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

Descriptive Outline of the Coinages of Europe 307
in a boat with the keys and no legend, and on reverse in
eight lines, Regnans Capitvlvm Ecclesiae Cathedralis Ratisbomnsis
Sede Vacante, MDCCLXXXVII. 10, Eine F. Mark.
The shield of the late prelate is left blank, and is surmounted
by his mitred effigy. There is also the episcopal coinage of
Eichstadt (Catalogue of Mints in v.}
down to the end of the
eighteenth century. It was struck, however, at Niirnberg
(where there does not appear to have been any output of
local municipal money) from the fifteenth century. The later
bishops issued some very handsome pieces ;
but the chefd'ceuvre
of the series is the sede vacante double thaler of 1790.
This classic and unhappy region, the theatre of much of
the tragical and grim drama known as the Thirty Years'
War, after certain political vicissitudes, was ultip
mately incorporated with Bavaria by the Treaty of
, .
Westphalia (1648), carrying with it the electoral
title and dignity. It is invested with no slight historical
interest in the eyes of Englishmen on account of the inauspicious
marriage of Elizabeth Stuart with the Elector
Frederic V. in 1613, and the fortunes of their children in
the persons of Prince Rupert and the Electress Sophia.
The numismatic annals of the Phalz or Palatinate seem to
extend from the fourteenth century to the union with
Bavaria, and include, amid a copious assortment and succession
of lower denominations and unimportant coins, the
currencies of the counts in their several branches, those
coins struck at
Heidelberg, Amberg, Neuburg, and elsewhere
in alliance with the Duke of Bavaria or the See of Mayence,
and some interesting examples in the more precious metals,
for instance, the dated gold florin of 1437 struck at Bacharach.
Several independent coinages were constantly running