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

436 The Coins of Europe
The present group of money is altogether an interesting
and difficult one, and includes, as we have seen, some very
picturesque and fascinating examples, for which the French
is
usually a competing market. .
The line of rulers commences, as in so many other instances,
abruptly. We have no coins prior to Onorato II., 1605-62.
The denominations in use at this period and down
Monaco. ... . . .
to the earlier years of the eighteenth century were
the scudo di argcnto, with the half and quarter, the luigino, the
pezzetta, the danaro, and multiples of 2, 4, and 8 of the last.
No gold seems to have been struck. The coins which
ordinarily occur are the decline and- 5 centimes of Onorato or
Honore V., 1819-78. A considerable share of the territory
was incorporated with the French Empire in 1860. For
the higher values the French currency was long employed,
and at Monte Carlo the loo-franc piece
is a very familiar
object ; but the present ruler has issued a coin of this value
with his own portrait and title.
The most ancient autonomous government of Florence,
which eventually expanded into the grand-duchy of Tuscany
or Etruria, is that of an anonymous republic, which
F
Tuscan
Or mrnted itself to the issue of a denaro of primitive
type, but of excellent fabric, with the name
and half-length bust of St. John the Baptist facing on
obverse, and the trefoil lily and Florentia on reverse. This
frugal currency was made to suffice the requirements of the
the thirteenth century, when a coinage of grossi took
city till
place, and the gold piece, known as a florin, from the lily
which formed part of the type, was introduced. It was about
the same period that an important political
change occurred
by the institution of the dignity of Gonfaloniere ; and it is
a significant circumstance that we find at the close of the
twelfth century symptoms of the decline of the imperial
authority in Tuscany and a cessation of the vicarious