{{short description|Gold coin and currency of the Republic of Florence}} {{Use British English|date=May 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{about|the historical coinage from Florence|other uses, including other currencies}} {{Infobox currency | local_name = Fiorino d'oro | local_name_lang = it | image_1 = Fiorino 1347.jpg | image_title_1 = Florin from the Środa treasure | symbol = ƒ | using_countries = Republic of Florence | mint = 1252-1533 }} thumb|right|Reverse of an Italian florin coin
The Florentine '''florin''' was a gold coin ({{Langx|it|fiorino d'oro||golden florin}})<ref name="bundesbank">{{Cite web |title=Sign of the lily |url=https://www.bundesbank.de/en/bundesbank/numismatics/selected-objects/sign-of-the-lily-616530 |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=www.bundesbank.de |language=en-GB}}</ref> struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time.<ref>See the ''Ricordanze di S. Maria di Cafaggio'', which mentions florins being used in the year MCCL (1250).</ref>
It had 54 grains ({{convert|{{multiply|54|1/480}}|ozt|g|disp=comma|abbr=none|lk=out|order=flip|sigfig=4}}<!-- A troy ounce is 480 grains -->) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold<ref>{{cite book |first=Mario |last=Bernocchi |title=Le monete della repubblica fiorentina |volume=III |publisher=Leo S. Olschki Editore |year=1976 |page=66}}</ref>, worth approximately €450{{Efn|1=3.54 g × ~€125/g (May 2026 value of 24k gold)= ~€443}} in today's gold value. However, the modern equivalent of the purchasing power of the coin is closer to approximately €800–1,500.{{efn|In 15th-century Florence, one florin could represent several days’ wages for an unskilled worker. One JSTOR article<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldthwaite |first=Richard A. |date=2018 |title=Performance of the Florentine Economy, 1494-1512: Moneys and Accountancy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26529705 |journal=Archivio Storico Italiano |volume=176 |issue=2 (656) |pages=245–274 |issn=0391-7770}}</ref> notes that a florin in the 1420s bought about 8 days of unskilled labour. So by a wage-comparison method, it would be >€800–€1,500 today. It is difficult to estimate precisely (and variable) but ranging according to social grouping and perspective.}} The name of the coin comes from the ''Giglio bottonato'' (it), the floral emblem of the city, which is represented at the head of the coin.<ref>{{cite book |title=Il paradosso francescano tra povertà e società di mercato |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpoMM5RcZakC&pg=PA98 |first=Oreste |last=Bazzicchi |publisher=Effatà Editrice |year=2011 |page=98 |isbn=978-88-7402-665-4}}</ref>
==History== {{see also|History of coins in Italy}} The {{Langx|it|fiorino d'oro||golden florin|label=none}} was minted in the Republic of Florence after the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade disrupted the minting of fine gold coins in the Byzantine Empire. It came to be accepted across Europe like the Byzantine Solidus had been.
The first minting of the florin occurred in 1252 in Florence and Genoa.<ref name="bundesbank" /> The golden coin was 3.49 g and had a diameter of 19.9 mm.<ref name="bundesbank" /> At the time the value of the florin was equal to the ''lira'' of 20 shillings (''soldi''), with a shilling divided into 12 pfennigs (''piccoli'').<ref name="bundesbank" /> However, by 1500 the florin had appreciated; seven ''lire'' amounted to one florin.<ref name="Medici" />
The territorial usage of the ''lira'' and the florin often overlapped; where the lira was used for smaller transactions (wages, food purchases), the florin was for larger transactions such as those used in dowries, international trade or for tax-related matters.<ref name="Medici">{{Cite book |last=Hollingsworth |first=Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJmUDQAAQBAJ |title=The Medici |publisher=Head of Zeus |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-78669-151-4 |language=en |chapter=A Note to the Reader}}</ref>
In the 14th century, about 150 European states and local coin-issuing authorities made their own copies of the florin. The most important of these was the Hungarian forint, because the Kingdom of Hungary was a major source of European gold (until mining in the New World began to contribute to the supply in the 16th and 17th centuries, most of the gold used in Europe came from Africa).{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}
=== Design === The design of the original Florentine florins was the distinctive fleur-de-lis badge of the city on one side and on the other a standing and facing figure of St. John the Baptist<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Horner|first1=Susan|title=Walks in Florence and Its Environs|last2=Horner|first2=Joanna B.|publisher=Smith|year=1884|isbn=|volume=2|location=|pages=125}}</ref> wearing a cilice. The symbol to the left of John’s head was the mark of the minting official responsible for the stamping.<ref name="bundesbank" /> On other countries' florins, the inscriptions were changed (from "Florentia" around the fleur, and the name of the saint on the other), and local heraldic devices were substituted for the fleur-de-lis. Later, other figures were often substituted for St. John.
On the Hungarian forints, St. John was re-labelled St. Ladislaus I, an early Christian king and patron saint of Hungary, and a battle axe substituted for the original's sceptre. Gradually the image became more regal looking.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}
==Other coins== [[File:Holland Jan van Beieren goudgulden.jpg|thumb|300px|Gold florin or {{Langx|nl|Beiersgulden|label=none}}, struck in the County of Holland under John III of Bavaria]] [[File:Filips de Schone St-Philippus goudgulden Holland Dordrecht.jpg|thumb|300px|Gold florin or {{Langx|nl|Philippus goudgulden|label=none}}, struck in Dordrecht under Philip the Fair]]
The term ''florin'' was borrowed elsewhere in Europe. A variant of the florin was the Rhenish gulden ({{Langx|de|Rheinischer Gulden}}), minted by several German states encompassing the commercial centres of the Rhein (Rhine) River valley, under a series of monetary conventions starting in 1354, initially at a standard practically identical to the Florentine florin (98% gold, 3.54 g).<ref name="bundesbank" /> By 1419, the weight had been slightly reduced (to 3.51 grams) and the alloy was substantially reduced (to 79% gold). By 1626, the alloy had been slightly reduced again (to 77% gold), while the weight was more substantially reduced (to 3.240 g). In 1409, the Rhenish gulden standard (at the time 91.7% gold) was adopted for the Holy Roman Empire's Reichsgulden.<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of Currency 1252–1894 |author=W. A. Shaw |edition=reprint of second |year=1967 |orig-year=1896 |location=New York |publisher=Augustus Kelley |lccn=67020086 }}</ref>
The Dutch currency until the 2002 introduction of the Euro, was the Dutch guilder ({{Langx|nl|gulden}}), symbolised as fl. or ƒ, which means {{Langx|nl|florijn||florin|label=none}}.
The English coin first issued in 1344 by Edward III of England is also known as a florin. Originally valued at six shillings, it was composed of 108 grains (6.99828 g) of gold with a purity of 23 carats and {{frac|3|1|2}} grains (or {{frac|23|7|8}} carats)<ref name="Dye1883">{{cite book|author=John S. Dye|title=Dye's coin encyclopædia: a complete illustrated history of the coins of the world ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E5cUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA761|access-date=22 February 2012|year=1883|publisher=Bradley & company|page=761}}</ref><ref name="Palgrave1912">{{cite book|last=Palgrave|first=Sir Robert Harry Inglis|author-link=Inglis Palgrave|title=Dictionary of political economy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GIdQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA82|access-date=22 February 2012|year=1912|publisher=Macmillan and Co.|page=82}}</ref> – and more recently (minted between 1849–1967 although circulating alongside the decimal ten pence coin until 1993 when it was withdrawn due to a resizing) relating to a British pre-decimal silver coin (later nickel silver) also known as a two shilling (or two bob) "bit" (abbreviation 2/-) worth 24 pence or one-tenth of a pound.
In Ireland, a silver florin coin (worth one-tenth of an Irish pound, with Irish inscription {{lang|ga|flóirín}}) was minted between 1928 and 1943; it became cupronickel in 1943 and was withdrawn from use on 1 June 1994.<ref>{{cite ISB | year=1993|type=si|num=270 | title=Coinage (Calling In) Order 1993 |date=16 September 1993|signedby=Bertie Ahern, Minister for Finance}}</ref>
The Hungarian forint, first introduced in 1325 under King Charles Robert, is named after the florin.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Engel |first=Pál |title=The realm of St. Stephen : a history of medieval Hungary, 895-1526|date=2001|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=1-4175-4080-X|location=London|oclc=56676014}}</ref>
== See also== {{Portal|Money|Numismatics}} * {{Interlanguage link multi|Denaro (coin)|it|3=Denaro (moneta)}} * Florin (Australian coin) * History of coins in Italy * Soldo * Venetian ducat * Venetian grosso * Venetian lira
== Notes == {{notelist}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== Bibliography == * {{cite web |url=http://www.gmmnut.com/gmm/sca/florin.html |title=Ian Cnulle's Florin |work=Society for Creative Anachronism Archive |access-date=11 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811223234/http://www.gmmnut.com/gmm/sca/florin.html |archive-date=11 August 2017}} * {{cite book |title=Coins of Medieval Europe |author=Philip Grierson |publisher=Seaby, London |year=1991 |isbn= 1-85264-058-8 }} * {{cite book |title=Money and its use in medieval Europe |author=Peter Spufford |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1988 |isbn=0-521-37590-8 }} * {{cite book |title=Handbook of Medieval Exchange |author=Peter Spufford |publisher=Royal Historical Society, London |year=1986 |isbn=0-86193-105-X }} * Richard A. Goldthwaite, ''The Economy of Renaissance Florence'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=OM2ckx49QFYC&dq=gold+florin+florence+coin&pg=PT71]
== External links == {{Commons category|Fiorino}} {{EB1911 Poster|Florin}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110714112127/http://www.moneymuseum.com/moneymuseum/library/coins/coin.jsp?lang=en&aid=4&ix=2&i=0 Money museum:Fiorino d'Oro ] * [http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/british-coinage/denominations/florin/index.html History of the British Florin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524084202/http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/british-coinage/denominations/florin/index.html |date=2013-05-24 }}
{{Historic Italian currency and coinage}} {{Guilder}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Florin (Italian Coin)}} Category:Guilder Category:Coins of Italy Category:Republic of Florence Category:Medieval currencies Category:Obsolete Italian currencies Category:Gold coins