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 321
seigneurs or herren of Jever are supposed to have struck
money there in the eleventh century, and Wildeshausen
possessed an episcopal coinage in the twelfth. The grandduke
issued in 1806-7, from the mint at St. Petersburgh,
gold pieces of 10, 5, and 2^ thalers on the German model.
At present and since 1864 part of Prussia, this territory
long remained a separate duchy under Johann, son of
Albrecht I.,
Duke of Saxony, and his successors,
and possessed
its own mints and currency. The
principal seat of coinage was at Otterndorf.
Holstein first occurs to our notice as a dependency of
the Dukes of Saxony, who governed
it
by deputy. In
1460 the Estates of Holstein chose the
Holstein. r -r^ i /~> 11
Kin Holstein-Glucksburg. g of Denmark their Count, and the
Sonderburg. Emperor Frederic III. in 1474-75 erected
the fief into a duchy with full monetary
privileges. Holstein was incorporated with Denmark in
1773, and annexed by Prussia in I 864. Kiel appears to have
been the most ancient mint, as it received a concession from
the Count of Holstein as far back as 1318, having been previously,
perhaps, his own monopoly. Of the three branches
there are coins to a limited extent. Altogether the salvage
of time has been scanty enough
: in many of these extinct
or obscure governments political and financial agencies have
blindly committed to the crucible for recoinage or conversion
into bullion not a little of the material and testimony
requisite for a continuous numismatic study of the past.
For some account of the productions of these
Lubeck.
r
Hamburgh, three members of the Hanseatic League we may
Bremen.
re fer ^o ^e previous sections.
This division of Northern Germany, parcelled
out at an
early period into four separate governments, and ultimately
consolidated into two
Mecklemburgh.
grand -duchies,
Mecklemburgh-Schwerin. became the seat of numerous places of
: ltz '
coinage by
virtue of concessions from
the ancient dukes or from the Crown. As we pointed out
above, a distinctive symbol on many
of the civic coins of
Wismar, Rostock, and other towns is a bull's head, a peculi-
Y