CHAP. Xiv. FOREIGN MONEY IN ENGLAND. 373 



of that which issued from the mints of Germany 

 or France. Its fineness was of twenty-four 

 carats, whilst the gold which was coined in 

 France in the reign of Philip III., about the year 

 1230, was only of the fineness of twenty-three 

 carats 1 . Besides these coins from Constantino- 

 ple, the gold pieces struck in France were in- 

 troduced in considerable quantities into England 

 after the conquests made by our ancestors in 

 France. The agnels of the reign of St. Louis, 

 sometimes called mutones or mul tones, from 

 having on one side a lamb with a banner, and 

 the words A 'gnus Dei qui tottis peccata mundi, 

 miserere nobis, and on the other a cross with 

 the motto Christus regnat, vincit, imperat, were 

 of gold of the fineness of twenty-three carats 

 and a half. These and other coins of a cotem- 

 poraneous period circulated, or rather passed in 

 large payments, in England for a long period ; 

 whilst that which was subsequently coined in 

 France from the reign of Philip le Bel, which 

 commenced in 1285, to a later period, being re- 

 duced in purity from one to two carats below 

 the standard of St. Louis, had little circulation 

 out of the country where it was issued. The 

 Angelots were a coin fabricated by the English 

 in Paris, whilst they exercised the government 

 of France under the reign of Henry V., and in 



1 See Abot de Bazinghen, vol. i. p. 104, and vol. ii. p. 109. 



