THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
sion with stating that with Pedro the First, 1357-67,
the currency began to improve in volume, fabric, and
national costume ; and this is another way of saying
that the movement, which had had its first stimulus on
French soil under Louis IX., and in Italy collaterally at
Florence and Venice, made its influence sensible about
a century later in Portugal, as it did in Germany, Eng-
land, and Castile. The successors of Pedro I. carried on
the work, which he assisted in promoting ; and Duarte I.
not only developed the gold currency, but substituted
pure copper for the mixed metal hitherto employed for
the lower values, thus anticipating nearly every other
European state in a most useful reform. Between the
middle of the fifteenth and that of the sixteenth century
the increasing prosperity of the country, crowned by
the important geographical achievements of its mari-
time explorers, brought the currency to the height of
its variety, amplitude, and splendour ; and it has been
shown how the magnificent gold portuguez of Emmanuel
(1495-1521) perpetuated in its legends the noble ser-
vices performed by Bartolommeo Diaz and Vasco da
Gama for their native land. Beyond this chronological
limit the Portuguese numismatic annals never practi-
cally exhibited any real progress ; but, on the other
hand, while the national strength and rank steadily
declined, the money betrayed no symptoms of narrower
political and financial resources, unless we reckon as
such the very frequent occurrence during the seventeenth
century of countermarked pieces ; and we observe down
to the present century an abundance of beautiful ex-
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