THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
divisible into imperial, feudal, cantonal, and federal.
Historically, the series of early money of bracteate or
semi-bracteate fabric is perhaps the most important
but the pieces most attractive in aspect belong to the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, although the can-
tonal and federal coinage of the last and even present
century is handsome and well executed, and occasion-
ally exhibits views of the city to which it refers.
Some of the ancient coins, as the St. Gallen plappart
of 1424, the Bern thaler of 1494, and the gold dicken
of 1492, are of signal rarity, a characteristic which is
shared by several large silver pieces of later date, like
the celebrated thaler struck by Cardinal Schinner, with
his portrait as Bishop of Sitten.
The coinage of Poland, traceable to very rudi-
mentary and barbarous beginnings, remained without
great perceptible improvement till the reign of Sigismund
I. (1506-48), who gave a powerful impetus to
this feature in the national life and character, and
from whose time dates that advance in fabric and style
which continued to the end. The earlier numismatists
apparently enjoyed a very imperfect acquaintance with
the volume and variety of this extensive and important
series.
Down to a certain period a considerable portion of
Prussia belonged to the dukes and kings of Poland,
and special money was struck for East Prussia, as
well as for Livonia, acquired by marriage from the
Jagellon dynasty. The first gold of Polish origin
seems to be that of the Florentine type struck at
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