The forging of swords from meteoric iron was, in the opinion of the Orientalist Hammer-Purgstall, the origin of the characteristic surface given to the famous Damascus blades. A most interesting modern example of a meteoric-iron weapon is a dagger made by Von Widmanstädt for Emperor Francis I of Austria, out of the famous Bohemian siderite long preserved in the Rathaus at Elbogen and known as the “Verwünschte Burggraf.” On the surface of this blade, however, the lines were angular, while on the true Damascus blade the lines are wavy.[166] An unsuccessful attempt to forge a sword from a piece of meteoric iron is reported by Avicenna in the case of a siderite that fell at Jurgan in 1009 A.D., from which swords that were ordered to be made by the Sultan of Khorassan could not be executed.[167] In an Arabic work bearing the name of Avicenna and entitled “The Cure,” the writer mentions a meteorite which fell in the Jordan, and of which Sultan Mohammed Ghazni wished to have a sword made for him, thus proving that the Sultan believed that meteorites possessed marvellous properties.[168] A number of Greek and Roman coins bearing representations of these sacred meteorites have come down to us, and more than two hundred specimens may be seen in the section of meteorites in the Natural History Museum (Königlich-kaiserliches naturhistoriches Hofmuseum) in Vienna. These coins are of great value in determining the history of those aerolites which were preserved in the temples of certain divinities. The Viennese collection of meteorites is the finest in the world, and this is largely due to the zeal and intelligence of the late Dr. Aristides Brezina, while superintendent of the department of mineralogy and meteorites in the Museum. In regard to the impression made upon the mind of man in ancient times by the fall of meteorites, Dr. Brezina writes:[169] The ancients supposed the stars to be the domiciles of the gods; falling stars and falling meteorites signified the descending of a god or the sending of its image to the earth. These envoys were received with divine honor, embalmed and draped, and worshipped in temples built for them. [Illustration: Title-page of one of the earliest treatises on meteorites. ] The coins to which we have alluded were usually struck in honor of the sanctuaries wherein the aerolites were objects of adoration, and the temple is often rudely figured with the stone set up in the centre. In many cases the meteorite was preserved in its original form, which, if conical, was regarded as a phallic symbol; in other cases, the mass was rudely shaped into the conventional form of some divinity.