Abstract: In §13 of Schubert's famous book on enumerative geometry, he provided a few formulas called coincidence formulas, which deal with coincidence points where a pair of points coincide. These formulas play an important role in his method. As an application, Schubert utilized these formulas to give a second method for calculating the number of planar curves in a one dimensional system that are tangent to a given planar curve. In this paper, we give proofs for these formulas and justify his application to planar curves in the language of modern algebraic geometry. We also prove that curves that are tangent to a given planar curve is actually a condition in the space of planar curves and other relevant issues.

Key words: Hilbert problem 15, enumeration geometry, coincidence formula