Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/385

 MINT

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MINT

SpoletrO, PROVINCI.E uuoATu.s (uiidcr Paul V), Viterbo (uncier Urban VI and Sixtus IV). Pius VI, being oliligeil to coin a great deal of copper money, gave the minting of it to a great many cities of the Patrimony, of Umbria, and of the Marches, which, together witii those already named, continued to strike these coins; among them were Civitavecchia, Gubbio, Matelica, Ronciglione (the coins of 1799 showing the burning of this city are famous), Terni, and Tivoli. Pius VII suppressed all the mints except those of Rome and of Bologna.

As far back as 1370 there were coins struck during the vacancies of the Holy See, by authority of the cardinal camerlengo, who, after the fifteenth century at least, caused his name and his coat of arms to be stamped on the reverse of the coin, the obverse bearing the words " sede vacante ' ' and the date, surrounding the crossed keys surmounted by the pavilion. All papal coins, with rare exceptions, bear the name of the pope, preceiled (until the time of Paul II) by a Greek cross, and nearly all of the more ancient ones bear, either on the obverse or on the reverse, the words s. PETiws, and some of them, the wonls s. PAULUs also. From Leo III to the Ottos, the coins bear the name of the emperor as well as that of the pope. After the sixteenth century the coat of arms of the pope alone frequently appears on pontifical coins. There are also found images of the Saviour, or of saints, symbolical figures of men or of animals, the keys (which appear for the first time on the coins of Benevento), etc. From the sixteenth century to the eighteenth, Biblical or moral phrases are added, in allusion to the saint or to the symbol that is stamped upon the coin, as, for example, monstra te

ESSE iM.\TUEM, SPES NO.STRA, SUB TUU.M PR.'ESIDIUM, TOTA PULCHRA, SUPRA FIRMAM PETRAM, D.*. RECTA

.SAPERE (during the Conclave), UBi thesaurus ibi

COR, CRE.SCENTEM SEQUITUR CURA PECUNIAM, HILAREM DATOREM DILIGIT DEU8, PRO PRETIO ANIM-JE, FERRO NOCENTIUS AURUM, IN SUDORE VULTUS, CONSERVAT.E

PEREUNT, TOLLE ET PROiicE, etc. Sometimes allusion is made to an historical event, as the acquisition of Fcrrara, or the deliverance of Vienna (1683), or to some concession of the pope to his subjects, or to a jubilee. From the time of Clement X the coins struck at Rome bear a minute representation of the coat of arms of the prelate in charge of the mint, a custom that obtained until 1817. The only in- stance of a cardinal camerlengo stamping his coat of arms on the coins during the lifetime of the pope is that of Cardinal Armellini, under Adrian VI, in the case of four groxxi.

The mints outside of Rome stamped the coins with the arms of their respective cities, or with those of the cardinal legate, of the vice-legate, or of the governor; thus, Cardinal Scipione Borghese in 1G12 struck coins at Avignon with his own name and arms, omitting the name of the pope, an example that was followed a year later by the pro-legate Cardinal Filonardi. The city very often placed the image of its patron saint on its coins. The date came to be stamped on coins that were struck during the vacan- cies of the Holy See, occasionally at first, and later as a rule; it rarely appears on other coins before 1550; the practice became general in the seventeenth cen- tury, the year of the Christian era or that of the pon- tificate being used ; and Gregory XVI established it by law, as also the requirement that each coin should bear upon it an expression of its value. At Bologna as early as the seventeenth century, the value of gold or silver coins was usually indicated with the figures 20, 40, 80, etc., i. e. so many bolognini or baiocehi; at Rome, in the eighteenth century, nearly all the copper coins bore an indication of their value. The rim of papal coins rarely bore an inscription ; at most, the monogram of the city in which the coin was struck was stamped upon it. From the sixteenth century,

the engravers, also, put their ciphers on the coms; among these engravers may be named Benvcnuto Cellini, Francesco Raibolini, called il Francia (Bolo- gna), the four Hamerani, 'Giulio Romano (trident), Cavaliere Lucenti, Andrea Perpenti, etc. Until the time of Pius VI, the dies for the mint remained the property of the engravers.

Tiie Byzantine monetary system is followed in the papal coinage until the reign of Leo III, after which the system of the Prankish Empire obtains. John XXII adopted the Florentine system, and coined gold florins; the weight of this coin, however, varied from 22 carats to 30, until Gregory XI reduced it to the original 24 carats; but deterioration came again, and then there were two kinds of florins, the papal florin, which maintained the old weight, and the florin di Camera, the two being in the ratio of 69 papal florins = 100 florins di Camera — 1 gold pound = 10 carlini. The ducat was coinetl in the papal mint from the year 1432; it was a coin of Venetian origin that circulated with the florin, which, in 1531, was succeeded by the sciido, a piece of French origin that remained the monetary unit of the Pontifical States. At the same time, there appeared the zecchino. The ancient papal florin was ef|ual to 2 scudi and 11 baiocchi (1 baiocco = 0-01 scudi) ; one ducat was equal to one scuilo and 9 baiocchi. The scuilo also under- went fluctuations, in the market and in its weight: the so called scudo delle stampe (1595) was worth 184-2 baiocchi, that is, a little less than 2 scudi. Benedict XIII re-established the good quality of the alloy, but under Pius VI it again deteriorated. In 1835 Gregory XVI regulated the monetary system of the Pontifical States, establishing the scudo as the unit, and dividing it into 100 baiocchi, while the baiocco was divided into 5 quattrini (the quattrino, until 1591, had been equal to | of a baiocco). The scudo was coined both in gold and in silver; there were pieces of 10 scudi, calletl Gregorine; and pieces of 5 scudi, and of 2i scudi were also coined. The scudo of the eighteenth century was ecjual to 1-65 scudi of Pius VII, which last was adopted by Gregory XVI; the zecchino was worth 2-2 scudi. The scudo is equal to 5-3 lire in the monetary system of the Latin Union. The fractional silver coins were the half scudo, and the giulio, called also paoln, which was equal to 0-1 scudi. The latter coin was created by Julius II in order to put the carlini of Charles of Anjou out of circulation, these coins being of bad alloy. There were pieces of 2 giulii that were called papetti, at Rome, and lire at Bologna, a name that was later given to them officially. A grosso, introduced in 1736, was equal to half a giulio (25 baiocchi) ; there were also the mezzogrosso, and the testone = 30 giulii. The copper coins w-ere the baiocco or soldo (which was called bolognino, at Bologna) and the 2 baiocchi piece. The name baiocco is derived from that of the city of Bayeux.

Other coins that were used at various times in the Pontifical States were the baiocchella = 1 baiocco, a copper piece with a silver surface, and therefore smaller than the copper baiocco; there were coins made of the two metals of the values, respectively, of 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 16 baiocchi; the co[)pf'r madonnina (Bologna) = 5 baiocchi; the aampirtrinn (Pius VI) = 2i baiocchi; the pnludclla was a soldo, made of an alloy of copper and silver, established by Pius VI as a more easily portable specie with which to pay the workmen of the Pontine \I:iTslifs: the sesino = 0-4 of a baiocco = 2 quattrini: Ihr Iruniiia (Leo XII) = 4-4 Gregorian scudi; tin' ilnhlnm- = 2 old scudi = 3-3 scudi of the nineteenth century; there were dobloni of the relative values of 4, 8, and 16 scudi; the doppio was worth a little less than the doblone, that is, 3-21 scudi of the nineteenth century; at Bologna there were also coined scudi of 80 baiocchi, and half-scudi of 40 bai«cchi ; the gahclla was a Bolo-