head, Boeotia. 20. Minotaur's head and labyrinth, Crete. 21. Horse's head, Pharsalia. 22. Lion, Marseilles. 23. Tortoise, Peloponnesus. 24. Sphinx, Scio. 25. Three legs joined, Sicily. 26. Horse, Thessaly. 27. The crescent, Byzantium. 28. Ensign, with the letters coL., a colony drawn from one legion. 29. Bull, Apis, strength or security. 30. Caduceus, Peace and concord. 31. Cornucopia, Abundance. 32. Parazonium, baton of command. 33. Globe on an altar with three stars, the world preserved by the gods for the three sons of Constantine I. 34. Fort and gate, Security. 35. Altar or tripod, Piety. 36. Dolphin, Apollo. 37. Lectisternia, festivals. 48. Lituus, or twisted wand, Augurship. 39. Apex, or cap with strings, pontificate. 40. Thensa, or chariot employed to carry images, consecration of an empress. 41. Peacock, ditto. 42. Eagle, consecration of an emperor. The most remarkable symbols of countries and cities on Greek coins are, for Rhodes, the flowers of the pomegranate: for Athens the owl: for Corinth a pegasus: for Argos a wolf's head: for Bantia a bull's head: for Crete a minotaur's head, and the labyrinth: for Pharsalia a horse's head: for Marseilles a lion: for Peloponnesus a tortoise for Scio a sphinx: for Sicily three legs joined: and for Thessaly a horse. The badge of Byzantium was the crescent, which appeared early on the coins of Byzantium, with the legend BYZANTINH EQT.; the preserver of Byzantium. The occasion was this; when Philip of Macedon besieged Byzantium, and was proceeding to storm it in a cloudy night, the moon shone out, and discovered his approach, so that the inhabitants observed and repulsed him. The Turks, upon entering Constantinople, found this ancient badge in many places; and, suspecting some magical power in it, assumed the symbol and its power to themselves; so that the crescent is now the chief Turkish ensign. The bull is very frequent on Greek coins, generally signifying a river, on which the country or town was situated: accordingly, the river Achelous is called Bovcpavog, or bull-headed, by Sophocles in Trachin, v. 13: and Cephisus is said to have ταυρομορφον όμμα Κηφισου πατρος by Euripides, Ion. v. 1261. The Latin poets speak of the horns of rivers; thus Horace describes the Aufidus, Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus. The bull was a token of fertility, but the horns seem to allude to the force of the stream, &c.

SECT. III-A CHRONOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF ANCIENT COINS, MEDALS, &c. The origin of coinage is too remote to be accurately traced. In the earliest ages in which metal was used as a medium of traffic, it is most probable that each person weighed or cut his gold or silver into pieces of different size and form, according to the quantity to be given for any merchandise he was desirous of purchasing. By degrees it was found more commodious to have pieces ready weighed; and as there were different weights required, according to the value of the different wares, all those of the same weight began to be distinguished by the same mark: thus coins were carried onward one step.

At length the use of money in commerce beginning to be disturbed by frauds, both in the weight and in the metal, public authority interposed, and hence arose the first stamps or impressions of money, to which succeeded the names of the moneyers and the effigy of the prince, the date, legend, &c., and thus the art was complete.

Herodotus ascribes the invention of coins to the Lydians, and Pliny to Bacchus; but it is evidently too remote an event to be traced to any authentic source. Lycurgus ordered that iron money only should be used in Sparta, which seems to imply that before his time a better kind had been known, and the introduction of copper coin into Italy is ascribed to Janus or Saturn. Before his invasion of Italy their money consisted of pieces of lead of certain weight and size. Homer, who wrote about 850, mentions scales, in the manner they seem to be mentioned in the book of Genesis (see our article Coins), but says nothing of money. If we look further east, says Mr. Pinkerton, there are three or four great nations who might be supposed capable of claiming this invention, namely, the Assyrians, Medes, Phoenicians, Indians, and Chinese: for the Persians are out of the question, as their empire began not till 570 years before Christ. The Assyrians, a great nation of the same race and speech with the Arabs and Phoenicians, conquered the Scythians, or oldest Persians, about 2220 years before Christ, and established the Assyrian empire; which lasted till the Medes, 920 years before our æra, seized the north of present Persia; and in Babylon and the south, till Cyrus, about 570 years before Christ, established the Persian empire on the ruins of both Median and Babylonic. But certain it is that no coins are found which can be even imagined to belong to Assyrian, Median, or Babylonic kings; their empire, though rich in itself, was unknown in commerce; and weight alone, according to Scripture, was used in estimating metals. The oldest coins found in that part of the world are palpably Persian, and similar to the Greek.

The Phoenicians, a people famous for ancient civilisation, appear not to have coined money, till after the Greeks had set the example. No Phonician coins are found of much antiquity; and not one without both obverse and reverse; nor is there cause to think any of them older than about 400 years before our æra. From Scripture it also appears that weight alone was used there a hint in any ancient writer of coins pecuin the famous cities of Tyre and Sidon; nor is liar to them or at all used by them.

India, though famous for its Brahmins and early civilisation and commerce, appears not to have any claim to early use of coinage. No Indian or Chinese coins exist, till within a late period: and those of both countries are so rude as hardly to deserve collecting.

Upon the whole the Lydian coins seem the most ancient in Asia. The wealth of the Lydian kings is famous in history and poetry: unhappily their coins have no legends, so that conjecture only points out the ancient coins in electrum and silver, found in Asia Minor, and different from the Persian, to be Lydian

In Dr. Hunter's cabinet there is a gold coin weighing a tetradrachm which is extremely ancient. It has the usual rude globosity of early antiquity, and bears the indented marks of the first coinages on one side, while the other presents a man kneeling with a fish held out in his left hand, Lydia being a maritime country, and a sword depending in his right. It is of very pale gold, like electrum, which is owing to the want of art at first in refining the metal; which, as Pliny tells us, was often found mingled with a great deal of silver. When the silver was above one-fifth of the gold it was denominated native electrum; and, indeed, sometimes more highly valued by the ancients than gold itself. In the same drawer of that cabinet, among the uncertain coins, there are near a score of other gold coins, some of them not much inferior to this in apparent antiquity. Dr. Combe, who published them in his excellent description of Dr. Hunter's coins of cities, thinks the later ones, which are meant for one size of about forty grains, belong to the cities of Asia Minor. The oldest of them may have been struck there when coinage was proceeding from Lydia through Asia Minor towards Greece. The gold is in many extremely pale; and all, even those which bear the indented mark, are of a most exquisite fabric, surpassing all description; and as much superior to that of the best Sicilian coins as the later are to all other coins in the world.

The coins that must rank next in age to those of Lydia and the cities of Asia Minor are unquestionably those of Greece. The Greek coins, if not the most ancient which we have, are at least of superior antiquity to any whose claims can be clearly authenticated. Perhaps some of the Barbaric pieces, and probably some of the Lydian, may have a claim to priority of æra; but as such medals have no legends it is difficult to fix the precise date of their coinage.

The most ancient Greek coins of silver have an indented mark upon one side, and a tortoise upon the other; and those of greatest antiquity have no letters upon them. Those of latter date have AITI marked upon them, which has been interpreted of Ægium in Achaia; but which is more probably a contraction of Ægina, the mint of which was much celebrated.

The general denomination of the Greek money is the drachma, or eighth part of an ounce; which to this day is retained in the medical weights, the Grecian coins receiving their names from the weights they bore; though in some instances the weights received their appellations from the coins. The silver drachma, according to Mr. Pinkerton, was about 9d. sterling; and he finds fault with those who make the drachma and denarius both equal to one another, the latter being no more than 8d. The didrachm of silver, according to the same calculation, was worth 1s. 6d.; but the tridrachm occurs very rarely: and medallists often give this name to the didrachm of Ægina. The largest of the Grecian coins is the tetradrachm, which on the Eginean standard is worth 5s.; but in those of the other states only 4s. There are, however, many subdivisions in the silver drachma; the highest being the tetraobolion or coin of four oboli; being in proportion to the

drachma as our groat to 6d., weighing about forty-four grains, and being in value about sixpence. The hemidrachm or triobolion comes next in value, weighing about thirty-three grains, and worth fourpence half-penny. The silver diobolion or third of the drachma weighs about twenty-two grains, and is worth three pence. The obolus of silver weighs about eleven grains, and is worth only three halfpence. There is likewise a hemiobolion in silver, or half the obolus, of five grains and a half, value three farthings: and another called tetraptobolion dichalos, or quarter obolus, which is the most minute coin yet met with; and by reason of its extreme smallness, weighing only two grains and a quarter, is now very scarce : but there is one in the cabinet of Dr. Hunter, and some of them are likewise met with at Tarentum. It would appear, however, that there were some still smaller, and of value only threefourths of a farthing. None of these have been met with; and the smallness of the size renders it improbable that any will ever be met with: as the peasants, who commonly discover coins, would probably either not observe them at all, or, if they did, would neglect them as things of no value.

Many different names have been imposed on the coins belonging to the different states of Greece: thus Kopn, the maiden, was a name often applied to the tetradrachm, and which would seem to apply to those of Athens; Xeλove, the shell, was the name of another coin from its type. A Sicilian coin was named Aɛuapertov, from Gelon's wife. A tetradrachm was named Kрararayovg, and had eight eveɛlas, or hemidrams. The τροπηνιον, so called from its country Troizene, had Pallas on one side and a trident on the reverse. The hemiobolion was the Пeλavop of Lacedæmon; and the Koλußoc is supposed to have been equal to the Roman sestertius or quarter drachma. The cystophori were coins with the mystic chest or hamper of Bacchus upon them, out of which a serpent rises; and are much celebrated in antiquity. The most probable opinion concerning them seems to be, that they are all silver tetradrachms; such as belong to the cities of Apamea and Laodicea in Phrygia; Pergamus in Mysia; Sardis and Tralles in Lydia; and Ephesus.

Another set of coins famous in antiquity were those of Cyzicus in Mysia, which were of gold; but they are now almost entirely vanished, being recoined in other forms. The Apiavoikov voμioμa, or money of Aryandes, who was made governor of Egypt by Cambyses, is mentioned by Hesychius; but none of them have reached our times. They must have been marked with Persian characters, if with any. The coin of queen Philistis is mentioned by the same writer, and many of these pieces are still extant; but we know not where this queen reigned, nor does there seem to be any method of finding it out. The most particular attention with regard to the names and standard of coins is due to those of Athens; and it is remarkable that most of them which have reached us are of a very late period, with the names of magistrates inscribed upon them. Some of these bear the name of Mithridates; and few are older than the era of that prince; who, it is

well known, took the city of Athens in his war with the Romans. It is still more remarkable, that the fabric of Athenian coins is almost universally very rude: a singular circumstance if we reflect how much the arts flourished there. It can only be accounted for from the excellence of their artists being such as to occasion all the good ones to be called into other countries, and none but the bad left at home. In like manner, the coins struck at Rome in the imperial times are excellent, as being done by the best Greek artists; while those of Greece, famous at that time for producing artists, are during that period commonly of very mean execution."

The copper money of the Greeks is next in antiquity to the silver. It was not used at Athens till the twenty-sixth year of the Peloponnesian war about A. A. C. 404, and 300 after silver was first coined there. The first copper coins were those of Gelo of Syracuse, about 490 B. C. The whole brass coins of Athens published by Dr. Combe are reducible to four sizes, which may be the lepton, dilepton, tetralepton or hemichalcos, and chalcos. The first is not above the size of one of king James I.'s farthing tokens; the last about that of our common farthing. The lepta was also called roμa, as being change for the poor. The caßos, perhaps so called from the figure of a wolf upon it, was the coin of a particular state, and if of brass must have weighed three chalci. The other names of the copper coins of Greece are but little known. Lycurgus ordered iron money to be coined at Sparta; but so perishable is this metal that none of that kind of money has reached our

times.

After the conquest of Greece by the Romans most of the coins of that country diminished very much in their value, the gold coinage being totally discontinued; though some of the barbarous kings who used the Greek character were permitted to coin gold, but they used the Roman model; and the standard used by the few cities in Asia who spoke the Greek language in the times of the emperors is entirely unknown. Copper seems to have been the only metal coined at that time by the Greeks themselves; and that upon the Roman standard, then universal through the empire, that there might be no impediment to the circulation of currency. They retained, however, some of their own terms, using them with those of the Romans. The assarion or assarium of Rome, the name or the diminished as, being sixteen to the drachma or denarius; the obolus was so much diminished in value as to be struck in brass not much larger than the old chalcus, and valued at between two and three assaria; which was indeed its ancient rate as to the drachma. This appears from the copper coins of Chios, which have their names marked upon them. The brass obolus, at first equal in size to the Roman sestertius or large brass, lessens by degrees to about the size of a silver drachma. From the badness of the imperial coinage in Greece also, it appears that brass was very scarce in that country, as well as in all the cities using the Greek characters, being found mostly in the western countries of the Roman empire. The time of this declension in size of the Greek coins is supposed to have been from

The copper

Augustus down to Gallienus. obolus, however, at first above the size of large brass, was used in Greece about the time of its first subjection to Rome; and, the lepta ceasing, the chalci came in their room, with the dichalcus and the hemiobolion of brass.

With respect to the gold coins of the Greeks, none of that metal it would seem was coined before the time of Philip of Macedon, as none have reached our times prior to the reign of that monarch.

Notwithstanding, however, this deficiency of gold coin among the Greeks, it is certain that the coinage of gold had taken place in Sicily long before; as we have gold coins of Gelo about 491 B. C., of Hiero I. 478, and of Dionysius I. in 404, all using the Greek characters; though not to be ranked among the gold coins of Greece, as Philip caused his to be.

Gold coins were used in the cities of Brettium, Tarentum, and throughout Magna Græcia: also in Panticapæa in Thrace, and likewise in "Cosa in that country; but not in Tuscany, as is commonly believed, though Neumann proves that they were struck by Brutus, and are unquestionably as ancient as the Greek coins. The Thebans and Athenians probably coined the first gold after Philip had set them the example, and when they were attempting to resist the projects of that enterprising monarch. The Etolians probably coined their gold during the time of their greatest power, about a century after Philip, and when they were combating the power of Aratus and the Achæan league. There is,' says Mr. Pinkerton, but one nuxovoos of Thebes, much worn, in Dr. Hunter's cabinet, and weighing but fifty-nine grains; and perhaps not above two or three xovro or gold didrachms of Athens in the world; one of which is also in the collection of Dr. Hunter, and weighs 132 grains. It appears to be more modern than the reign of Philip. That monarch, having got possession of the mines of Philippi in Thrace, improved them so much that they produced him annually above 1000 talents of gold, or £2,880,000 of our money. From this gold the first coins named from the monarch Philippi were struck. They were marked with his portrait; and for many ages after were so numerous that they were common in the Roman empire; whence the name Philippi became at length common to gold, silver, and at last even brass coins of their size. Even in the time of Philip gold was very scarce in Greece; but, after the Phocians had plundered the temple of Delphos, this precious metal, which had been valued as gems, and consecrated only to the decoration of the temples of the gods, began to be known among the Greeks. The comparative values of gold and silver, however, seem to have been at that time very different from what they are now. Herodotus values gold at thirteen times its weight in silver: Plato in his Hipparchus at twelve; and even the low value of ten to one seems to have been the stated value in Greece, though in Rome the plenty of silver from the Spanish mines made the value of gold to be much higher; and there is no reason to think that it was ever valued in that city at less than twelve times its weight in silver. The Philippus, xpvoog, gold piece, or stater, is a didrachm, and

is the most common of all the ancient coins. There are proofs of the Philippi being didrachms, both from the writings of ancient authors and from numbers of the coins themselves, which remain to this day; and that the xovoog, or principal gold coin of Greece, was of the same weight, is also evident from ancient writings. It was anciently worth about fifteen shillings, but, valuing gold now at the medium price of £4 per ounce, it is worth about twenty shillings. The nuxovros, or half the former coin, scarcely occurs of the coinage of Philip and Alexander, though it does of Hiero I. of Syracuse, and of king Pyrrhus. It passed for ten silver drachms, and was valued only at seven shillings and sixpence, though now worth ten shillings. There was another division of this kind worth about five shillings. There were besides some less divisions of gold coins, which could not be worth above two drachms. These were coined in Cyrene; and there were besides several old gold coins of Asia Minor, the value of which is now unknown. Our author supposes that they were coined, not with relation to their weight as parts of the drachma, but merely to make them correspond with so many silver pieces as was necessary. There are also larger coins than the Xovooc, the Aixovoos of Alexander and Lysimachus being double its value. Some others are met with of Lysimachus, Antiochus III., and some of the Egyptian monarchs, weighing four times the xpvoog, and now worth about £4 sterling.

Next are the Persian, which are well known, from the archer on them, and from Mithras, the Persian deity; the dress of the princes and other marks. None of these coins can be older than 570 years before our era, when the Persian empire began. The famous Darics were issued by Darius Hystaspis, who began to reign 518 years before Christ. The joke of Agesilaus is well known, who being forced to retire from an invasion of Persia, by the bribery used by the great king to instigate the enemies of Sparta, said that 30,000 archers had defeated him." These coins are extremely scarce, being mostly melted down for his own coinage by Alexander the Great, upon his conquest of Persia. One, however, is in lord Pembroke's collection, having an archer upon one side, and the rude indented mark of early coinage on the other.

All the real darics are gold; the silver coins with the archer are later, and never were called darics. Most of the Persian coins which have reached us are silver; and have generally a king in a chariot of two horses, with a charioteer, and sometimes another figure on foot behind, on the obverse; while the reverse presents a ship, the Persians being powerful at sea, as well as by land. Some have Persian characters. One in Dr. Hunter's cabinet has a ram on one side, with a long legend: the reverse has some sacred symbol in a hollow square. This symbol also occurs in the coins of the Sassanidæ. Another has a lion, another a bull. One has a fine Mithras, the Persian name of the sun, with his usual appearance of a bird's wings springing from his middle, and a bird's tail and feet: the obverse is a king, three quarters length, of fine

work. Some are of copper, very thick, with the king in a car on one side, and the ship on re

verse.

But it will be proper to say a few words on the weight and ancient value of the Persian coins. The darics of Persia are celebrated in all antiquity; and were gold coins, so called from Darius son of Hystaspes, who began to reign 518 years before our era. As the first gold coins of Macedon were called Philippi, from Philip the first king who coined gold; it may, perhaps, be inferred from analogy, that the first gold coinage in Persia was known under Darius. The size and weight of these darics are subject to doubt. Josephus says they were equal to the tetradrachm in weight, and worth fifty Greek drachmæ. But we have many authors, one of them, Xenophon, particularly respectable, who informs us they were didrachms, and worth twenty Attic silver drachmas.

The darics are described by ancient writers as having the figure of an archer. There is one of these darics in lord Pembroke's cabinet, and weighs 129 grains, which shows them to have. been didrachms on the Eubœic or Attic standard. The reader will see from the print of it, plate I, that it has the globosity and indented mark of early coinage; perhaps longer retained in the east than in Greece. It is likely that the late bishop of Bagdat who resides in their native country, and had, as Mr. Ives tells us in his voyage to the East Indies, a large collection of Persian coins in all metals, may have had some in his possession. There is one piece, but of silver, in Dr. Hunter's cabinet, evidently Persian, which has a king on horseback on one side, and an archer kneeling in act to shoot on the reverse. It weighs 168 grains, and if the Babylonic talent, which seems to have been the standard of the Persian silver, was eighty Attic minæ, this would have been the didrachm of that talent.

But as gold was not the primitive coinage of Greece or Rome, so it is probable that silver preceded it in Persia; and we have silver coins of Persia which bear every mark of remote antiquity. The most ancient, which are very rude, and have a shapeless hollow on the reverse; with an archer on the obverse, but with his bow in one hand and arrow in the other, not shooting as in that above described, weigh about eighty-two grains. Others with a king's head on one side, and a ship on reverse, weigh about the first mentioned, or 164 grains; some weigh fifty-three grains, and others about twenty-six. A fine one with a king three quarters length on one side, and Mithras on reverse, with his usual symbols of a bird's feet and tail, and the wings at his waist, weighs 160 grains; but is much worn on the sides, and must at first have reached the first, or 168 grains. There are four or five others, with a king in a chariot, a charioteer and attendant on one side, a ship on the other, of great size, not less than 432 grains, being more than seven Attic drachmas. I refer to those in the vast collection of the late Dr. Hunter, to which indeed I have been indebted for most of my references to coins. The above Persian coins, in particular, add much to the riches of