland. The pieces most worthy of notice are the silver
pennies of the early Danish kings, the earliest being that
of Sihtric III. (989–1029), copied from contemporary
English pennies. The Anglo-Irish coinage begins in 1177, when John
as lord of Ireland received the right of coinage. A copper coinage
Ireland.
was introduced as early as the reign of Henry VI. The quality of the
Irish coinage was exceedingly poor in the 16th century, especially
under Elizabeth. Between 1642 and 1647 various kinds of money
of necessity were issued, including the only gold Irish coin, the
Inchiquin pistole. After his expulsion from England James II.
issued enormous quantities of coins of necessity made of gunmetal
or pewter. The latest Irish coins were the penny and halfpenny of
1822.
The Isle of Man had a regular copper coinage, beginning in 1709 with pence and halfpence under the Derby family, continued by James, duke of Athol (issue of 1758), and by the English sovereigns from 1786 to 1864. The badge of the island is the three-legged symbol, with the motto Quocunque jeceris stabit.Isle of Man.
Belgium occupies the next place in our arrangement. Its coinage, which, except for the few mints operating under the Merovingians and Carolingians, 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 Belgium and Holland. important coinages are those of the house of Burgundy and Charles V. and his son, and of the bishops of Liége. In character the coinage of Belgium approximates to the French on the one side, the German on the other. About 1400 the Burgundian school produced a remarkable series of medals representing Roman emperors, of which two (those of Constantine and Heraclius) have come down to us; these form a link between the late Roman medallion and the Italian medal of the Renaissance. The series of Holland is similar in character until the period of the revolt of the provinces. The Dutch dollars of the 16th to the 18th centuries had an immense circulation (see Pl. V. fig. 3). Among the early Dutch medallists must be mentioned Stephen H., generally without reason known as Stephen of Holland (working 1558–1572), whose portraits show great charm. The Dutch historical medals are of great interest, more especially those which were struck by the Protestants in commemoration of current events. There is also a remarkable series of bronze medallets or jettons, which form a continuous commentary on history during the 16th and early part of the 17th centuries. Both are interesting as largely illustrating not only local events but also those of the chief European states. Such are the pieces recording the raising of the siege of Leiden, likened to the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, the assassination of William the Silent, and the discomfiture of the Armada, affording striking indications of the zeal, the piety and the confidence in the right which built up the great political structure of the Dutch republic. After this time the medals lose much of their interest.
The money of Switzerland illustrates the varying fortunes of this central state, and the gradual growth of the stronghold of European freedom. 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 Switzerland. the coinage of the empire, are issued by fewer mints; the dukes of Swabia began to strike at Zurich in the 10th century, and the empire granted during the 10th and to the 13th 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 11th century, and about 1125 is superseded by the true bracteate, which lasts until about 1300. The 14th century 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 medieval and modern periods. The separate cantonal coinage, interrupted by the French occupation, was finally suppressed in 1848, when a uniform currency was adopted by the whole republic. The monetary systems of the cantonal and ecclesiastical mints were extremely complicated. This was partly due to the variety of coins, partly to the debasement practised by the ecclesiastical mints. Geneva had a peculiar system of her own.
Italy, with Sicily, has peculiar features. Here the barbaric 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 conquest left its mark in the curious Oriental coinages of the Normans of Modern Italy and Sicily. Sicily and the emperor Frederick II., mixed after his fashion with Latin coinage. The earliest money is that of the barbarians, Ostrogoths and Lombards, and local Byzantine issues in Sicily. This is followed by the deniers of Charlemagne and his successors, supplanted 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 Italian monetary systems have already been touched on in the introductory notice. For art the series is invaluable. First in Italy the revival influenced the coins, and in them every step of advance found its record. The Italian medals are without rivals in the works of modern times.
Following the geographical order which is best suited to the Italian coinage, we first notice the money of Savoy, which is inferior in art to that of the rest of the country. It begins with Umberto II. (1080); in 1720 the dukes became kings of Sardinia, and their coinage merged eventually in 1861 in that of the kingdom of Italy. Genoa is the first of the great republics. She obtained the right of coinage from Conrad II. in 1139, and struck gold coins from the time of the general origin of civic coinage in that metal; these are ducats and their divisions, and after a time their multiples also. In the 17th century there are very large silver pieces. In the money of Mantua there are fine coins of Gianfrancesco III. (1484–1519) and Vincenzo II. (1627–1628), these last splendid examples of the late Renaissance, large pieces of gold and silver; the portrait is fine, and the hound on the reverse a powerful design. The vicissitudes of the story of Milan find their record in no less than ten groups of money—Lombard regal coins, Carolingian deniers, money of the republic (1260–1310), next of the Visconti family (1329–1447), succeeded by the republic (1447–1450) and by the Sforza line, next of Louis XII. and Francis I. of France, of the restored Sforza, of Charles V. by Spanish right and his successors of Spain, and lastly of Austria. There are extremely fine coins of the 15th century, showing great beauty in their portraits (see Pl. III. fig. 22). The money of Florence is disappointing in its art. The Athens of the middle ages had the same reason as her prototype to preserve as faithfully as might be the types and aspect of her most famous coin, the gold florin (see Pl. III. fig. 8), and thus those who expect to see in this series the story of Italian art will be much disappointed. 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 thenceforward 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. In the 14th century the arms of a moneyer appear in the field, two such officers have had the right of striking yearly, each for six months. The coins of the duchy from 1532, in spite of their new types, are not a fine series; the best are those of Alessandro, designed by Cellini.
Venice as a mint even surpasses Florence in conservatism, and, the early style being distinctly Byzantine, this is the more striking in a great artistic city. We find Venice as an imperial mint issuing Carolingian deniers, but the doges begin to coin, placing their own names on their currency, in the 12th century.
