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

Introduction 6 1
the Hand, just as it is on some of the pennies of Edward the
Confessor ;
and abroad it
lingered even to a later epoch.
The strange type adopted by the Georgians of an ingot cut
in the form of the thumb and fingers, and impressed with a
legend, more than possibly referred to the ancient superstitious
belief in the binding nature of contracts made with
the thumb.
The earliest deniers of the Bishops of Utrecht sometimes
bore a curious symbol in the form of the Greek letters
Alpha and Omega, the latter before, the former behind, the
crozier. This was a symbol of mortality, while the serpent
on the reverse of some of the grossi of Ercole I. Duke of
Ferrara (1471-1505) offers the idea of infinitude.
Another remarkable divergence from the normal standard
and style on numismatic productions was the Low-
Country loan of the so-called Phrygian cap in the stadtholder's
bonnet, with which, surmounting his staff or otherwise,
we meet on the money of the United Provinces. The
same symbol served at a subsequent
crisis for one of the
insignia of the revolutionary currency in France.
In considering the question of types, too great a stress
is sometimes laid on casual and subsidiary variations ;
and
the cabinet of the amateur is embarrassed by duplicate
specimens of substantially identical coins. We perhaps
still know too little of the incidence and volume of early
production to enable us to speak confidently on this
subject but a differentiation, often far more minute and
;
trivial than on Greek or Roman coins belonging to the
same issue, can scarcely be held to amount to a plea
for possessing eight or ten pieces, exhibiting common
features and telling no more than a single story, yet
no two of them absolutely identical.
XIX
In the body of the volume it is proposed to furnish
to collectors some suggestions in aid of the formation of