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

330 The Coins of Europe
first King to the cause of Napoleon, and included the
ancestral estates of the ancient dukes. The most impor-
Prussian tant centres are Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Halle,
Saxony: Stendal, Mansfeld, Stolberg, Wittenberg, Erfurt,
Magdeburg, and Muhlhausen ;
but the acquisition compre-
(2) Circle of
hended the whole of the Saxon palatinate as well
Merseburg, .- . .
, , , , ,
(3) Circle of as Thiiringen, and completely shifted the balance
Erfurt.
of p Ower from one monarchy to the other, although
of Prussian ascend-
even under the former regime the germ
ency, Brandenburgh, had exercised influence within this
range, and had seats of coinage at several points. From
1815 the prestige of Saxony may be considered as extinguished
or eclipsed. The descendants of the Burgraf of
Magdeburg did not, as in the somewhat parallel case of the
house of Savoy, acquire an indemnity elsewhere.
We have called attention in our Catalogues to the more
remarkable productions, numismatically speaking, of this
region, of which the most conspicuous belong, perhaps, to
Mansfeld and Stolberg. The former is certainly an interesting
if a rather monotonous series, extending from 1521 to about
1790, and is seldom to be found in even tolerable preservation.
The early gold money
is of peculiar rarity.
The
which embraces or concerns more than
coinage of Stolberg,
one branch of that house, is almost equally unvaried, bearing
a stag on one side and a shield on the other, the horns
of the animal usually entangled in a column ;
but the most
ancient examples mute uniface bracteates exhibit only