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

Catalogue of European Denominations 233
*Shakee, Turkish, silver, value 3^d.
* Shustack, German money of account in Prussia, Poland, etc.
Siege-money, or Money of Necessity, pieces struck in all metals (gold,
silver, copper, lead, tin), and even in leather and paper or vellum, from
the Middle Ages. One of the doges of Venice in the I2th c. is said to
have issued leather tokens during an expedition in the Levant for the payment
of his fleet. This class of currency was of all forms, often square,
and usually for artificial or abnormal values. Gold was seldom employed,
and some of the siege-money in that metal is spurious. The
earliest, perhaps, was the gold ducat or florin struck at Vienna in 1529
during the Turkish blockade, with a rough portrait of Ferdinand I. In
the course of the present Catalogue, and of that of Mints, a large
number of the known examples is given but the
; monograph of Maillet
is naturally more complete. It should be observed that money of necessity
is of two. descriptions that issued by the besieger and : by the besieged ;
the latter only belongs to the locality itself. Comp. Feldthaler. In
February 1573-74, during the struggle against Spain, William of Nassau,
as Stadtholder, directed. the magistrates of Holland, Zeeland, and West
Friesland, to countermark all pieces in circulation above 7 grooten or
a i real with an artificial and higher value, the difference being treated
as a loan to the States for one year. Both prior to this date and long
subsequently, the practice of counter-marking the money of all countries
to pass current in the Netherlands seems to have extensively prevailed.
The perturbed and precarious condition of the States checked the output
of ordinary currency.
Silica, or Siliqua, and the half, a denomination in base silver of the
Gothic and Lombard Kings of Italy (5th-8th c.). Those of the former
dynasty bear the names of Roman emperors on the obv., and on rev. the
monogram of the Gothic sovereign, the object being to introduce a
Uniface Lombard silica or half silica, 7th c.
change of rulers only by degrees. Whelan " says
:
Siliqua. The carob
bean. The carat weight."
Sixain, the moiety of the douzain, q.v. Francis I.
(1515-47) struck
the sixain a la salamandre couronnee, and we find the denomination
mentioned in the ordinance of Charles V. of Spain, 1528, relative to the