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 ...

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 no ...

introduced by Peter III of Aragon 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 ...

. 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'' introduced by Louis IX of France. 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 ...

'' 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 ...

florín The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a pur ...

'' 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. 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

* * * Coins History of Catalonia {{Coin-stub