THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
(ii.) a silver coin in the same series. Without being
part of the Venetian currency, the gold besarU was,
before monev in that metal or silver of higher value
became available, admitted in payment at the Saturday
markets at Venice.
Biga—A Greek or Roman two-horse chariot.
Billon, otherwise potin—Mixed metal, usually plated
or washed with silver. It was a practice adopted by
the later Parthian rulers, by some of the Roman em-
perors in their denarii, and by a majority of the Euro-
pean states of more recent date.
Bit—The centre of the Spanish-American dollar,
countermarked to pass for the multiple of three bits in
British Guiana; the remainder of the piece was made
current for three guilders, and both were stamped
E. ty D., for Essequibo and Demerara. This primi-
tive and inconvenient system was not suspended till
1809, when the British Government introduced a very
handsome series of silver and copper money for this
dependency. Compai*e Joe.
Black' money—The zwaart or denier noir of certain
states of the Continent, which was imported into Eng-
land, and, with a coating of white metal, made to
pass as silver. It forms the subject of statutes and
proclamations in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies.
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