W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

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Catalogue of European Mints 129
identity is open to question or positively incapable of settlement. See
Blanchet, Manuel de Numismatique, 1 890, i. 42-100. The names of known
places are comparatively very few, and comprise Avignon, Avranches,
Aachen, or Aix-la-Chapelle, Amboise, Amiens, Angers, Le Puy, Clermont-
Ferrand, Strasburgh, Arras, Aire, Autun, Orleans, Auxerre, Bayeux,
Bourges, Brienne, Bordeaux, Chalons -sur-Saone, Cahors, Cambrai,
Chartres, Le Mans, Dijon, Dorostadt or Durstede, Angouleme, Jumieges,
Geneva, Grenoble, Lausanne, Limoges, Laon, Lyons, Marsal, Marseilles,
Macon, Melun, Meaux, Melle, Metz, Mayence, Namur, Nantes, Nevers,
Paris, Poictiers, Rennes, Segrais, St. Denis, Sens, Souvigny, Soissons,
Toulouse, Tournai, Troyes, Treves, Maestricht, Toul, Tours, Gap, Vannes,
Besan5on, Vienne, Vendome, Verdun, Vue, Arthon, Saint - Philbertde-Grandlieu,
Le Port-Saint-Pere, etc. Besides these more or less considerable
centres, there were numerous other points where this coinage
took place, alike in France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany, not to
add England in some instances the
;
place of mintage is doubtful, and in
a few it is not mentioned, and on the whole we support the theory that the
moneyers adopted the principle of going on circuit, and striking and
stamping at each stage a certain quota of bullion or bar-metal, according
to instructions or treaty, for fiscal and other purposes. The description of
the localities where this monetary system was carried out certainly
favours the hypothesis that the coinage was the work of functionaries
constantly or periodically removing from point to point, and making it
part of their office to enable the tax-payer in a town, village, manor,
domain, curtilage, or in fact assessed settlement of any kind, to pay his
quota in a convenient medium. The abundance and variety of the trientes
seem to tend to a proof that an immense aggregate of these small
pieces was struck at different times, rather than that any considerable
output took place at a single juncture or locality. Whatever is to be
said of the triens in its day, and of the gold florin of Florence and the
Venetian ducat, when the latter appeared at the dawn of a revival of
enterprise and commerce, the financial importance and interest of all
these pieces were very considerable ;
and we ought perhaps to add the
florin tfor and other gold types of Louis IX., a coin which may be
regarded as contemporaneous with the gold issues of the two Italian
republics, though perfectly different in fabric and character. In regard
to the Florentine and Venetian movement, it is obvious that the primary
considerations were the establishment of a standard and the possession of
a gold currency politically and religiously associated with the State.
It was an additional security for trade and a crowning symbol of
autonomy. About 580
it is
supposed that Gontran, King of Burgundy,
and also Gondovald, who succeeded or displaced him, struck the tremissis
in Burgundy and Provence, the latter doing so in the name of the Emperor
Maurice Tiberius, assassinated in 582. Comp. Merovingian Money in
Cat. of Denom.
Merseburg, capital of a circle of Prussian Saxony, the seat of a mint
in 973, and of continuous coinage down to the I7th c. Pieces, at first of
the bracteate fabric, bear a figure of St. Laurence, or a bishop's head and
Merseb, or, still later (1622), a cock and MB.
Messerano, Piedmont, an ancient principality of the Fieschi family,
which, either here or at Crevacuore, struck a long series of coins in silver,
billon, and copper from the I5th to the iyth c. The largest denomination
was the silver tallero, first introduced here by Francesco Filiberto
Ferrero Fieschi, 1588-1629.
K