Florentine (gold coin)
The Florentine (Latin Florenus , Italian Fiorino d'oro , French Florin ) was a currency that was widespread in Europe in the late Middle Ages . He was one of 1252 to 1533 Florence embossed gold coin .
The name comes from the gold gulden of the city of Florence, also called Florentine gulden , with about 3½ grams, which was also used outside of Tuscany from the 13th century . However, there were other forms of coinage in the region , for example in Champagne and the Duchy of Brabant . Compared to the Florentine, their value could fluctuate between half and double.
history
After Charlemagne had replaced the ancient gold coins with silver coins in his coin reform , there were only a few gold coins of ancient and Arabic coinage in medieval Europe . Then in the High Middle Ages, with the increasing amount of money, the need for valuable coins also increased. The Roman-German Emperor Friedrich II had gold coins minted in Brindisi since 1231 , the Augustalis . Subsequently, the financial metropolises of Florence and, after 1280, Venice began to issue gold coins in large numbers.
The city of Florence began producing the Fiorino in 1262 after defeating its rival Siena in the Battle of Montaperti . The coin consisted of 3.54 g of fine gold. On the front it bore the coat of arms of the city, a lily ( Latin : flos = flower). The reverse showed John the Baptist , the city's patron . Fiorentini minted from 1300 onwards all bear a mintmaster's mark , which enables precise dating, since the mintmasters changed every six months, so this office was in great demand. The books of the Florentine Mint show an output of up to 350,000 florins in good years, that is about 1.2 tons of gold. The minting of the florin in Florence ended in 1533, when Cosimo I of Medici standardized the coinage in his sphere of influence and issued the Scudo d'Oro based on the French model .
The monetary value of the Florentine gold coins at that time is difficult to estimate because it depends on economic and political circumstances. After all, coin gold was considered a relatively safe currency even in times of war - even in the 20th century. In peacetime, historical literature mentions purchases from villages among nobles amounting to around a thousand fl, and foundations for social purposes went up to tens of thousands of Florentines. With an average gold price of $ 800 per ounce over the past 50 years (although with fluctuations of around $ 150 to $ 1700), the purchasing power from today's perspective would be approximately 100 euros.
Imitations
The Fiorino became the model for numerous gold guilders. The name guilder , as the currency unit in the Netherlands was called until 2001 , also comes from the Florentine gold standard (French Florin d'Or ) . Its common abbreviation in finance is fl. Or f. for Fiorino, lat.florenus aureus .
The old name can be found later for other coins:
- the Tuscan Fiorino marked with a lily, a silver coin of 1.666 Tuscan lire minted since 1826
- the English florin , a 2 shillings silver coin minted since 1849 .
- the Hungarian currency unit forint
- the Reichsguldiner or Gulden (abbreviation fl.) in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and in the German Confederation
- the Dutch guilder
- of the Antilles guilder
- the Aruba florin
Web links
- Jean-Paul Divo: Short history of the fiorino d'oro
- Il fiorino, la moneta di Firenze durante il Rinascimento
- Centro di Studi Storici Verrazano
Individual evidence
- ↑ In Europe since the year 800 mainly silver coins, gold coins since 1231 under Emperor Friedrich II. Florence from 1252, Venice from 1280
- ^ Société Royale de Numismatique 1908: Revue Belge de Numismatique et de Sigillographie , vol. 64, Brussels, Goemaere, PDF file (Caution: ~ 30 MB)
- ^ Where Revue Numismatique , p. 68-75
- ↑ Gold price in the 1960s below $ 200 / troy ounce (31.1 g), 1970s: ~ $ 500, peak 1981: $ 1700, 1990s: $ 600-400, since 2010: over $ 1200; see also graphic 1969–2011