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

Introduction 45
The use of copper as a material for currency has been
uninterrupted from the earliest coinage of the Greeks in that
metal to the present day. The British and Northumbrian
series, running concurrently with the Byzantine money, were
followed by the curious pieces struck for
Hungary, the
Norman kingdom of Sicily, and for certain feudal possessions
in Germany and the Netherlands. In the fifteenth century
Italy, Spain, and Portugal began to employ the metal ;
we
have tolerably abundant examples of the Papacy, Venice,
Castile, and Arragon, and the earlier Portuguese kings.
From this period the supply has been more or less copious,
and the continuity unbroken. But it
may be observed that
among the latest countries to adopt copper were France,
Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and (after the cessation
of the Northumbrian mint) Great Britain, unless we consider
the Gaulish copies of Roman brass as entering into the same
category as the stycas of Northumbria and the copper and
tin pieces of Southern Britain ;
and again there is
always, the
doubt to which side of the Channel many of these latter
examples owed their first rise.
An interesting feature in the copper series of any country
is that they were essentially for popular use, and above all
so in cases where daily commodities were obtainable for low
denominations, and the public call
for articles of higher price
was chronically restricted. When the primitive nature of
exchange, first by barter and secondly by bullion, was
partially superseded by the employment of tokens (inonetce) of
fixed and recognised value, apart from weight, copper soon
came into use as a medium for retail trade, and the importance
of a trustworthy and uniform standard was discerned
by the Romans, who by law required the sanction of the
Senate for issues in this metal, though not in the others. It
was the money of the people, and was the principal factor in
supplying their common wants, as well as in furnishing the
pay of the soldier. The vast quantity of small brass
pieces of Roman fabric still existing, and the innumerable
mints from which they issued, demonstrates the
enormous demand for them at the time ;
and during