the process—(1) the practice of alloying, (2) the competitive and dishonest action of governments, (3) the ideal nature of the unit itself, which permitted, literally, anything in the way of arbitrary manipulation (compare, e.g., the very Page xiii different depreciations of the English shilling and the French sou, being both descendants of the solidus; or again, of the French livre and the Italian lire, being both descendants of the libra).
- A second and much greater difficulty is presented by the confusion of nomenclature. It is often difficult to determine what particular piece is meant by a given name, or, if the identity of the piece can be fixed, its period may still be uncertain. In French numismatic history, for instance, the term florin d'or or denier d'or is used in documents quite generically for the more specific florins d'or à l'agnel, à l'écu, aux fleurs de lis, à la masse, moutons d'or, etc. This quite indeterminate use of the word "florin" (= denier = "piece," or generally, "coin") may possibly explain the crux to be found on pages 3, 9, 301, and 399 of the text (infra), where florins d'or are mentioned in French history more than seventy years before the first authentic minting of the gold florin at Florence.
- With regard to the figures of the ratios there is great difference and divergence among the