THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

CONTINENT OF EUROPE
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The coinage of
Silesia was various, according to the locality whence
it proceeded, with the exception of that of the ancient
dukes. At Liegnitz the early kings of Poland struck
money for Polish Prussia, including gold florins of the
Italian type.
Austria, first a margraviat, afterward a duchy and
archduchy, and ultimately an empire, struck bracteates
in primitive times of very numerous types. The Flo-
rentine gold pattern was adopted by Albrecht I. (1298-
1308); and we owe to this source the earliest dated
thalers, executed with great care and skill, particularly
that of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy, 1479, of
which there are three distinct varieties, and the two of
1516 and 1518, with the older bust. There are also
magnificent gold coins in this series. With Austria
are connected by political ties the Tyrol, Carinthia,
Moravia, Istria, Styria, Dalmatia, Bohemia, Hungarv,
Transylvania, nearly all of which had been originally
sources of autonomous coinage on a large scale, and, in
fact, offer to our consideration numismatic examples
equal in character and interest to any which Austria
itself possesses.
Hungarv still retains its own currency ; Bohemia and
Transylvania did so till the last century. The Madonna
and Child is an almost invariable Hungarian type, and
on some of the modern pieces for that part of the empire
the peculiar form of the Magyar crown may be observed.
The Swiss Coinage leaves little to be desired in
regard to its extent, duration, and variety. It is
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