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Aurum, Gold

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AURUM.
113
name, on the reverse; the type of the obverse being their patron the Baptist; the coin, "la lega suggellata dal Battista." The great Italian cities were to the last honourably jealous about the purity of their gold coinage. Dante finds Maestro Adamo plunged very low in the realms of torment for having forged florins con­taining merely 3 carats of alloy (the present French standard nearly), at the instigation of the Counts of Romena, who thus made a profit of 12-1/2 per cent, by the falsification. (Inf. xxx.)
Our present standard, though now the highest used in Europe (on which account the Italian goldsmiths eagerly buy up our sovereigns to melt for their filigree-work, often at a higher rate than the course of exchange), dates strangely enough from the first attempt of Henry VIII. to tamper with the gold coinage; and this not before his 36th year, when he ventured to add 2 carats of alloy to the standard, ever before pure—a great na­tional boast. Even Ms audacity advanced no further than the addition of 2 carats more in his last year, that time of bank­ruptcy. This last standard of 20 carats was used for the first mintage of his son ; but in his second he restored the fine for his sovereigns and angels, but retained that of 22 for all his other pieces—a rule never subsequently altered. The sovereign (or 30-shilling piece) continued of fine gold until its extinction under James I., as did the angel down to its last appearance in the reign of his unfortunate successor.
No European nation can at present boast of a coinage in fine gold, though down to the close of the last century such was largely minted in the Venetian and Papal zecchins, and the Dutch and Austrian ducats. The credit of maintaining to the last this ancient glory of the mint most fittingly rests with Flo­rence, and with its late worthy and much-to-be-pitied Grand Duke Leopoldo, whose ruspone (20-dollar piece), a magnificent coin, equalling in beauty of execution its intrinsic purity, was issued, though sparingly, within my own recollection. For the new-stamped " Kingdom of Italy," the French standard of one-tenth alloy (for both metals) has been adopted; and the same
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