The Medici family had long been involved in banking at a high level, maintaining their status as a respectably upper-class and notably wealthy family who derived their money from land holdings in the Mugello region towards the Apennines, north of Florence. The Medicis were not only bankers but innovators in financial accounting. At one point, the Medicis managed most of the great fortunes in the European world, from members of royalty to merchants. There was even a time when the currency issued by the Medicis, the florin, was accepted and used throughout Europe as the preferred currency to conduct business, commerce and trade.