Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/836

816 "silver," some of the pieces of which were described by De Planis Campy as still existing in 1633. They bore his name and the three hearts of his arms.

Monconis tells of a merchant of Lubeck who transformed lead into a hundred "gold" livres in the presence of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden; and who furnished the gold from which ducats were coined, bearing on one side the figure of the prince, and on the other side his arms, associated with alchemic symbols, in recollection of the origin of the metal. The merchant died some years afterward, leaving an enormous fortune, although his trade had been insignificant.

Christian IV of Denmark, in 1646, appointed as "alchemist to the king" Gaspar Harbach, who made him some "gold," from which were coined medals bearing the inscription "Vide mira Domini ('Behold the wonders of the Lord'), 1647," beneath the sign O—O, designating mercury.

An Austrian named Richtausen, in 1648, received as a bequest from one of his friends a casket containing precipitating powder; with a grain of this powder, the Count de Rütz, director of the mines of the empire at Prague, in the presence of the Emperor Ferdinand III and the absence of Richtausen, transformed three livres or six marks of mercury into five marks of "gold." Rodolph had struck in this "gold" a medal which still existed in the Treasury at Vienna in 1797. It represents the god of the sun carrying the caduceus and having wings on his feet—all by way of reminder of the formation of "gold" by the aid of mercury, In 1650 the emperor made a second precipitation at Prague, from lead; and the medal struck on this occasion bore the inscription "Aurea progenies plumbo prognata parente" ("Golden progeny of a lead parent"). This medal was still shown in the last century, in the collection of the Château d'Ambras (Tyrol). Richtausen received for his discovery the characteristic title of Baron of Chaos.

General Paykhul, in 1706, made for King Charles XII of Sweden, with lead and a few grains of his powder, under the surveillance of artillery-general Hamilton and the chemist Hieme, a mass of "gold" sufficient for the coinage of one hundred and forty-seven ducats; a commemorative medal, struck on the occasion, from the same "gold," weighed two ducats and bore the inscription "Hoc aurum arte chimica conflavit Holmiæ 1706, O. A. V. Paikhull" ("This gold O. A. V. Paikhull produced by chemical art at Holm in 1706").