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

58 The Coins of Europe
rivalled the finest Greek work ;
but the men who were
patronised by the great mediaeval families of the Peninsula
were in the presence of conditions and restraints unknown
to their predecessors.
The Greek feeling and taste revealed itself in the
Roman consular or family series, but was gradually lost in
the imperial one, more especially in the decadence of the
reverses. Even in the consular coinage, however, the
delineation of the human figure already exhibited a marked
declension from the high standard of fine Greek art,
although bust-portraits and inanimate objects are rendered
with equal success and felicity.
Again, the Byzantine corruption of the debased Roman
type, spreading itself after the fall of the western division
of the empire over the greater part of Europe, and affected
in its
progress by climatic, local, and religious influences,
penetrated on the one hand to Bulgaria, Servia, and Muscovy,
where we discern it in the coins of the grand duchy of
Kief, while on the other it found its way westward to
Venice and other parts of Italy, to the Two Sicilies, France,
Spain, England, and the Low Countries, where it formed
the basis of the so-called Merovingian family of gold and
silver pieces, but more particularly of coins in the more
precious metal equivalent in weight and value to the third
part of a Byzantine solidus.
The variations and disparity observable in the abundant
remains of the Merovingian money are to be attributed,
perhaps, to the character of the colonial or provincial coinage
of Greece and Rome, with which the mediaeval copyists
were brought into contact, to the degree of success in
reproducing originals, and to gradual improvement
in conducting
the processes of fabrication during the course of
centuries.
At the same time, the types of many of the ancient
specimens of continental currency were advisedly or insensibly
adapted to local characteristics and peculiarities, and
were broadly governed by the predominance of military and
feudal sentiment. Even before any idea of introducing a