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Show PAPAL LORE IN COIN SERIES THAT EXTEND8 OVER A THOUSAND YEARS. Adrfan I. the First Head of Church to Circulate Currency Leo XIII. Wae the Last Rare Typea Are Illustrated. Not the least Interesting of the pope's Jubilee gifts was the unique gold coin of Pope Innocent IX., which, recently exhumed at Acqnl, Italy, was contended for by coin collectors, King Victor Emmanuel being an unsuccessful unsuccess-ful competitor. ' This coin, the only one In existence of the reign of Innocent IX.. was needed need-ed to make the Vatican collection of papal coins complete. Tbe papal coins exhibit thft portraits of many of the popes and their coats of arms, and furnish metallic history of the coinage of the church from tho first Issues In tho litter part of tho eighth century down to 1870. when the papal states were annexed to Italy and the papal mint ceased operations. Th papal series of oolns Is one of the very longest, covering 1,136 years. The first pope to issue coins was Adrian Ad-rian I. The coins of Europe were then largely In imitation of those of tho Byzantine empire, whose gold bysanta were generally UBed throughout the continent, and tho coin of Pop Adrian Ad-rian was a fair example of the coinage of the times. It showed a full faco portrait, presumably of St Peter, on the obverse, surrounded by the inscription inscrip-tion "Iladrlanus P. P." and the cross on the reverse, very much after tho style of the Byzantine pieces. Many of the early issues of tho popes show tho name of the reigning pope and a representation of cither St. Peter or St, Paul. Perhaps no series se-ries of coins shows a greater variety of design or moro skillful execution. The church, rJiayB a patron of the arts, employed the foremost artists of the time, and some of tho coins are from the hands of such men as Cellini and Fran do. A gold scudo of Julius II-, the de-Blgn de-Blgn of which is credited to Francla, shows a finely engraved portrait of the pope, with the inscription: "Julius Pontifox liaxlr3U8." A coin of Alexander Alex-ander VII., attributed to Paolo, shows on the reverse the crossed keys and crown, perhaps one of the first of tho papal coins to bear this device. The coins of the popes were struck In many places, including Rome, Bologna, Bo-logna, Avignon. Porugla, Ternl, San Severino and Gaeta. One of the interesting inter-esting pieces of the Roman mint was a 6llver ducat of Clement VII. This piece, Irregular in shape, was struck in 1527, when Rome was in a state of siege. On the obverse are shown tho arms and title of Pope Clement, with the word "Ducato" Inclosed by a wreath on tho reverse. To this same pope is credited a Jubilee five sequin piece in gold, struck in 1525. It is not unlikely that the latter pleco was engraved en-graved by Colllni. |