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

424 The Coins of Europe
European countries, an enormous volume of material and
an almost embarrassing range of choice ;
and it is this
experience which induces many to work on special lines
either in regard to period or locality, to types or treatment.
Perhaps the prevailing bias is toward the Popes, the Franco-
Italian series, Venice, Savoy, or Florence, in nearly all of
which historical and artistic interest are combined, and there
is the supplemental recommendation of rarity and costliness.
The papal coinage would be sufficient to engross the
attention of an amateur, who might seek to accomplish
completeness in the early J
denari from the
The
eighth
Popes. . .
, i
century, and in those pieces which owe their value
to the brevity of reigns or to the limited issue of money
in the more precious metals. 1 The acquisition of the large
silver denominations prior to Clement X. in fine state,
and of all the copper down to quite recent times, is, however,
a task of no mean difficulty. The interregnal periods
(1049-1362 and 1527-28) furnish an assortment of coins
of a secular character struck in the name of the Roman
Senate, of Brancaleone d'Andalo, Charles of Anjou, Charles
V., of anonymous senators, and of the tribune Rienzi
( I 347-48), and some interesting and rare siege-money. The
first pontiff who issued copper appears to have been Innocent
VIII. (1484-92), of whom there is a piece from the mint
at Aquila, usually described as a cavallo. There is a considerable
aggregate of sede vacante pieces, generally of good
execution and of limited extent ;
and as we approach the
of Pius VI.
present century, some of the money of necessity
and of the Roman Republic pending the crisis of 1798-99,
and the coinages of such brief reigns as Leo XII. and Pius
VIII., are desiderata. To the republic belonging to the
latest years of the last century we have to assign, among
other productions, a remarkable piece of 2^ baiocchi, 1796,
with a head of St. Peter to left on obverse, the keys in his
hand, and the legend Apostolorvin Princeps.
The numismatic series of Pius IX. (1846-78) is
long, and
the examples, for the most part, plentiful. The last pontiff
1
See the Catalogue of Mints, v. " Rome."