The half-crowns of the gun-money gradually diminished in size, as the metal began to fail; and, as the date of the month was placed upon them, the gradual decrease can be traced through all its phases. This occurred from June 1689 to July 1690. In 1690, the white metal crowns were issued, and other crowns of gun-metal in the same year, which were reduced to the size of the original half-crowns, from which they are only distinguished by having no month mark upon them.

The crowns of white metal are very scarce. The types are James on horseback on the obverse, and the arms on the reverse; on the obverse the legend contains the regal titles he had lost; and the reverse has CHRISTO · VICTORE · TRIVMPHO; and on the edge, MELIORIS TESSERA · FATI · ANNO REGNI SEXTO.

He issued, at the same time, pence and halfpence of lead mixed with tin; and after his defeat, and escape from Ireland, a few halfpence were struck by his adherents in Limerick, which were, from the type of the reverse, called Hibernias.

The patent granted to William Wood, in 1772, for coining halfpence and farthings for Ireland, excited great discontent, as he coined them much smaller than the size stipulated for in the patent. The coins are, however, of very good execution, and bear a better portrait of George I. than any found upon the English copper coinage.

In the reign of George II., in 1737, Irish halfpence and farthings were issued, of the same size and weight as the English copper, with the harp on the reverse, and the portrait as principal type, with the same titles as on the English coinage.

In 1760, coins being very scarce, a company of gentlemen obtained leave to issue a coinage of halfpence, upon which the legend "Voce Populi " appeared round the head of the Sovereign, which, it is said, was, in fact, a portrait of the Pretender, though done in the usual manner of the portraits of the King,

No gold or silver was coined in Ireland since the abolitica of the mint, established by Charles I. in 1640.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE COINAGE OF THE FOREIGN STATES OF MODERN EUROPE, ASIA, AND AMERICA.

COINS OF MODERN ITALY.

WE have seen how the coinage of Italy became gradually depreciated as the Western Empire of Rome crumbled beneath the repeated barbaric invasions; and also how the privilege of independent coinage was conferred upon Gaul and Spain by the emperors of the East.

In Italy, after the extinction of the race of Gothic kings, the coins of the exarchs of Ravenna appear as viceroys of the emperors of the East. These coins are only small copper, and generally bear the inscription FELIX RAVENNA.

The gold and silver of the eastern empire were found to form a sufficient circulation in those metals for Italy.

His

The Lombards, who subdued the north of Italy, 572, A.D., and occupied it for two centuries, have left no coinage to record their rule; and we find no Italian coin belonging properly to the modern series till the issues of Charlemagne, at Milan, about 780. He also struck coins at Rome. Milanese coins have a cross, and on the reverse the monogram of Carolus, with MEDIOL. These types of Milanese coins are found of successive German emperors, till the 13th century.

About the period of Charlemagne, the modern Italian coinage of silver pennies commences, founded, like that of France, Spain, and England, on the old Roman denarius, and bearing corruptions of that name in the two first-named countries, as well as Italy, while in England, and the northern countries, other denominations were ultimately adopted.

Soon after the time of Charlemagne, the counts or local governors of towns and provinces became more or less inde pendent, and their offices very generally hereditary. These

LL

petty governors all issued coin, and a detailed account, therefore, or even an outline of the progress of all the various coinages of modern Europe, would occupy many ponderous volumes; a few examples only, can therefore be glanced at.

The modern independent coinage of the city of Rome, under the popes, began, like most others, with a series of silver pennies, the first being those of Pope Hadrian, from 771 to 795, A. D., who received the privilege from Charlemagne. This modern Roman series has generally the name of the pope on one side, and SCVS PETRVS on the other. Some few have rude portraits, such as those of Benedict II., Sergius III., John X., Agapetus II., &c., &c.

For above a century, from 975 to 1099, there are no coins except those of Leo IX. From Paschal II. to Benedict XI., 1303, the Popes having no power in Rome, the pennies are of the Roman people, bearing on one side a rude figure of St. Peter, with ROMAN PRINCIPE, and on the other SENAT. POPVL Q R, accompanied by the name in succession of the chief senator, who was then governor of the city of Rome. Some have also the arms of this personage, as on the coins of Brancaleo, 1253, which have a lion on one side, with BRACALEO S P Q R ; and on the other side, a female figure, with a crown, a globe, and a palm-branch, and the legend, ROMA CAPVT MVNDI, &c., &c. Charles of Anjou, when elected Senator of Rome, issued coins with the inscription

.

Coin of Charles of Anjou, as Senator of Rome.

A few of the Popes issued patrimonial coins, with PATRIMONIVM; but in general the coinage of the Popes, up

to a very recent period, may be considered as that of a series of bishops, like that of the Bishops of Metz, Liège, &c., &c.; or even those of the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, in Saxon times.

Of Clement V., there are groats, with his portrait, threequarters length, as of nearly all his successors, till Sextus IV., in 1470,-with whose coinage the profile portraits begin, as they do in England with his contemporary, Henry VII. The first gold coinage of modern Rome is of the reign of John XXII., 1316. After this period the coinage of the Eternal City begins to improve rapidly in excellence of execution, the money of the infamous Alexander VI., the luxurious Julius II., and the politic Leo X., being as remarkable for fine execution as any of the period. The larger silver, the scudi, &c.—equivalent to our crowns,—and the German thalers, first appear in those reigns.

In Milan, the first remarkable coins, after the series of the German emperors, are those of the Visconti, the independent dukes of Milan. The first are those of Azo, 1330. Ludovico il Mauro has on his coinage the legend LVDOVICVS. M⚫ SF. ANGLVS. DVX MLI, the meaning of ANGLVS has not as yet been satisfactorily explained.

The coinage of Florence is celebrated as being the first to introduce the general use of gold, which commenced as early as 1252, a century earlier than the famous issue of gold nobles in this country. These gold pieces, which bore on one side the Florentine lily for principal type, and on the other a figure of St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the city, were imitated first by the French, and the Popes, then by the Germans and English, and were the first gold coins issued in Europe after the eighth century.*

The first copies of the Florentine gold not only bore the name of Florins, from that of the city where they were first issued, but also their types; nothing but the legend or inscription being changed. At a later period, however, though the name florin was still preserved, the national types of the countries in which they were issued

The gold triens of the Merovingian kings of Gaul and the Gothic kings of Spain is the gold money alluded to, as preceding the florin in modern Europe,

gradually superseded those of Florence. These Florentine gold coins bore around the standing figure of St. John the legend S IOHANNES B, and round the large and elegantly designed fleur-de-lis, the legend FLORENTIA.

It is thought the national arms of France originated in the copying of these Italian coins, as those flowers do not appear as a national badge till the reign of Philip le Hardi, about 1270. These celebrated coins weigh one drachm, and are no less than 24 carats fine, being intrinsically worth about twelve shillings English.

The modern coinage of Venice begins with silver of the tenth century, marked Venici; and one of the earliest with a name is that of Enrico Dandolo, doge in 1280. Silver groats of Venice appear as early as 1192, and copper about 1471; while the gold followed close upon that of Florence, and appeared in 1280. I have, in speaking of the ancient coinage of Cyzicus, mentioned that the gold of that ancient Greek state, was the forerunner of that of Venice, from which the modern name, Zecchino, Anglicè Sequin, was derived; and it is probable that the coined gold of Cyzicus was in circulation till late in the eastern empire; and especially at Venice, at the time of the issue by Florence of her new gold coinage, upon which Venice, in emulation, also issued a national gold coinage, but founded upon the value and preserving the name of the ancient Cyzicenes.

Among the earliest modern coins of Genoa are those of the Emperor Conrad, 1129, DVX IANVAE.; and those of the Dukes of Savoy begin in the same century.

The Patriarchs of Aquileia issued coins from 1204 to 1440, and Ferrara has coins of its Marchesi from 1380; while several free towns issued their own money with peculiar types, those of Mantua being honoured by the effigy of Virgil, the modern Mantuans not forgetting that their city was the birth-place of the great bard of the Augustan age.

The Neapolitan series begins as early as Duke Sergius, A.D. 880, with which are classed the coins of the powerful Dukes of Benevento forming a fine early series, and those of Roger I., of Sicily, Roger II., William I. and II., and Tancred, belong to the Neapolitan series in collections; as also those of Sicily under the Normans. In 1194, Naples and Sicily were