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

342 The Coins of Eiirope
been continued beyond the following reign. It is on the
money of Bela that the name of the country first appears in
full ;
and he describes himself indifferently as Dux Ungarie
and Rex Sclavonic. The gold coinage of Hungary seems to
have commenced about I 309 with Charles Robert of Anjou,
who issued a florin or ducat = 200 denarii or 400 obuli, on
the model of those of Florence ;
and the series was carried
down to the present time by his successors the rulers ot
Hungary and Austria- Hungary. Of the celebrated Matthias
Corvinus (1458-90), founder of the Library at Buda, there
are at least two types, which we ascribe to the mint at
Jagerndorf or Carnow and the
;
original Italian prototype was
gradually lost, the Hungarian piece serving in its turn as a
pattern for the moneyers of Italy and the Netherlands. On
the ducats of Corvinus, as on some of the early Bavarian
currency, one side presents the name of a canonised monarch
Gold ducat of Corvinus.
centuries after his death ;
and we find pieces struck in the
name of the Waiwode of Bosnia, as legate of the Hungarian
crown, styling him Vicar of the Kingdom of Lladislas. It
may be interesting to note that the effigy of St. Lladislas
holding a globe, found on one of the early types, resembles
the pattern on the reverses of certain Bolognese scudi of the
fourteenth century, and this conception survived in the more
modern orb.
Down to the time of Lladislas VI. (1490-1516) the
currency consisted of the gold florin, the grossus or grosch,
denarius, obulus and half obulus in silver, and perhaps the
old copper money above mentioned, unless it was withdrawn.
Between this epoch and the annexation to Austria,
which did not come into full effect till the end of the sixteenth
century, the thaler was added, with its divisions and