THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

CONTINENT OF EUROPE
and West of Europe and the coasts of Asia and
Africa, led to the conception of higher denominations
of coined specie of fixed standard, first in silver, and
finally in gold. As it had happened in Lydia when
Gyges struck for mercantile purposes an electrum
stater of 220 grains against one of about 167 for
internal use, the early Italian trading communities
took the initiative in making, at all events, their gold
money of such true weight as to ensure its universal
acceptance. The Merovingian trims or tremissis was
equal to the third of a Byzantine solidus; but it was
not a commercial currency, nor does there seem to
have been any real metallic standard for coins anterior
to those established about 1250-80 a.d. by the Floren-
tines and Venetians, who adopted and maintained them
from motives of financial convenience. The concurrent
introduction into France, under Louis IX., of gold
pieces of broad fabric, probably on a much more
restricted scale, divided Europe into two numismatic
schools, of which one followed the French, the other
the Italian prototype ; and it is singular enough that
in France itself certain feudal centres preferred the
latter.
The first direct initiative in the more modern
school of European numismatic art was received from
Northern Germany, whence, through the Franks, and
perhaps the Lombards. to some extent, the new in-
fluence spread to Italy, the Low Countries, France,
and ultimately the Iberian peninsula. We have to
ascribe to the multifarious fruits of trade, navigation,
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