EX PRETERITUS

Medieval Coinage

The quality of coins found from the medieval period varies. Simply put, the earlier the coinage, the better it is. Later coinage was often plated copper or worse. Forgeries and copies abound. The coins are often tiny, such as the parvus of Sigismund, at only 8 mm. Sigismund was also responsible for the minting of the quarting, a small, low quality coin that is the most commonly found and was valued at four to the silver denar . A hoard of over 500 of these coins was found and they can fit in one hand. Unusually for the period, king Bela III issued a large copper penny in the late 12th century, which is a common find.
Under King Karl Robert (1308-1342) Hungary became a great economic power and the kingdom accounted for more then 80% of Europe's annual gold production. The Hungarian florin (forint) d'or served as the prototype for gold coin issues from the Low Countries to Russia.