The ''croat'' was a
silver coin
Silver coins are considered the oldest mass-produced form of coinage. Silver has been used as a coinage metal since the times of the Greeks; their silver drachmas were popular trade coins. The ancient Persians used silver coins between 612–330 ...
of
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
introduced by
Peter III of Aragon
Peter III of Aragon ( November 1285) was King of Aragon, King of Valencia (as ), and Count of Barcelona (as ) from 1276 to his death. At the invitation of some rebels, he conquered the Kingdom of Sicily and became King of Sicily in 1282, pres ...
in 1285 and minted at
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
. The term "croat" derives from the Latin ''grossus denarius'', great coin, a common term for silver coins of higher value than pennies. Peter III was inspired by the ''
gros
Gros may refer to:
People
*Gros (surname)
* Gross (surname), the German variant of Gros
* Le Gros, the Norman variant of Gros
Other uses
* Gros (coinage), a type of 13th-century silver coinage of France
* Gros (grape), another name for Elbling, ...
'' introduced by
Louis IX of France
Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, was King of France from 1226 to 1270, and the most illustrious of the Direct Capetians. He was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the ...
.
The ''croat'' was originally worth twelve ''
terns
Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...
'' of 25% silver
billon. In 1340 the
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
''
florín'' was introduced at a value of eleven ''croats''. The purity of the ''florín'' was fixed at eighteen carats (75% gold) in 1365. As the popularity of the ''florín'' and the ''croat'' grew, the
Aragonese empire
The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Ba ...
settled into
bimetallism
Bimetallism, also known as the bimetallic standard, is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver, creating a fixed rate of exchange betwee ...
. The Catalan ''croat'' was equivalent in value to the Aragonese ''
ral'' (which went by many names: ''grosso'', ''real'', ''alfonsino'', ''anfusinus''). It was the most stable of all the Aragonese coinage and widely used in the Mediterranean trade.
Notes
Sources
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Coins
History of Catalonia
{{Coin-stub