1 he coiiipclliini niysticisiii which sijuidcd pils;riins 

 toward the Holy Land was extended also to the coins 

 which pious men ijnniijht back from their pilt?rima<^es. 

 These coins sinpasscil by far the interest accorded to 

 the usual souxenir pieces of travelers, and they were 

 invested with supernatural powers. Occasionally 

 mounted in reliquaries, these pagan coins — bcarinsj, 

 for example, ilie facint( head of Sol the sun-god — 

 became objects of Christian ijiety."*" 



Fig. 4. — I ETR.ADRACHM OF RiioDES, regarded 

 as one of the "thirty pieces of silver." as 

 published in 1553, and the actual coin (photos 

 from Rouille, above, and counesy .American 

 Numismatic .Society). 



Ancient classical tradition, ne\er entirely extinct 

 even during the darkest hours of history, began to 

 revive with the aid of enlightened persons about the 

 turn of the millennium. Earlier, during Charle- 

 magne's time, Roman tradition had reappeared as a 

 stimulus for civic and cultural awakening, but with 

 Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1212 1250J art and 

 erudition came into a resplendent revival which was 

 built on an ancient and especially Roman back- 

 ground. 



Frederick's newly created gold coin, apjjropriateiy 

 called aiigiislalis,'^ in many res[)ects reflects 



'" I'or ihr story of many of llusc pirtcs — regarded as the 

 authcnic coins o( Judas and worshipped in numerous churches 

 of the Middle Ages —and their influence on contemporary 

 Biblical inurpretations, see Hii r, op. cit., pp. 91 ff. and espe- 

 cially 104-114. 



*' Tor the "augustalis"", sec: \\ inkm.m.vn.n, "Ober die 

 Goldpriigung Kaiser Friedriehs If (18<)4); Pfistkr, Kniti-r 

 I'rtrdnch II. pp. 184, 192; W.-Mir, \\',itidi,r ,Ur If.ll, pp. 2.';8, 

 271; Wkntzel, "Dcr .Augustalis Friedriehs II und die abcnd- 

 liindisehc Glyptik" (1952). 



Roman coin coitccpts and designs (fig. 5). The im- 

 plication again seems unavoidable that there was a 

 sotu'ce of insi)iration strong enough to determine a 

 decisive turn from medieval coining traditions back 

 toward earlier classical forms. The creation of this 

 coin certainly suggests the presence of Roman coins 

 from which it drew an apjiarent inspiration. Can 

 this factor be con.sidered suflicient evidence for the 

 existence of coin collections? Due to the lack of 

 adequate documentation, we may only assume that 

 it does. 



Italy, the classic land of archeological treasures, 

 constantK' revealed e\idence of an earlier, superior 

 culture with sculpture, moniunents, inscriptions 

 which puzzled medieval man and posed intriguina; 

 |)roblems. In a sense it was impossible to erect spirit- 

 ual barriers strong enough to repress the revival of 

 classical culture. Even the Christian church had to 

 adjust to the new challenge; Thomas .Aquinas pro- 

 ceeded to complete the integration of classical learning 

 within the framework of Catholic theology. It is 

 interesting to note that, among the preoccupations of 

 these encyclopedic minds of the late 13th and 14th 

 centuries, monetarv theories were often a cherished 



Fig. 5. .-\UGUSTALLS OF FREDERICK II (l2I2- 



1 250) and gold solidus of the Roman Emperor 

 Honorius (395-423) (author's photos). 



su!)ject. In Di- rrgimirie priricipis Aquinas discusses the 

 function and evolution of money,*- and Xicholas Ores- 

 mius (1320-1382), in his Tractalus de origine, iure nee non 

 cl mutationibus nwnetarum, gives numismatics the serious 

 consideration of a science.*^ Gonnard regards Orcs- 

 mius as the founder of an economic monetary doc- 

 trine,*'' and, as Babelon states, " with Oresmius, there 

 finally appeared a reformer and a theoretician." 

 During these times, when the spiritual lethargy of 



'- I'or .Aquinas' economic writings, sec Contzen, Thomas von 

 Aquino (1861); Jesse, Qiiellenbuch (1924); Gonnard, Doctrir,~ 

 monelaires (1935). 



" For Oresmius, sec Woi.owski, Traiclie (1864); Joh.nson. 

 The De monrla (1956); DiEi-DONNE, "La th6oric de la monnaie 

 a Tepoquc feodale ct royale" (1909). 



*' Doctrines monelaires, p. 125. 



12 



BULLETIN 229: CON I RIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



