Gold and the Gold Standard.pdf

GOLD IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL TIMES
Coinage in Europe during the early Middle Ages
was practically limited to silver and copper, except
for a temporary minting of gold ·in· the Carolingian
period. Silver provided the principal currency of
western Europe. The aureus of Constantine, however,
continued to circulate until the downfall of the
Eastern Empire in 1453, and from this gold unit
various coinages of mediaeval and modern Europe
were descended. 1
Gold Coins
In the year 1252, in response to a growing demand
for coins of a larger value, particularly for the foreign
trade of the great Italian cities, gold coins containing
48 grains of fine gold were struck in Florence.
These became the famous gold florins of Italy.2
Similar gold coins were later minted in Germany and
France, and in other cities of Italy-notably, the
Venetian zecchino, which had a large circulation extending
even to Turkey.
Gold florins issued in the.· Italian cities were given
official ratings with the silver coins then in circulation.The
official rating and the market ratio of gold
and silver were frequently at variance, with the
usual result that coins of the overvalued metal drove
from circulation coins .of the undervalued one.
1 See p. 29, note; also, RIDGEWAY,in Sandys, Ope cit., pp. 451-452.
2 The Italian name was fiorino, meaning "flower." The coin had a lily on
one side and on the other the Latin name of the city, Florentia.
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