Historical-Political Dissertation on Coins, Both Functional and Commemorative

...nor indeed did the thin and weak powers of my mind and body seem to permit it. However, as the aforementioned parent did not desist from his proposal, I finally granted room to his petition, although reluctantly. I first committed myself to the reading and unfolding of the most excellent authors—a supply of whom, due to my own poor resources, was benevolently made available to me from the public library, as well as the noble libraries of Schermar, Baldinger, and Krafft, and elsewhere (from which the inspection of ancient coins also most fortunately fell to me). I dedicated to this task my spare hours, although they are very rare for me, and often scarcely amounted to two or three in several weeks. Thereafter, I resolved to address this most weighty matter myself according to my ability and, with combined efforts, to expose this work to the public light and, having exposed it, to defend it with GOD, promising myself a fair judgment and a kind interpretation from the fair reader if I have exhibited the shadow of a president rather than a true presidency, being ready and most willing to yield the palm to those who bring more certain and solid matters. But to what good, you will ask, is this material brought onto the stage? We answer: this will become clear, as we hope (besides the fact that this theme has pleased the Most Reverend Pastor above others), from the inspection of the present dissertation itself, in which we have striven to direct everything toward use, both regarding functional and commemorative coins, duly distinguishing—as is right—use from abuse. This is something that, among others, Cyriac. Spangenberg a 16th-century German theologian and historian once did solicitously in a very useful booklet written in the vernacular, concerning the use and abuse of coins on the part of both magistrates and subjects, which, because of its excellence, was inserted into the public monetary acts of Mr. David Thomanus, a most deserving Councilor of the Republic of Augsburg; for this reason, we highly recommend it. Cited in it is a charming passage by S. Augustinus Saint Augustine from Tractate 40, interpreting Chapter 8 of the Gospel of Saint John: