Varga Máté: Középkori és kora újkori aranypénzek. A Kaposvári Rippl-Rónai Múzeum éremgyűjteménye 1. (Kaposvár, 2015)
Gold Coinage in Europe and Hungary
Italian cities (Genova, Florence) had already started their coinage for decades. A decision had been made on coinage first in 1284, and then the minting of the golden ducats started in Venice in 1285. The word ducat comes from the Medieval Latin ducatus/ducato=dukedom. The value proportion of the golden and silver coins was 1:11. The golden ducats were called zecchino from the middle of the 16th century, from the beginning of the reign of Doge Francesco Doná (1545-1553). The standard of the coins was 24-carat gold (0,997 fine), their weight at the beginning was 3,55 grams. This weight was reduced twice during the centuries: first in 1491 (3,53 grams), then in the first part of the 16th century (3, 49 grams). The coin image was almost completely unchanged. The legend on the reverse is so-called Leonine hexameter in Latin: Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quem tu regis iste ducatus meaning O Christ, let this duchy, which you rule, be dedicated to you. The gold coins that were minted in France, England, then in the Hungarian and Czech Kingdom were practically patterned according to the Italian coinage. The coinages of the different countries were not the same in measures. Where more gold could be obtained, there naturally gold coins were minted in a larger quantity. This is what happened on the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom, where there were rich gold and silver mines in Highland of Northern Hungary and Transylvania. The beginning of the reign of Charles Robert was not easy, after being able to manage to order of the internal affairs; he had to put also the finance of the kingdom in order. That is why he introduced the dual currency system based on good quality gold florins (it is called forint in Hungarian) and silver stivers. The first golden florins were minted in 1325-1326 modelled on the coinage of Florence, but their weight was bigger (Fig. 5). The Hungarian gold coins were first mentioned in 1326: „de nonaginta aureis monete regis Ungarie”. The first coin image agreed with the coins in Florence, and its name also comes from that: our word gold forint can be etymologized on fiorino d’oro (golden Lily). This changed in the middle of the 16th century, from this time the golden florins were started to call ducats. The fineness of the coin was 23 3A carats (989 per thousand), its raw weight 3,55 grams, fine-weight 3,52 grams. It is borne by the scientific researches: fineness of Charles Robert’s and Mary’s gold florins were 994 per thousand, Louis the Great’s so-called St. László’s florins were 960-980 per thousand, while greater fluctuation can be observed by king Sigismund’s and Matthias’s coins, and the composition of the coins in later periods (16—17th centuries) also shows a similar picture. In Hungary dozens of mints worked, but gold coinage was carried out only in six places: Buda, Kassa, Kolozsvár, Körmöcbánya, Nagybánya, Nagyszeben. 3
