THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
and in fidelity and excellence of portraiture. The
recognisable coinage dates from the tenth century.
The modern kingdom, dating from 1806, is, of course,
only a portion of what was embraced within the same
geographical term. There were the separate states of
Saxe-Weimar (subdivided into Old, New, and Middle
Weimar, and Weimar - Jena), Saxe - Coburg, Saxe-
Meiningen, Saxe - Hilburghausen, Saxe - Saalfeld, and
Saxe-Altenberg, each of which had its monetary system,
subject to periodical political changes. In Saxe-Mein-
ingen we have the coinage of the Counts of Henneberg,
to which belong rare early thalers.
We mention Anhalt, of which there were for-
merly four branches, Schwarzburg and Schwahzburg-
Rudolstadt, and Reuss Senior and Junior (each throw-
ing out various branches), of which any single division
would suffice to engage the exclusive attention and
resources of a collector, and pass on to Brunswick,
which resembles Saxony in the subdivisions of the
ruling family, but far less so in the minor places
of coinage. There were at one time six branches, of
which one, Liineburg, acquired signal distinction as
the origin of the present royal house of Great Britain
through a double tie—Henry the Lion and Elizabeth
of Bohemia. The grand numismatic monuments of
tins state, more especially of the Liineburg line, ought.
however, to command interest apart from any colla-
teral consideration.
There is a good deal of instructive matter to be
gleaned from the coinages of points within the Bruns-
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