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

1 86 The Coins of Europe
Blanque, and detni-blanque, and grand-blanquc,
a billon coin of the
French and Anglo-Gallic series. These coins continued in use till 1791.
Sch., Cat. 4, No. 460, where is cited a piece of six blancs de Montagny.
A grand-blanque Tournaisis was struck by Charles VII., 1422-61, for
France, and a denier = two blanques or albi by Charles V. for the county
of Holland.
Blutzger, an episcopal type formerly current in the Swiss cantons of
Orisons, Coire, and Haldenstein. They are known of many years from
1644 to 1842. They were also struck for the town of Coire or Chur.
Bokmisch, a coin belonging to the former bishopric of Fulda, now
part of Hesse-Cassel.
Bolognino, a silver coin of Bologna from the autonomous republican
period (nth c.) to the last century. There is the half as well as the double.
Comp. Fcrrarino.
*Bon-gros, Hesse-Cassel, silver, value 2d.
Borodoraia, the popular name given to the Russian beard-money, of
which there are existing specimens in copper of various dates, 1699,
1705, 1725, etc. The obv. bears the Russian eagle and the date, the rev.
a nose and mouth with the beard and moustache, with the legends dengui
usiafi (money received), sborodi pochlina usiata (beard-tax received), or
dague platchena (tax paid). This species of currency was really a token.
Bossonaya, a billon coin of the ancient Counts of Barcelona.
Botdrager, Holland, episcopal money of Utrecht, a type of the double
groot or gros, silver, I4th c. There is the \ and ^, otherwise the groot
and \ groot.
Bourbe.
See Asper.
Bourbonnais, a type of the French denier under Louis VII. (1137-80),
King of France, of which there were at least three varieties : the B. a la
tete, the B. a la tete barbue, the B. i\ la main bdnissante, from the mints
at Bourges and Mantes.
Bourdelois, a variety of the French denier struck under Louis XI.
(1461-83).
Bourgeois, a term for the Toulouse denier of Philip le Hardi (1270-
85). It was called the Bourgeois de la langue d'Oc or Languedoc.
Bourgeois, a term applied to two or three kinds of billon currency
under the prolific reign of Philip le Bel (1285-1344). We find the b. fort,
the b. simple, and the maille bourgcoisc. The Dukes of Lorraine adopted
it ;
there is an inedited variety of Ferri IV. (1312-28) struck at Bruges ;
and Bruges itself preserved the type and name under the Spanish rule,
calling it the Burgensis Novus.
Box-thaler, a coin formerly struck in several parts of Germany, and
enclosing a series of pictures, sometimes not of a very conventional
character. One of the posthumous thalers of Charles V. for Besangon,
1660, is of this type.
Bracteate, from Gr. ppdxciv, to crackle, or Latin bractea, metal foil,
a peculiar uniface species of money current in N. Germany, Switzerland,
the N. Netherlands, and Lombardy from a period of unknown antiquity
in the middle ages down to the i6th c. It exists in gold, silver, and
copper, of which the silver types are the commonest. It is nearly, if not
quite, always anepigraphic (one of Pertarit, King of the Lombards, 671-
686, struck at Pavia, has Per.}, and many specimens and types are of a
very rudimentary style. Sometimes, however, the bracteate occurs with
the appearance of having been the product of a carefully and artistically
an elaborate
prepared die, and we have before us one of Mayence of quite