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Bezant
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==Medieval history== Gold coins were rarely minted in early medieval Western Europe, up until the later 13th century; [[silver]] and [[bronze]] were the metals of choice for money. Gold coins were almost continually produced by the Byzantines and medieval Arabs. These circulated in Western European trade in smallish numbers, originating from the coinage mints of the Eastern Mediterranean. In Western Europe, the gold coins of [[Byzantine currency]] were highly prized. These gold coins were commonly called bezants. The first "bezants" were the Byzantine ''solidi'' coins; later, the name was applied to the ''hyperpyra'', which replaced the ''solidi'' in Constantinople in the late 11th century. The name ''hyperpyron'' was used by the late medieval Greeks, while the name bezant was used by the late medieval Latin merchants for the same coin. The Italians also used the name ''perpero'' or ''pipero'' for the same coin (an abridgement of the name ''hyperpyron''). Medievally from the 12th century onward (if not earlier), the Western European term bezant also meant the [[gold dinar]] coins minted by Islamic governments. The Islamic coins were originally modelled on the Byzantine ''solidus'' during the early years after the onset of Islam. The term bezant was used in the late medieval [[Republic of Venice]] to refer to the Egyptian gold dinar. [[Marco Polo]] used the term bezant in the account of his travels to East Asia when describing the currencies of the [[Yuan Dynasty|Yuan Empire]] around the year 1300.<ref name="YULE">[[Henry Yule|Yule, Henry]]; [[Henri Cordier|Cordier, Henri]]. ''The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition''. Third edition (1903), revised and updated by Henri Cordier. Plain Label Books. p. 1226-27. ({{ISBN|1-60303-615-6}})</ref> An Italian merchant's handbook dated about 1340, ''[[Pratica della mercatura]]'' by [[Francesco Balducci Pegolotti|Pegolotti]], used the term ''bisant'' for coins of North Africa (including Tunis and Tripoli), Cyprus, Armenia and Tabriz (in today's northwestern Iran), whereas it used the term ''perpero'' / ''pipero'' for the Byzantine bizant.<ref>''La Pratica della Mercatura'', by Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, dated 1343, full text online in Italian at [http://www.medievalacademy.org/resource/resmgr/maa_books_online/evans_0024.htm MedievalAcademy.org].</ref> Although the medieval "bezant" usually referred to a gold coin, some medieval Latin texts have been noted to expand its usage to cover silver coins. These silver bezants were often called "white bezants".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2C89LepPuvsC&dq=%22silver%20bezants%22&pg=PA359 '''Bezant''' @ ''The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge''], Volume 4, year 1835.</ref> Occasionally in Latin they were also called "[[miliaresion]] bezants" / "[[miliarense]] bezants". Like the gold bezants, the silver bezants by definition were issuances by the Byzantine government or by an Arabic government, and not by a Latin government, and the usage of the term was confined to the Latin West.
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