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

Descriptive Outline of the Coinages of Eiirope 5 1 1
the most flourishing term is really comprised within three
reigns, those of Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles V., and
Philip II., and it is to be further remembered that the power
of Philip was sustained by the prestige of his father rather
than by his own capabilities.
The wealth of the country, as in some other cases, outlasted
its political and military importance, and centuries
after the commencement of retrogression or decline, the coinage
preserved its standard and integrity. The money struck
by Ferdinand and Isabella themselves presented some existing,
and a few fresh, types and denominations. Prior to
the consolidation of the monarchy, heavy gold pieces had
been coined by Peter the Cruel (1350-68), John II. (1406-
54), and Henry IV. (1454-75)
f Castile and Leon
; but,
judging from their present rarity, doubtless on a frugal
scale. The comparatively common occurrence of the gold
money of united Spain from the outset, except certain
higher multiples of the pistole or escudo, indicated, on the
contrary, the introduction of the metal into general use for
commercial purposes pari passu with a similar movement in
Portugal. A large gold coin of Ferdinand and his consort
bears the numeral XX. for the value presumably in escudi.
Their lengthened and prosperous reign witnessed the continuance
of the blanca with the crowned initials (F. Y.~)
on
observe, and a return to the Visigothic vis-a-vis style of
portraiture with all the improvement at the command of
more modern engravers. But the most notable features in
the new coinage were the appearance of the real as the
and that of the maravedi as the copper unit, each with
silver,
its divisions or multiples. It was the earliest attempt to
place the Spanish currency
on a more convenient and intelligible
footing, and superseded the ancient monetary system
and the circulation of the primitive ochavos to a large extent,
although the predominance
of feudal sentiment down to
quite recent times proved an insuperable obstacle to a really
national coinage. At the same time, as we have observed
to have been the case in Brittany, and as we shall find to be
equally an incidence of Portuguese history, the numismatic