Foundations and Development of Money Systems in Slovene Countries until 17th Century

Abstract

On the Slovene territory two groups of monetary systems of early medieval origin met: the North Italian and the Bavarian-Austrian. In both systems a pound was worth 240 pennies, they differed one from another especially according to the counting unit of the solid (at 12 resp. 30 pennies) and according to the silver quantity in a penny. In order to unite the Venetian and Austrian system, in about 1500 a specific counting unit was used: black penny = half a penny, which was in different relations to the Austrian (white) penny. The different currency of the Venetian lira at 20 pennies South of the river Drava (13 1/3 kreutzers) and in other Austrian countries (12 kreutzers) led in the years 1582—1590 to formation of the »Carniola« currency, which was mostly used on the Slovene territory.