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THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

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<strong>THE</strong> <strong>COLLECTOR</strong> SERIES<br />

(ii.) a silver coin in the same series. Without being<br />

part of the Venetian currency, the gold besarU was,<br />

before monev in that metal or silver of higher value<br />

became available, admitted in payment at the Saturday<br />

markets at Venice.<br />

Biga—A Greek or Roman two-horse chariot.<br />

Billon, otherwise potin—Mixed metal, usually plated<br />

or washed with silver. It was a practice adopted by<br />

the later Parthian rulers, by some of the Roman em-<br />

perors in their denarii, and by a majority of the Euro-<br />

pean states of more recent date.<br />

Bit—The centre of the Spanish-American dollar,<br />

countermarked to pass for the multiple of three bits in<br />

British Guiana; the remainder of the piece was made<br />

current for three guilders, and both were stamped<br />

E. ty D., for Essequibo and Demerara. This primi-<br />

tive and inconvenient system was not suspended till<br />

1809, when the British Government introduced a very<br />

handsome series of silver and copper money for this<br />

dependency. Compai*e Joe.<br />

Black' money—The zwaart or denier noir of certain<br />

states of the Continent, which was imported into Eng-<br />

land, and, with a coating of white metal, made to<br />

pass as silver. It forms the subject of statutes and<br />

proclamations in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-<br />

turies.<br />

216

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