PROLEGOMENA

CONCERNING

THE DEFINITION OF NUMISMATICS,

ITS UTILITY,

PRINCIPAL WRITERS,

TREASURIES OF EUROPE,

ESPECIALLY GERMANY,

AND THE PARTS OF THIS TREATISE.

The science of currency or numismatics contains the knowledge of coins, both ancient and modern, and considers them according to their origin and progress, age, nations, material, size, types, rarity, and other circumstances.

This type of study is not only pleasant and delightful but also exceptionally fruitful and useful, as it illustrates and clarifies philology, all history, chronology, geography, genealogy, rites and antiquities, and indeed other kinds of studies.

1. BAUDELOT de DAIRVAL in his treatise on the utility of travel

To show its excellence and utility at length would be superfluous, since the authors who treat this excellent subject have already done so abundantly,