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

498 The Coins of Europe
has been greatly improved by the researches of M. Robert,
whose papers on the subject and well-known Catalogue
(1886) represent the best means which we possess of studying
this enormous body of monuments, so infinitely varied in
their character and aspect, and forming a sort of link between
the French and German schools of workmanship and feeling.
The numerous places of origin, of which the earliest were
Saint -Die, Remiremont, and Nancy, do not necessarily
account for diversity of pattern, as the same moneyer frequently
officiated at several points but the changes of taste
;
and development of art and heraldry, even within the most
prosperous period alone the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
are quite sufficient to explain the presence of manifold
varieties, of which that where an armed hand, issuing
from a cloud, grasps a sword,, was copied from the banner of
Rene II., and commemorated the war between Lorraine and
Burgundy. It was this prince (14/3-1508) to whom we
owe the introduction of a new gold ecu in. place of the old
Florentine type employed by the Dukes of Bar, as well as of
with the duke on horseback and the
the grand ecu d' argent,
date 1488 the first instance of the notation of the year of
issue. His immediate successor, Antoine (i 508-44), followed
some of his types, and may be, perhaps, considered as having
brought the coinage to its highest perfection, and having
witnessed the best period of independence and power. The
French occupation from 1634 to 1661 led to the complex
anomaly of three parallel currencies : that of the invaders
an ; anonymous local issue on behalf of the Duke
Nicole Francois and certain
;
pieces struck by the latter during
his exile at Florence. This political episode was a
foretaste of what was to come ;
and the later rulers of
Lorraine in a manner prepared their subjects
for the future
1
by resorting to French rather than Teutonic models.
Metz was a busy and prominent monetary centre long
prior even to the existence of the duchy, within whose limits
1
The titles of Duke of Gueldres and King of Sicily and Jerusalem on some
of the Lorraine series under Rene or Renaud II., 1473-1508, etc., appear to have
been temporarily borne jure uxoris.