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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Orielensis, post: 4175031, member: 96898&quot;]The Black Death, a pandemic caused by the bacterium <i>Yersinia pestis</i>, ravaged in Europe from ca. 1346–1353, killing an estimated 75 to 200 million people. It caused a massive social, cultural and political caesura in European history: the first decades of the 14th century had been one of the most prosperous, open-minded, culturally and intellectually productive times in the Middle Ages (think Dante, Petrarch, Meister Eckhart, Giotto, Guillaume de Machaut, etc). In the second half of the century, the Black Death did not only disrupt the medieval economy, it also lead to new waves of superstition, zealotism, and persecutions, especially anti-Jewish pogroms. Let&#039;s hope that history doesn&#039;t repeat itself...</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are two coins from the time of the Black Death. Both were minted in cities that were hit heavily by the pandemic:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1074793[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Albrecht II &quot;the Wise,&quot; Duchy of Austria, AR &quot;Vienna pfennig,&quot; 1330–1358 AD, Enns mint, Obv: cross of four leaves. Rev: angel (struck very weak). 16mm, 0.72g. Ref: CNA I, B248. Ex Allen Berman.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br /></font></p><p><font size="3">[ATTACH=full]1074792[/ATTACH] </font></p><p><font size="3">Bishop Johann II. Senn von Münsingen, Prince-Bishopric of Basel, Angster (&quot;vierzipfliger Pfennig&quot;), 1335–1365 AD. Obv: head of a bishop wearing mitre (three pellets at each side) left, between B-A, ring above. Rev: negative design (bracteate). 17–20mm, 0.33g. Ref: Wielandt: Basler Münzprägung (1971), no. 117; HMZ 255; Catalogue Wüthrich, no 31; Berger: Brakteaten (1993/6), no. 2415–1416.</font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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