The later medieval and modern coinages of continental Europe

Coinage began in Portugal, after the expulsion of the Moors, with Afonso I (1128–85), whose gold maravedis, copied from the gold of the Berber Almoravids, retained certain Arab features in design. Some base silver was also struck. Rights of coinage were, from the start, reserved to the kings, almost exclusively. Peter I (1357–67) reformed the coinage on the basis of the gold dobra of about 4.9 grams, with types copied from those of contemporary France: obverse, king enthroned; reverse, ornamental cross. There was a similarly imitative silver gros tournois (based on the weight standard of Tours, Fr.). Peter’s successors developed his system. Copper was struck from the 15th century. From the 16th to the 18th century, gold was coined in quantity and in denominations of handsome size down to the half-escudo. In the 19th century the basic gold denomination was the crown. In the 20th century token denominations (in terms of centavos) have prevailed in various alloys, though silver was introduced in 1954 for the 10-escudo piece and for certain purely commemorative issues.

As in Portugal, the coinage struck after the expulsion of the Moors was almost without exception regal. That of Navarre started under Sancho III Garcés (c. 1000–35) with deniers of Carolingian influence. The series of Castile and León began with similar pieces under Alfonso VI (1065–1109), and that of Aragon under Sancho Ramírez (1063–94). Among the earliest gold was that of Alfonso VIII of Castile (1158–1214), copying an Arab gold dinar but with Christian professions in its Arabic script. Gold portrait doblas appeared under Sancho IV of Castile and León in the 13th century, and the portraiture under Pedro I in the 14th was of high quality. Gold coinage multiplied in the 15th century, with Henry IV coining huge pieces of superb Gothic style; silver and billon were also in good supply. The union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon in 1479, and subsequently the influx of American precious metals, resulted in an abundant coinage in gold (the excelente and its multiples) and silver (the real and its multiples)—the silver piece of eight being the famous Spanish dollar. This last denomination enjoyed enormously wide currency, and its type (obverse, royal portrait; reverse, Pillars of Hercules with PLVS VLTRA on scroll) was universally known.

The dynasty of Hugh Capet (987–996) made no immediate change in the previous Carolingian coinage system: deniers and their halves, the oboles, continued, but tended to decline in fineness. Feudal deniers began to appear in abundance beyond Capet’s kingdom of north central France; the most important and numerous were issued from the 10th century by the abbey of St. Martin at Tours, with a “castle” type destined to exert wide influence. This monnaie tournois was lighter than the royal monnaie parisis (based on the Paris weight standard), generally in the ratio 4:5. Louis IX in and after 1262 reformed the coinage. The sou became in 1266 the silver gros tournois, 23 24 fine and weighing about four grams; its types continued the “castle” of the denier tournois but with concentric inscription and ornament frequently imitated. With this there appeared a gold écu, with the royal lilies on a shield. Subsequent development down to the 15th century emphasized more and larger gold denominations; silver continued, often debased. Design reached magnificent heights of Gothic splendour, seen in the masse d’or (“sceptre of gold”), mouton d’or (“Paschal Lamb”), ange d’or (“angel of gold”), and franc d’or (franc [“free”], a term first applied to a coin of John II, minted in 1360 to commemorate his ransom from the English). The Anglo-Gallic issues of the time were comparably beautiful. Feudal coinage was severely limited, that of Brittany and (at first) Aquitaine being most important. Types in Aquitaine later showed some English influence, while in the gold of Provence that of the Florentine florin was noticeable. In the 16th century broad, thick silver coins were adopted, familiarized by the testons (from testone, which means “head”) of Italy; these, together with the gold écus, set the general pattern.

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Louis XIII silver ecu blanc (louis d’argent), Paris, 1643. The dies for the coin were engraved by Jean Warin.

Reproduced with permission of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, Ray Gardner for the Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited

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The gold vieil heaume of Louis de Mâle, count of Flanders, 1367, one of the largest Flemish gold coins; in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England. Diameter 35 mm.

Courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Collection of Professor P. Grierson

Early in the 17th century the use of machinery for coining was the subject of experiments by Nicolas Briot; both he and Jean Warin were famous for their technique and style under Louis XIII. The late 17th and 18th centuries, though their coinage was of considerable external magnificence, were not devoid of monetary difficulty. Louis XV suppressed independent local minting, Strasbourg being the last provincial mint to survive, though royal branch mints continued. Under the Revolution Louis XVI coined first as constitutional king, in gold, silver, and copper; but from 1793 the issues were wholly republican, with the inscriptions République français, Liberté, etc., and the symbols (cap of liberty, cock) that have survived in modern French coinage. The precious metals were in short supply; gold and silver were demonetized and paper took their place, together with copper. In 1793 the decimal system was adopted, in terms of francs, decimes, and centimes, coins now being dated by the Revolutionary era; gold coinage was effectively lacking until the time of Napoleon. From 1866 France was joined with Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland in a monetary convention defining the denominations, quality, and weight of gold and silver coinage in terms of francs. In the 20th century alloys were introduced, and the Vichy government of Henri-Philippe Pétain also used zinc, iron, and aluminum. From 1950 paper money was increasingly replaced by alloy coins, the “heavy” revalued franc being introduced in 1959.

In Merovingian and Carolingian periods a few mints operated in the Low Countries. Subsequently the area was divided among a number of dukes, counts, seigneurs, and ecclesiastics. In the 16th century the Low Countries passed to the House of Austria, and the daalder (dollar) appeared. English military operations were accompanied by the issue of gold pieces. The 16th century produced some remarkable siege pieces from Amsterdam, Bergen op Zoom, and elsewhere. With the establishment of the Kingdom of Holland under Louis Napoleon in 1806, coinage began to conform with that of the Napoleonic empire. Belgium emerged as an independent kingdom in 1831, and in 1860 adopted a cupronickel alloy for its French- or Flemish-inscribed or bilingual coinage.