THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

Thirty Years 1
TERMINOLOGY
War in the name of the Protestant
princes, 1634, falls under this head.
Corrosion—The destruction of the surface of a bronze
or copper coin by exposure to atmospheric and chemical
effects.
Courant—A term found on the Norwegian and
Danish money, and apparently employed to distinguish
the normal internal currency from that used in com-
merce.
Cross—A symbol which in different forms presents
itself on European coins from a very remote period, and
was obviously intended to constitute part of a scheme
by which the currency of a country was made the vehicle
for keeping before the people general and local objects
of worship, the authority of the Church, and the
intimate bond between the latter and the temporal
ruler. The chief varieties of cross are : the Greek cross,
with the four limbs of equal length ; the Latin cross,
with the lower arm lengthened, the others equal ; the
Maltese cross or cross of Jerusalem, with four equal
limbs expanded at end ; the cross of St. Stephen, as on
the piastro of Etruria, 1587 ; the croix de Bourgogne,
somewhat similar to the St. Andrew's cross (its origin
is referred back to the prehistoric annals of that
ancient kingdom, and it is probably the prototype of
the Brunswick, Scotish, and Russian varieties); St
Andrew's cross, the Greek cross resting on two of the
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