First gold florin struck in Florence

1252

The Florentine commune minted a gold coin stamped with the city's lily and the image of Saint John the Baptist. At 3.5 grams of fine gold, the florin became the standard currency of European trade, displacing Byzantine bezants and Muslim dinars from the ledgers of Italian bankers. Its reliable purity made it the dollar of medieval Europe, accepted from London to Constantinople without question.