CHAP. XIV. FOREIGN MONEY IN ENGLAND.

373

of that which issued from the mints of Germany or France . Its fineness was of twenty-fourcarats, whilst the gold which was coined inFrance in the reign of Philip III. , about the year1230, was only of the fineness of twenty-threecarats 1 . Besides these coins from Constantino-ple, the gold pieces struck in France were in-troduced in considerable quantities into Englandafter the conquests made by our ancestors inFrance. The agnels of the reign of St. Louis ,sometimes called mutones or multones, fromhaving on one side a lamb with a banner, andthe words Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi,miserere nobis, and on the other a cross withthe motto Christus regnat, vincit, imperat, wereof gold of the fineness of twenty-three caratsand a half. These and other coins of a cotem-poraneous period circulated, or rather passed inlarge payments, in England for a long period ;whilst that which was subsequently coined inFrance from the reign of Philip le Bel , whichcommenced in 1285, to a later period, being re-duced in purity from one to two carats belowthe standard of St. Louis , had little circulationout of the country where it was issued. TheAngelots were a coin fabricated by the English in Paris , whilst they exercised the governmentof France under the reign of Henry V. , and in

1 See Abot de Bazinglien, vol. i. p. 104, and vol. ii. p. 109.