1340, conceded the right of coining gold "in pieces which were to be neither heavier nor of higher worth than the florin of Florence." On the 8th September in the following year the Lübeck Mint made its first purchase of gold from a certain Jacob Grell of Zütphen in Holland. The purchase consisted of 4 marks 1 loth 8 pfen. weight of gold (Lübeck weight), and the price paid was 24 solidi the carat. In other parcels, up to Michaelmas of 1341, the authorities remitted to the Mint a total weight of metal of 50 marks 2 oz. 3 1⁄2 ang., varying in fineness from 15 to 23 carats. The consignment yielded in the pot 46 marks 1 oz. 7 ang. of pure metal, and was coined into 3199 pieces of a total weight of 47 marks 5 oz. 10 ang., being 67.08 gold pieces to the Lübeck mark. The coins were issued on the 18th February 1342, and bore on the one side the lily of Florence and on the other the figure of John the Baptist—all in direct imitation of the florin. The total issues made in the immediately succeeding years from the Lübeck Mint were:—
| 1342 | 24,783 | florins | 67.26 | to the mark. |
| " | 5,483 | " | 67.11 | " |
| 1343 | 30,436 | " | " | " |
| 1344 | 32,590 | " | " | " |
With more or less irregularity the earliest German guldens imitated the florin, and maintained something like a steady and uniform denomination quite up to the beginning of the last quarter of the fourteenth century.
GOLD COINAGE IN FRANCE
In France, as in Germany, the first coining of gold can only be dated approximately, but for all practical purposes quite safely. The generally accepted view is that the French series of gold coins was initiated in 1254 by Louis IX., "St. Louis," and that the issue was connected with the Sixth Crusade which he had headed five years before. There is documentary evidence extant to disprove this. Florins d'or appelez Florences are mentioned as early as 1180, not vaguely but quite definitely with an exact statement of weight standard and equivalence. Unless the record of the first minting of the gold florin at Florence is untrustworthy the coin here referred to can only be an imitation in gold of the silver florin of Florence. The same document which contains this reference (De Saulcy, i. 115) also specifies petits royaux d'or as minted not only in 1180 by Philip Augustus, but also in the days of his father, Louis VII. Similar mention of at least two gold coins of Louis IX. occurs as early as 1226, one evidently of the florin type, the other a pavillon d'or. It is quite safe to assert, however, that these coins were for show merely, due to an emulation of Byzantine and Italian opulence, and indicate no wide or commercial employment of gold. Of the gold florins of 1226, for instance, thirteen pieces were struck, twelve for twelve peers of France as a gift, the thirteenth for the King himself, "and know you that this is the most beautiful money that can be found, and the finest and best engraved." The interest of such issues is entirely numismatic and not
commercial or monetary.[2] It is not until late in the reign of St. Louis—until 1265 or thereabouts—that there is mention in France of any such gold coinage as could have this commercial rather than merely numismatic importance. For the purposes of metallic or currency history proper the real starting-point for France is marked rather by the gros royaux d'or, coined in 1295 by Philip le Bel, than by the more meagre coinage of St. Louis and his predecessors. The gros royaux of Philip were double the value of the petits royaux of St. Louis, of which latter Philip le Bel speaks thus in his proclamation. "We have commanded to be made in our name money of gold after the petits royaux d'or, which shall be 70 to the Paris mark and cut as the petits royaux have been used to be, being issued at an equivalence of 11 sols Parisi." From this date (1295) onward the gold coinage of the French Mint became one of the most important factors in the monetary history of Europe.
In Flanders the first gold coins were struck in 1357, under the rule of Count Louis II.[3] Both the coins issued by him are copied directly from French types——his real au lion from the French écu of Philip IV., and his mouton d'or from the French coin of the same name. And it was the same
French original which furnished the types to William V., Count of Holland (1356-77), when he followed the fashion and coined gold. Of the six types minted by Count William during his reign, two are an imitation of the French mouton, and the last is derived from the universally prevailing type, the florin.
GOLD COINAGE IN SPAIN AND ENGLAND