W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

2 The Coins of Europe
was a postulate to a moderate extent ;
in one or two
instances it was peremptory.
But for better and worse, under some or other circumstances,
the taste and ardour for the British coins from the
earliest period to the present time patterns and proofs
included arose, and have been hitherto fairly maintained by
a succession of students or amateurs. The motive was
perhaps patriotic ; and it is not to be gainsaid that within
those lines are to be found many numismatic productions
alike of interest and merit, particularly among the Anglo-
Saxon pennies, the Tudor money, the Scotish coins of Mary
and her father, and of Charles I., and the chefs d'ceuvre of
Briot, Simon, Rawlins, Blondeau, and Wyon. Retrospectively,
the English coinage, extending over about twenty
centuries (if
we comprise the British money), will bear comparison
with that of other countries, period by period but
;
it must be recollected that it was in some important aspects
indebted to external influences. Offa, King of Mercia, is
reputed to have employed Italian workmen ; the pennies of
Edward the Confessor and his Norman successor, in their
diversity and execution, betray a superior hand and the
;
names of some of the most prominent English moneyers,
Briot, Blondeau, Roettier, Pistrucci, Droz, are the names of
foreigners. 1 Nor do we certainly know that the florin and
noble of Edward III. were the product of native artists. So
far as probability will carry us we should say that they were not.
There can be little doubt that Northern Germany or
Northern Holland was the source from which the moneyer,
in common with the printer and engraver, originally derived
his inspiration. Hence it was that, as learning and science
revived, and commerce and maritime adventure extended,
the barbarous and meagre productions of the imitators of
Roman and Byzantine work were replaced by numismatic
efforts of an independent and characteristic type, and that
Europe was furnished with trading tokens (inonetce) adapted
1
See also Nicholas Tyery's Proposals to Henry the Eighth for an Irish Coinage,
inserted in a MS. French Handbook of the year 1526. 8vo, Cambridge,
1886. With illustrations of the coins.