Gold Florin and Florentine Coins

During the early Middle Ages, the Saracen attacks had made trade difficult in the Mediterranean, and money circulation became rare.

In the era of Charlemagne, the gold coin and the silver coin disappeared quickly with the entire Roman Empire. These coins were replaced with more modest coins made in copper.

The great feudal lords took over the power of minting coins and had begun issuing low-valued coins.

These low-valued coins forgeries created disarray, especially in the banking sector, and for this reason, the main Italian cities had to create a new and more valuable currency to trade. The use of gold for coins was made possible due to the restarting trade with North Africa, from where most of the gold coins and trade came from.

Florence coined the Gold Florin, made of pure gold to be established on all markets until it became the European common currency, where all the others had to use it. This was one of the first pure gold coins to be minted in Italy after the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Gold Florin circulated all over Europe and gained the attention of many who ended up falsifying the coin; over 350 copies were made.

There were severe penalties for the falsification of the coins. Since the control over the Florentine Florins was constant, they became one of the most stable. They appreciated gold coins according to the European bankers in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Due to the era's mindset, the figure of the was the guarantee of authenticity because it drives from the Florentine saying "San Giovanni non vuole inganni”, which translates to St. John does not want deceptions.

The circulation of the gold was limited to the higher classes because of its great value. The gold florins were only used for certain financial transactions. Meanwhile, for ordinary transactions, the people would use divisional coins called “pìccioli”, which were money and silver coins.

To avoid the fraudulent practice of scraping the gold coins to obtain gold, called “tosatura”, the coins were sealed in a bag by the Mint to be used without having to take them out of the bag.

The lord of the mint was a master officially pointed by Florence every six months by the “Arte di Calimala”, with the task of guaranteeing the quality of the coins and the supervision over the work of the Florentine Mint.

The representation of the Florentine coin was rigorously kept the same, not identical because the cones were replaced biannually, yet bearing the elegant Florentine lily on the reverse, and the other side shows the figure of St. John the Baptist, patron of Florence. The symbol of the Master of Mint is stamped above the hand of the figure of St. John.

The creation of the biannual cones was performed in three steps:

• Creation of the cone: The chosen blacksmith worked the metal, creating a rough cylindrical cone.
• Incision: The task of the engraver to create works of art on the rough cone with small tools. The two incisions had to be approved by the Master of Mint.
• Temperature: After the approval of the incisions, the blacksmith tempered the cone to make it more resistant, given the high number of coins to be minted.

Florence gave the responsibility to control every phase of the minting of the Gold Florin to the “Arte di Calimala”, the most ancient of associations from which Florentine merchants belonged.

In 1345, the main headquarters of the minting took place in the actual Piazzale of the Uffizi, where they would use water-operated hammers of the Scheraggio stream for the minting. Afterward, the operations were moved to the Mint Tower in Piazza Piave, adjacent to the Arno river, to ease the minting labor.

Often, the artisans could not perfectly stamp the coins, producing coins with not a good impression. These imperfect gold Florins had an excess of gold called “calia”, which could have been filed away, but would have lowered the coin's value.

To avoid the devaluation of the gold coins, the officials of the “Arte di Calimala” would weigh every single gold coin by placing them in sealed bags. A perfect Gold Florin had the figure of St. John perfectly upside down compared to the Florentine Lily. These were called the "Fiorini di Suggello" that ensured the gold's quality and weight.

The Florin is a coin made from pure 24-carat gold 3,536 grams. The coin on one side has represented the elegant lily of Florence, the emblem of the city with the words “FLOR–ENTIA. On the other side of the coin, St. John the Baptist, the patron of the city of Florence, joined with the inscription "S. IOHA-NNES B".

The major of Florence Filippo Ugoni permitted the People's Captain to mint his own coin because of the city's economic growth. The Florentines decided to create a coin in pure gold with the sole purpose of maintaining a fixed value since it had a stable weight and minting was of high quality.

This coin became very popular in Europe, and soon the Gold Florin became a unique currency of exchange in the known world.

The Quarter of Florin was coined by a Master of Mint at the end of the XIV century and was continued to be used by the Republic of Florence until the beginning of the XV century.

This coin was created when the Gold Florentine Coin of 1252 had doubled the value of the Lire. During this period, Carlo di Valois expelled Dante Alighieri from the territory of the Florentine Republic. After the severe famine and Black Plague of the first half of the 14th century, which decimated the population of Florence.

The Quarter of Florin represents the growth of the economic activities linked to wool, consumption, and investments in Art.

In the XXX Canto dell'Inferno of the Divine Comedy, Dante recalls the famous story of Master Adamo, placing him in the circle of forgers where the sinners complain of the incessant thirst which torments Adamo deforming his body by inflating his abdomen excessively.

Master Adamo was instigated by the spiteful Guidi di Romena brothers to forge the Gold Florins by removing 3 carats from the 24 carats of gold of the coin and replacing them with other metals. The forged coins were sold to a money launderer, who worked in Tuscany, Perugia, and even Rome, discrediting the famous coin. In 1281, Master Adamo was arrested and burned alive on the spot by the Florentine guards in Casentino. This event gave the name to the place now called “Omo Morto” (Dead Man).

Dante found the story of master Adamo inside a box full of forged Gold Florins after a fire in a cellar in Borgo San Lorenzo.