It should be kept in mind that the Florentines reaped great advantages in all these banking operations from the excellent quality of their coinage, for the Republican Mint always kept the best interests of commerce in view. To this end, in the year 1252, the gold florin of twenty carats was struck, with the figure of St. John on one side and the lily of Florence on the reverse; and, owing to the goodness of the metal and its alloy, soon obtained currency in every Eastern as well as European market. Eight of these florins weighed one ounce, and a single florin was valued at about twelve Italian _lire_. The Florentines, however, usually made their calculations in _lire_, _soldi_, and _denari_. The silver _lira_, then the conventional standard, consisted of twenty _soldi_, and the _soldo_ of twelve _denari_. The florin seldom altered in value, but the _lira_, either from the greater variability in the price of silver, or from other causes, was constantly altering its rate with regard to the florin. In 1252 the latter was equivalent to the _lira_, and therefore similarly divided into twenty _soldi_; in 1282 it already consisted of thirty-two _soldi_; in 1331, of sixty _soldi_, or three _lire_, and always changing in value, rose to four _lire_, eight _soldi_ by the year 1464. The Florentines had discerned how greatly their commerce was benefited by the use of a coin universally prized in all markets supplied with their goods. But in the beginning of the fifteenth century, when their trade penetrated farther into the East, they found themselves forestalled by the Venetians, whose gold ducat, somewhat larger and heavier than the florin, was already current there. Accordingly, in 1422, they decreed the issue of another florin, equivalent to the Venetian ducat in weight, size, and value, and therefore easily exchanged for it. And as this new and larger florin was to be carried to the Levant on board-ship, they named it the "broad florin," or the "galley florin," to distinguish it from the older "sealed florin" (_fiorino di suggello_). In 1471 the older coin only was re-issued, and kept in circulation down to 1530, when it was held equivalent to seven _lire_, and was then withdrawn for a time.[351] Thus we see that for a considerable period two different florins were in use, that the _lira_ altered in value from one year to another; and if we likewise remember that economists are still unagreed as to the exact difference between the present value of gold and silver and their value in the days of the Republic, we shall recognise the difficulty of making any calculation sufficiently exact to afford any precise idea of the relative prices of things. It is asserted by some writers that a given quantity of gold was only worth in those days double its present value; while others exaggerated its value to fortyfold. Sismondi believes that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries gold must have been worth four times as much as at present.