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

Introduction 3
to the wants, feelings, and traditions of the communities into
which it was apportioned. The waves of Dutch and German
influence spread in all directions and the British
; Isles, from
their geographical position, and successive occupiers or
colonists, were peculiarly liable to the reception of foreign
suggestions from all quarters. Perhaps the utmost that is
capable of being urged in favour of the English series of
coins is that they are English. Of the hands which made
them we know, on the whole, too little to warrant us in going
much farther.
The titles which the coins of the European continent
have to our attention and regard are indeed strong and
manifold. That immense and extraordinary series contributes,
in a degree only to be appreciated on a more or less
intimate acquaintance, to the illustration both of the public
and inner life of a section of the globe which has been
infinitely more fruitful than any other in its achievements
and triumphs for the cause of human knowledge, progress,
and happiness. From the thirteenth century, when the
English currency had sensibly declined from the earlier
Norman standard, the mints of Central Europe and the Low
Countries were yielding an inexhaustible store of types
remarkable for invention and variety no less than for their
harmony with the atmosphere and costume of the country
of origin. A study of continental money of the mediaeval
and more modern eras admits us to an insight into innumerable
points connected with political vicissitudes and changes,
religious aspirations and peculiarities, and social episodes, for
which we might vainly look elsewhere. The historian, the
artist, the philosopher, and the portrayer of sentiments and
usages, possess here a field of research even now very imperfectly
explored and utilised. We ought to be thankful for
the light which is shed on features of bygone life throughout
an entire continent by thousands on thousands of these
monuments, each in its portrait, its legend, its motto, its
name, its very shape and material, telling some story of
the ages.