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

Descriptive Outline of the Coinages of E^t,rope 315
in the fifteenth century, and received the imperial authority
to coin gold in 1503. There are thalers from 1539. The
Anhalt-Dessau.
,
division of the house into branches seems to
Bernburg. have taken . . . . .,
place m 1003.
TTf ,
We have in our
Coethen.
hands a small copper piece of Anhalt-Dessau,
belonging to that epoch, as well as a jubileumsthaler
commemorating the partition of 1603 and the reunion
for constitutional and financial purposes in I863. 1 The bear
passant to left on the money which most usually occurs indicates
Anhalt-Bernburg. Without exception the coinage of this
region is scarce, particularly the gold, even of the last century.
This is a house of which there were several branches,
all striking money, which is chiefly of the lower denomina-
Schwarzburg
tions, commencing with bracteates in the thirteenth
Schwarzburg- century. The thaler appeared in 1525, and in
Rudolstadt.
I737 gold was obtained from the mines at Goldsthai
for the coinage of ducats or florins in that metal. Of the
bracteate series the most ancient appear to be the examples
with the double circle of pearls specified in a monetary treaty of
1290 between Schlotheim and Miihlhausen, and not directly
connected with the duchy. A later issue has a single circle.
Two interesting relics of S. Rudolstadt are the mortuary
of the Duchess ^Emilia and the thaler or
money in memory
gulden of medallic fabric of 1796, with the singular type on
reverse of the Wild Man and Woman as supporters of the
ducal shield. There are thalers of Friedrich Gunther of S.
Rudolstadt of 1812, 1858, 1866, and, doubtless, other years.
That of i 8 1 2 is a convention-piece, of which the reverse is
from the same die as was used for Reuss, etc., and in fact
the sole difference is in the obverses of this issue with the
portraits and special titles. They all probably came from a
common mint Leipsic ? under Franco-Saxon auspices.
The within-named principality, divided at an early date
into four branches, and at present into two, Senior and
Junior, has issued from the twelfth century downward
a very considerable body of money, which is
seldom seen in England, and does not often present itself
1
But Anhalt-Zerbst became extinct in 1793.