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

60 The Coins of Europe
with or without quarterings ; 7, and finally, an effigy of a
patron-saint, ultimately superseded or accompanied by one
of the temporal ruler. All these marks of authority and
distinction underwent from period to period development and
change indicative of modified political and religious feeling,
of more complex relationships between reigning families, or
of the growth of artistic taste.
The type with the cross presents itself with an infinite
amount of variation both in the form of the cross and in
the character of the cantonments. The most usual features
in the angles are pellets, or globules, or annulets ;
and most
frequently the number corresponds to that of the Trinity.
But on some pieces
it is true, of later date -four of these
objects appear and if there is no mystical ; figure intended,
there is
certainly no reference to value, as the penny or
denier and the groat or gros equally bear these unexplained
accessories.
The evolution of the portrait on coins was gradual. The
earliest stage was a head, which occurs in the rudest shape
on the gold trientes of the Visigothic princes of Spain ;
the
next step was the addition of a sceptre, as we see it on
some of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman pennies.
Then followed in succession the bust or full-length figure in
armour, the head bare or helmeted ;
the crowned bust in
ordinary costume (sometimes, as on the money
of the
Renaissance in Savoy, Saluzzo, Monteferrato, and Bologna,
with a characteristic head-dress), in armour, or with the
armour partly draped ;
and the modern head, ordinarily
uncovered and uncrowned. Between these progressive
varieties there were, of course, many special and exceptional
examples, such as the portrait of Charles V. or the splendid
quadruple ducat of 1528, and the civil costume and peculiar
head-dress on certain Italian coins of the Renaissance era,
tallero of
among which we may cite the very striking
Marguerite de Foix, Marchioness of Saluzzo, 1516.
The Cross was not the only device of the kind, even
supposing the triads in the angles to have no religious
import ; for on the mediaeval Bohemian money we perceive