1252: The gold florin of Florence

In 1252, Florence began striking the fiorino d'oro, a coin of about 3.5 grams of fine gold showing the city's lily and St John the Baptist. Genoa introduced its own gold coin, the genovino, in the same year.

Backed by Florence's bankers and merchants, the florin was accepted across Europe and copied widely; the German 'Gulden' and the Dutch guilder take their name from it. Original medieval florins are scarce, while imitations from other cities are a collecting field of their own.

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