W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

302 The Coins of Europe
dependent money of Lichtenstein appears to have ceased
in 1778.
There are bracteates belonging to this electoral domain
in its undivided state, and money of Sophia, Duchess of
Hesse- Hesse, daughter of the Landgraf Louis IV., and of
Cassel. her son Henry. The most ancient mint seems
to" have been Marpurg or Marburg, which occurs on the
mute bracteates with the Hessian lion. There must have
been a very extensive coinage from first to last but the
;
existing remains are not abundant beyond
the small values
in silver and copper of the last and present century.
The Hessian series of thalers, at first of the Cassel
branch only, seems to go back to 1502, when we meet
with the thaler of Wilhelm, Landgraf of Hesse, and its
divisions. The thaler reads Wilhemvs ; D : G :
Lantgravivs :
Hassie +, and on reverse Gloria Rei-Pvblice. 1502. There
is from this point of time to the present a continuous series
in all metals, of which the earlier are very seldom found out
of Germany. We may be permitted to refer to the Reinmann
Catalogue, 1891-92, for an extraordinarily complete sequence
of the landgraves and their money, which it must have
occupied a lifetime to accumulate. Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-
Homburg have formed part of Prussia since I 866.
We may take the opportunity to note a thaler of Hedwig
Sophia of Brandenburgh, 1669, as regent or guardian; a
piece of i 5 pfennigen of Frederic, Landgraf of Hesse-Darmstadt
and Cardinal-Bishop of Breslau, 1680, with the shield
of arms on the reverse surmounted by a cardinal's hat a ;
^
thaler of Mary, daughter of George II. of Great Britain, and
consort of Frederic, Landgraf of Hesse-Cassel, 1763, as
administratrix of the county of Hanau, with her portrait
and a shield quartered with the arms of England ;
and
thalers of Wilhelm IX., Landgraf of Hesse and Count of
The
Hanau, 1771 and 1794, with a large portrait to right.
thaler of 1771 reads (obv.) Wilhelni D. G. Landg. & Pr.
Her Hass. Com. Han., and (rev.) Ex Visceribvs Fading
Bieber., 1771 alluding to. the mines at Biber in the district
of Neuvied. Several seigniorial mints, both secular and