THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

CONTINENT OF EUROPE
Latin Empire established after the Fourth Crusade,
and of those of modern Greece and Turkey in Europe,
may be found elsewhere. The expedition of the Vene-
tians and their allies to the Holy Land via Constan-
tinople effected in the whole of Eastern Europe a
political revolution, of which the fruits lasted in some
instances during centuries : and this event laid the
foundation of the colonial currency of Venice for the
territories which the republic thus acquired in 1204.
The Northern Kingdoms, Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway, have always possessed a certain characteristic
individuality, distinct even from those countries by
which they are more immediately bounded. From
what has been said in another place, it is easily in-
ferable that the numismatic fortunes of these three
kingdoms have been strongly and strangely influenced,
not so much by external agencies as by civil or inter-
national disagreements and struggles. From time to
time the balance of power was shifted between Sweden
and Denmark, both of which have weakened and im-
poverished themselves in bygone days by interference
in foreign wars, while Norway has never achieved any
sensible share of importance either in its government
or in its coinage, the Norwegian money having been at
all times for the most part of Danish or Swedish origin.
The archaic coins of this entire region, of which none
can perhaps be assigned to a period anterior to the
tenth century, appear to have been modelled on the
Anglo-Saxon types of Ethelred II.; a find of these
silver sterling's in Norway some few years since led to
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