\ 
 
COINS AND MEDALS. 
 
COINS AND MEDALS 
 
 Their Place in History and Art 
 
 BY THE AUTHORS OF 
 
 THE BRITISH MUSEUM OFFICIAL CATALOGUES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 STANLEY LANE-POOLE 
 
 THIRD EDITION, REVISED 
 
 WI TH NUMEROUS ILL US TRA TIONS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 
 
 1894 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HE prefent work is intended to furnim 
 an anfwer to a queftion that is often 
 and properly alked about any ftudy 
 of which the ufe and advantages are 
 not immediately obvious. In the following 
 chapters we have attempted to mow what coins 
 can teach us ; what is their value as documents 
 of hiftory and monuments of art ; and what rela- 
 tions they bear to other branches of historical, 
 artiftic, and archaeological refearch. The book 
 will be found of fervice to the antiquary and the 
 collector of coins ; but it is primarily intended for 
 the general ftudent who wifhes to know what he 
 may expect to learn from any particular branch of 
 numifmatics. 
 
 The writers are or have been all Officers in the 
 Department of Coins and Medals in the Britifh 
 Mufeum, except Mr. A. Terrien de LaCouperie 
 and myfelf, who, however, have been entrufted with 
 the tafk of preparing the Chinefe and Mohammadan 
 
vi 
 
 Preface. 
 
 Catalogues for the Department. A feries of eflays 
 which appeared in the Antiquary in 1883 forms 
 the nucleus of the volume ; but thefe have been 
 revifed and enlarged, while additional chapters and 
 illuftrations have been incorporated. 
 
 In the abfence of any general guide to the ftudy 
 of coins, of a popular character, in our language, it 
 is hoped that the prefent work may prove of 
 value to many who have been accuftomed to regard 
 the fcience of nuniifmatics as little better than a 
 diftraction. 
 
 Stanley Lane-Poole. 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 HIS Third Edition differs from the 
 preceding chiefly in the chapter on 
 Indian Coins. This branch of numif- 
 matics has made confiderable progrefs 
 fince the appearance of the Firfr. Edition, and 
 ProfefTor Gardner being unable to devote the time 
 neceffary to a thorough revifion of his effay on the 
 coinage of ancient and mediaeval India, the fubjecl: 
 has, at his fuggeftion, been entrufted to Mr. E. J. 
 Rapfon, of the Department of Coins and Medals, 
 who has rewritten pp. 175-182. A few corrections 
 and additions have alfo been made. 
 
 S. L.-P. 
 
 The Athenjeum, 
 Auguft, 1894. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE - - - - - - - - v 
 
 L THE STUDY OF COINS - i 
 
 By Reginald Stuart Poole, LL.D. Cambr., 
 late Yates Professor of Archaeology, Univer- 
 sity College, London ; author of the Cata- 
 logues of the Greek Coins of Alexandria, the 
 Ptolemaic Kings ; and the Shahs of Persia. 
 
 II. GREEK COINS - - - - - - 10 
 
 By Barclay V. Head, D.C.L. Durham ; Ph.D. 
 Heidelberg ; author of the Catalogues of the 
 Greek Coins of Macedonia, Central Greece, 
 Attica, Corinth, and Ionia; and Guide to the 
 Coins of the Ancients. 
 
 III. ROMAN COINS- - 42 
 
 By Herbert A. Grueber, F.S.A. ; author of the 
 Catalogue of Roman Medallions, and Guide to 
 English Medals; and joint author of Medallic 
 Illustrations of the History of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, and the Catalogue of Anglo- 
 Saxon Coins, Vol. II. 
 
 IV. THE COINAGE OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE 74 
 
 By Chas. F. Keary, M.A., F.S.A. ; author of 
 the Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Coins, and 
 Guide to Italian Medals. 
 
X 
 
 Contents, 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 V. ENGLISH COINS 99 
 By Chas. F. Keary, M.A., F.S.A. 
 
 VI. EARLY ORIENTAL COINS - - - 141 
 By Percy Gardner, Litt.D., F.S.A, Lincoln 
 Professor of Archaeology, Oxford ; author of 
 the Catalogues of the Greek Coins of the 
 Seleucid Kings, Thessaly, Peloponnesus, and the 
 Catalogue of the Indian Coins of the Greek 
 and Scythic Kings. 
 
 VII. MOHAMMAD AN COINS - - - - 156 
 By Stanley Lane-Poole, M.A., Oxford ; author 
 of the Catalogues of the Oriental Coins of the 
 
 Eastern Khalifehs, Mohammadan Dynasties, The 
 Turkumans, Egypt, The Moors, The Mongols, 
 Bukhara, The Turks, and Additions thereto ; 
 the Catalogues of the. Indian Coins of The 
 Sultans of Debli, The Mohammadan States of 
 India, The Moghul Emperors of Hindustan ; 
 and the Catalogue of Arabic Glass Weights. 
 
 VIII. COINS OF INDIA - - - - - 175 
 Ancient : by E. J. Rapson, M.A., late Fellow . 
 
 of St. John's College, Cambridge ; 
 Mohammadan : by Stanley Lane-Poole. 
 
 IX. COINS OF CHINA AND JAPAN - - -190 
 By Terrien de LaCouperie ; author of the 
 Catalogue of Ancient Chinese Coins. 
 
 X. MEDALS - - - - - - - 236 
 
 By Warwick Wroth, F.S.A. ; author of the 
 Catalogues of the Greek Coins of Crete, 
 Pontus, Mysia, and Troas. 
 
 INDEX - - - - - - 271 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 - - . PAGE 
 
 SILVER COIN OF THASOS - - • - 20 
 
 SILVER COIN OF TARENTUM - - - 22 
 
 SILVER COIN OF GELA - - - 24 
 
 SILVER COIN OF SELINUS - - - - - 25 
 
 SILVER COIN OF AGRIGENTUM - - - - 26 
 
 SILVER COIN WITH HEAD OF MITHRADATES - " 33 
 
 SYRACUSAN MEDALLION - 37 
 
 SEXTANTAL AS - ' - - - - - 47 
 
 DENARIUS 51 
 
 COIN OF BRUTUS - - - - - * 53 
 
 SESTERTIUS OF VESPASIAN - - 62 
 
 MEDALLION OF ANTONINUS PIUS- - - - 72 
 
 COIN OF CHLOVIS II. - - - * 79 
 
 COIN OF CUNIPERT .- . . . - '79 
 
 COIN OF POPE ADRIAN I. - • - - - 80 
 
 CARLOVINGIAN DENARII - - - - 82 
 FIORINO D'ORO ..... 88 
 
 COIN OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY - - 91 
 
 BRITISH GOLD COIN - - - - - IOI 
 
 PENNY OF OFFA - - - - - 105 
 
 NOBLE OF EDWARD III. - - . - - IIO 
 
 ANGEL OF EDWARD IV. - - - 1 13 
 
 SOVEREIGN OF HENRY VII. - - - - II9 
 
 OXFORD CROWN OF CHARLES I. - - - • 135 
 
xii Lift of Illuftrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 COIN OF AN EARLY PARTHIAN KING - - - 147 
 
 COIN OF ARTAXERXES I. - „ - • - 1 49 
 
 EARLY JEWISH SHEKEL AND HALF SHEKEL - - 1 53 
 
 COIN OF SIMON BAR COCHAB - - - - 1 54 
 
 GOLD COIN OF 'ABD-EL-MELIK, KHALIF OF DAMASCUS - 164 
 
 REFORMED GOLD COIN OF 'ABD-EL MELIK - - 165 
 
 SILVER COIN OF THE KHALI FATE - - - 166 
 
 MARAVEDI : GOLD COIN OF ALMORAVIDES - - I70 
 
 MILLARES : SILVER COIN OF ALMOHADES - - IJO 
 
 SILVER COIN OF HOSEYN, SHAH OF PERSIA - - 1 7 1 
 
 GOLD COIN OF ALMOHADES - - - 173 
 
 COIN OF HIPPOSTRATUS - - - - - 1 78 
 
 COIN OF HERAUS, KING OF THE SACAE - - - 1 78 
 
 GOLD MOHR OF JEHANGIR - - - - 1 89 
 
 KNIFE MONEY - - - - - - 205 
 
 ITALIAN MEDAL : PORTRAIT OF MALATESTA, BY PISANO 24I 
 
 GERMAN MEDAL : PORTRAIT OF RINGELBERG - - 247 
 
 DUTCH MEDAL : PORTRAITS OF THE DE WITTS - - 252 
 
 ENGLISH MEDAL : PORTRAITS OF PHILIP AND MARY - 253 
 
COINS AND MEDALS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE STUDY OF COINS. 
 
 F all antiquities coins are the fmalleft, 
 | yet, as a clafs, the moft authorita- 
 tive in record, and the wideft in 
 range. No hiftory is fo unbroken 
 as that which they tell ; no geography fo com- 
 plete ; no art fo continuous in fequence, nor 
 fo broad in extent ; no mythology fo ample and 
 fo various. Unknown kings, and loft towns, for- 
 gotten divinities, and new fchools of art, have 
 here their authentic record. Individual character 
 is illuftrated, and the tendencies of races de- 
 fined. 
 
 To be a good Greek numifmatift one niuft be 
 an archaeologift ; and it is a fignincant fad, that 
 the only archaeological book of the laft century 
 which ftill holds its own is the Doctrina Numorum 
 V eterum of Eckhel, now near its centenary. To 
 
 B 
 
The Study of Coins. 
 
 be a great general numifmatift is beyond the 
 powers of one man. Some may know Greek and 
 Latin enough, with fuch mattery of Englifh, 
 French, German, and Italian as the modern com- 
 mentaries demand, to begin the ftudy of Greek 
 and Roman money. Thofe who would enter the 
 vaft field of Oriental numismatics muft be fortified 
 with Arabic, Hebrew, Sanfkrit, and Perfian, 
 befides adding Spanifh and Ruffian to the other 
 European languages ftill neceftary for their work. 
 Even they muft paufe beneath the Himalayas, nor 
 dare to crofs the Golden Cherfonefe, unlefs they 
 are prepared to mafter the uncouth languages and 
 intricate characters of the further Eaft. So vaft 
 a fubject, and one needing fuch high training, 
 has between Eckhel's time and ours attracted 
 few great ftudents. Coins have been ufed as helps 
 by archaeologifts ; but the great numifmatift, 
 who could mafter the richeft provinces of the Eaft 
 or the Weft, or even both, and dignify his fcience 
 as no longer fervile but mafterly, is of our con- 
 temporaries. Such was De Saulcy, who has not 
 long left us to lament how much remained un- 
 told by a mind fignally fruitful in giving forth its 
 manifold treafures. He has had his rivals, and he 
 has his followers, fome, like Francois Lenormant, 
 who have already followed him, others, like 
 Mommfen, ftill living to maintain the high pofition 
 recovered for numifmatics. 
 
 Thanks to their attractive beauty, and the {kill 
 of Eckhel, Greek coins have been beft examined, 
 and moft carefully defcribed ; yet much remains 
 
The Study of Coins. 
 
 3 
 
 unknown and unrecorded. Befides the treafures 
 we are conftantly digging out of well-known col- 
 lections, every year brings to light from under the 
 earth coins of new kings or cities, coins with frefh 
 types of divinities and reprefentations of famous 
 ftatues. Moft of thefe works, whether familiar or 
 new in type, have the charm which the great gift 
 of the Hellenic race, artiftic power ruled by 
 meafure and form, threw over all that it handled. 
 Thus Greek coins are the grammar of Greek art. 
 In them we may trace its gradual growth, the 
 ftern grandeur of the laft days of archaifm, and the 
 fudden outburft of full fplendour, more marked in 
 coins, however, by the influence of the contempo- 
 raries and followers of Pheidias than by that of the 
 great fculptor himfelf. "While the original fculp- 
 ture of this age, in marble and bronze, might be 
 contained within the walls of a Angle mufeum, the 
 coin-types may be counted by thoufands. No 
 reftorer has touched them, nor are they late 
 copies, like the Latin tranflations of Greek 
 originals which confufe the judge of ftatues. 
 Small indeed they are ; yet large in treatment, and 
 beautiful in material, whether it be rich gold, or 
 the fofter-toned electrum, or cold filver, or bronze 
 glorified by the unconfcious colouring of the earth 
 in which the coins have lain for centuries. Some- 
 times we can fee the copy of a ftatue, — no fervile 
 reproduction, but with fuch proof of free work 
 in varieties of attitude as fhows that the artift, 
 ftrong in his power, was working from memory. 
 Such is the Herakles of Croton, recalling a kindred 
 
4 The Study of Coins, 
 
 ttatue to the fo-called Thefeus of the Parthenon. 
 Bolder matters took a theme like the winged 
 goddefs of Terina, and varied it with an originality 
 which mowed they were worthy peers of the 
 fculptors and painters. Croton is a town with 
 fome place in hiftory ; but who, fave a numifmatitt, 
 has any thought for Terina, famous only for the 
 furvival of her exquifite coinage ? 
 
 Schools of While the fequence of ftyles is thus recorded, 
 the ftudy of coins unexpectedly reveals the exiftence 
 of local fchools ; mows in the marked mannerifm 
 of the Italians, and flill more of the Sicilians, that 
 they worked under the influence of gem-engravers ; 
 while the ftrong central fchool of Greece was ruled 
 by fculpture ; the gentler and more fympathetic 
 rival of Weftern Alia Minor obeyed the tafte of 
 painters ; and the ifolated Cretans, leading a 
 ttmpler and lefs cultured life, exprefTed their feel- 
 ing in a free naturalifm. The larger fchools again 
 had their divifions, marking fuch local differences 
 as thofe with which the ftudy of mediaeval Italian 
 art has made us acquainted. 
 
 Portraits. With the age of Alexander all art is centralized 
 in royal capitals, and provincial feeling difappears. 
 The great ftyles can {fill be traced in the money of 
 the kings, the lofty naturalifm of Lylippus, the 
 dramatic force of the Pergamene matters, the 
 theatrical tendency of their fuccefTors. This we 
 fee in royal portraits ; while the decline and the 
 commercial tendency of art is witneffed by the 
 heraldic quality of the lefs important types. 
 
 The eye, dazzled with the beauty of Greek 
 
The Study of Coins. 
 
 money, is apt to take little heed of the knowledge 
 lying beyond the province of art which is held 
 within the narrow circle of a coin. Yet the 
 mythological intereft is only fecond to the artiftic ; 
 and when' the artift had loft his Ikill he produced 
 thofe neglected pieces of inferior work, the Greek 
 money of the Imperial age, which preferve the 
 forms of famous temples, of great ftatues, and 
 even of pictures otherwife finally loft to us. 
 
 The artifts who engraved the Greek Imperial 
 money, called to Rome, worked there for alien 
 mafters. Mere copyifts they were; yet more 
 exact in portraiture, and better hiftorians than 
 their great predeceftbrs. Too weak to be original, 
 they were more faithful in rendering the prefent. 
 To them we owe the marked lineaments of the 
 earlier feries of Emperors, the cold Auguftus ; the 
 coarfe Vitellius ; Trajan, the fimple foldier ; ££?^ n 
 Hadrian, the polite man of the world ; and the 
 philofophic Antoninus and Aurelius, with their 
 wayward and luxurious wives. Thefe engravers 
 have left us a record of the art produced at Rome, 
 and the art that was ftored at Rome from the fpoils 
 of Greece, great buildings and famous ftatues, 
 with here and there a fubject forefhadowing in a 
 new turn of ftyle, of Roman birth, the future 
 fplendour of the Remittance. But for hiftory thefe 
 men worked beft, telling the ftory of the firft two 
 centuries and a half of the Empire with a fulnefs 
 that has entitled their money to be called an 
 Imperial Gazette. Thus while Hadrian was 
 vifiting the diftant provinces, the Roman people, 
 
6 The Study of Coins. 
 
 when they went to market, faw in the new feftertii, 
 the magnificent bronze currency, the portrayal of 
 the movements of the diftant Emperor. 
 
 The Middle The tranfition from Roman to mediaeval money 
 is not fudden. The one decays, and the other 
 rifes from its ruins, owing as much and as little to 
 it as the architecture of the Middle Ages owed ' to 
 that of the Empire — as much in form, as little in 
 fpirit. Here hiftory divides with art the claim to 
 our attention. At firft the intereft is centred in 
 the gradual introduction of Roman money among 
 the barbarian conquerors of the Empire ; but by 
 degrees the growth of art attracts us, and we 
 watch the fame procefs that marked the hiftory of 
 Greek coinage — the fame fucceflion of ftyles, the 
 fame peculiarities of local fchools. But the art of 
 the Middle Ages in the coins never rifes beyond 
 the limits of decoration ; and it is not till the 
 claffical Renaiflance that we difcover a worthy 
 rivalry of the ancient matters. The beginning of 
 medals is of the time, if not due to the genius, of 
 Petrarch ; and the earlier! works are of his friends 
 
 Italian the Lords of Carrara ; but it was not till the 
 
 Medals. 
 
 middle of the fifteenth century that the great 
 medallic art of Italy had its true origin. Pifano 
 of Verona, who glories in the name of painter, 
 was at once the founder of the art, and by far its 
 greateft mafter. His works are larger in fize than 
 the coins of antiquity and the Roman medallions, 
 and are caft, not ftruck, in fine bronze. Defpite 
 an inferiority to Greek money in the fenfe of 
 beauty, the beft Italian medals have a dignity of 
 
The Study of Coins. 
 
 portraiture, and a felicity of compofition, that 
 places them in only the fecond rank, below the 
 Greek works indeed, yet above the Roman. For 
 if the Italian medallift had not the fame fenfe of 
 beauty, he had the power of idealizing portraiture, 
 not with the view of elevating the phyfical fo 
 much as the moral qualities. Pifano, notably, re- 
 prefented a man with all the poffibilities of ex- 
 cellence that lay within his compafs ; and thus he 
 is the greateft of thofe medalMs who worked in 
 portraits. 
 
 Modern coins of the European ftates and their Modem 
 
 Coinage 
 
 colonies are the loweft in intereft, and the medals 
 of their great perfonages the leaft lively in por- 
 traiture. But they have an hiftoric value that 
 entitles them to a place in all reprefentative col- 
 lections, as at leaft ufeful illuftrations of the con- 
 temporary annals, and the readieft means of bring- 
 ing before the eye the chief figures of the times. 
 A clofer ftudy reveals new and curious facts, and 
 the character of the king or the tendencies of the 
 ftate receive an unexpected illustration. 
 
 Oriental money, of larger range and more in- oriental 
 dividuality than European, is worthy of more Coins * 
 attention than it has received. The great branch 
 of Mohammadan coinage is invaluable for a period 
 of hiftory when written records are often wanting 
 or little to be trufted. Its decorative art has 
 a charm in the fineft work of the Shahs of 
 Perfia and the Indian Emperors, but rarely is it 
 more than a delicate rendering of an ornamental 
 writing. The infcriptions give the coins their 
 
8 The Study of Corns. 
 
 true value, the dates and mints fixing the extent 
 of a king's dominion, or recording the fact that 
 he actually exercifed the royal prerogative of coin- 
 ing. Thefe legends have a bearing on the dif- 
 ferences of race and faith, and even of literature 
 and manners. The v/eftern Arabs coined their 
 money with elaborate religious formulas, the 
 heretical Khalifs of the race of 'Aly ufed myftical 
 infcriptions, the Perfians, the Indian Emperors and 
 the Afghans infcribed poetic couplets, hard to 
 decipher, from the occafional difregard of the 
 order of words, and difficult to interpret, from 
 the high-flown phrafes in which royalty turned 
 the language well-called the Italian of the Eaft. 
 Defpite the general abfence of figures, the refult 
 of the law of the Koran, there are fome notable 
 exceptions, as in the Turkoman coinage of the age 
 of the Crufades, and the famous zodiacal coins of 
 Jehangir and his ftill ftranger Bacchanalian money, 
 on which we fee the emperor feated, holding the 
 forbidden wine-cup in his hand. 
 
 Yet earlier in origin than the Mohammadan 
 coinage, the native money of India has, like it, 
 furvived to our time. Beginning with the in- 
 terefting Indian coins of the Greek princes, the 
 fo-called Bactrian money, and the contemporary 
 rude punch-marked fquare pieces of native origin, 
 it pafTes into the gold currency of the Guptas 
 with interefting mythological fubjects, Greek, 
 Roman, and Indian, including a reprefentation of 
 Buddha, and clofes with the Sanfkritic money of 
 our own time. Beyond India, China and the 
 
The Study of Coins. 
 
 9 
 
 neighbouring lands have their money as unlike 
 that of the red: of the world as all elfe in the Far 
 Eaft, valuable alone for hiftory, and for it moil 
 valuable ; and curious for the occafional departure 
 from the forms which we aftbciate with the idea 
 of coined money. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 GREEK COINS. 
 
 ANY centuries before the invention of 
 the art of coining, gold and filver in 
 the Eaft, and bronze in the Weft, in 
 bullion form, had already fupplanted 
 barter, the moft primitive of all methods of buying 
 and felling, when among paftoral peoples the ox 
 and the fheep were the ordinary mediums of ex- 
 change. The very word pecunia is an evidence of 
 this practice in Italy at a period which is probably 
 recent in comparifon with the time when values 
 were eftimated in cattle in Greece and the Eaft. 
 
 ' ' So far as we have any knowledge," fays 
 Herodotus, 1 " the Lydians were the firft nation to 
 introduce the ufe of gold and filver coin." This 
 ftatement of the father of hiftory muft not, how- 
 ever, be accepted as finally fettling the vexed 
 queftion as to who were the inventors of coined 
 money, for Strabo, 2 Aelian, 3 and the Parian 
 Chronicle, all agree in adopting the more com- 
 monly received tradition, that Pheidon, King of 
 
 1 i- 94- 
 
 2 viii. 6. 
 
 3 Var. Hift. t xii. io. 
 
Earlieji and Later Methods of Coining. 1 1 
 
 Argos, firft ftruck filver coins in the ifland of 
 Aegina. Thefe two apparently contradictory afler- 
 tions modern refearch tends to reconcile with one 
 another. The one embodies the Afiatic, the other 
 the European tradition; and the truth of the 
 matter is that gold was firft coined by the 
 Lydians, in Afia Minor, in the feventh century 
 before our era ; and that filver was firft ftruck in 
 European Greece about the fame time. 
 
 The earlieft coins are fimply bullets of metal, ^ Later 
 oval or bean-fhaped, bearing on one fide the fignet ^oiSng S ° f 
 of the ftate or of the community refponfible for 
 the purity of the metal and the exa&nefs of the 
 weight. Coins were at firft ftamped on one fide 
 only, the reverfe fhowing merely the imprefs of 
 the fquare-headed fpike or anvil on which, after 
 being weighed, the bullet of hot metal was placed 
 with a pair of tongs and there held while a fecond 
 workman adjufted upon it the engraved die. This 
 done, a third man with a heavy hammer would 
 come down upon it with all his might, and the 
 coin would be produced, bearing on its face or 
 obverfe the feal of the ifluer, and on the reverfe 
 only the mark of the anvil fpike, an incufe 
 fquare. This fimple procefs was after a time 
 improved upon by adding a fecond engraved die 
 beneath the metal bullet, fo that a fingle blow 
 of the fledge-hammer would provide the coin 
 with a type, as it is called, in relief, on both 
 fides. The prefence of the unengraved incufe 
 fquare may therefore be accepted as an indi- 
 cation of high antiquity, and nearly all Greek 
 
12 . Scientific Value of Greek Coins. 
 
 coins which are later than the age of the Perfian 
 wars bear a type on both fides. 
 
 The chief fcientific value of Greek coins lies in 
 the fact that they are original documents, to which 
 the experienced numifmatift is generally able to 
 affign an exact place in hiftory. The feries of the 
 coins of any one of the cities of Greece thus forms 
 a continuous comment upon the hiftory of the 
 town, a comment which either confirms or refutes 
 the testimony which has been handed down to us 
 by ancient writers, or, where fuch teftimony is 
 altogether wanting, fupplies valuable evidence as 
 to the material condition, the political changes, or 
 the religious ideas of an interval of time which, 
 but for fuch evidence, would have been a blank in 
 the chart of the world's hiftory. 
 
 Perhaps the mod attractive fide of this enticing 
 ftudy lies in the elucidation of the meaning of 
 the objects reprefented on coins > in other words, 
 in the explanation of their types. 
 
 The hiftory of the growth, bloom, and decay 
 of Greek art may alfo be traced more completely 
 on a feries of coins which extends over a period of 
 clofe upon a thoufand years than on any other clafs 
 of ancient monuments. 
 
 Greek coin-types may be divided into two 
 diftind clafTes : (a) Mythological or religious 
 reprefentations, and (b) portraits of hiftorical per- 
 fons. 
 
 From the earlieft times down to the age of 
 Alexander the Great the types of Greek coins are 
 almoft exclufively religious. However ftrange this 
 
Religious AspeSl. 
 
 may feem at firfl, it is not difficult to explain. It 
 muft be borne in mind that when the enterprifing 
 and commercial Lydians firft lighted upon the 
 happy idea of ftamping metal for general circula- 
 tion, a guarantee of juft weight and purity of 
 metal would be the one condition required. With- 
 out fome really truftworthy warrant, what merchant 
 would accept this new form of money for fuch and 
 fuch a weight without placing it in the fcales and 
 weighing it according to ancient practice ? In an 
 age of univerfal religious belief, when the gods 
 lived, as it were, among men, and when every 
 tranfaction was ratified by folemn oath, as witnefs 
 innumerable infcriptions from all parts of the 
 Greek world, what more binding guarantee could 
 be found than the invocation of one or other of 
 thofe divinities moft honoured and more, dreaded 
 in the diftrict in which the coin was intended to 
 circulate ? 
 
 There is even good reafon to think 1 that the Temple 
 
 . . Coinage 
 
 earlieft coins were actually ftruck within the pre^ 
 cincts of the temples, and under the direct aufpices 
 of the priefts ; for in times of general infecurity 
 by fea and land, the temples alone remained facred 
 and inviolate. Into the temple treafuries offerings 
 of the precious metals poured from all parts. The 
 prieftly colleges owned lands and houfes, and were 
 in the habit of letting them on leafe, fo that rents, 
 tithes, and offerings would all go to fill the 
 treafure-h'oufe of the god.. This accumulated 
 mafs of wealth was not left to lie idle in the 
 1 Prof. E. Curtius, Numismatic Cbron., 1870, p. 92. 
 
14 Religious Aspedi of Greek Coins. 
 
 facred cheft, but was frequently lent out at intereft 
 in furtherance of any undertaking, fuch as the 
 fending out of a colony, or the opening and work- 
 ing of a mine; anything, in facl:, which might 
 commend itfelf to the found judgment of the priefts: 
 and fo it may well have been that the temple 
 funds would be put into circulation in the form 
 of coin marked with fome facred fymbol by which 
 all men might know that it was the property of 
 Zeus, or Apollo, or Artemis, or Aphrodite, as the 
 cafe might be. Thus coins iffued from a temple 
 of Zeus would bear, as a fymbol, a thunderbolt 
 or an eagle ; the money of Apollo would be 
 marked with a tripod or a lyre ; that of Artemis 
 with a ftag or a wild boar; that of Aphrodite 
 with a dove or a tortoife — a creature held facred 
 to the goddefs of Love, in fome of whofe temples 
 even the wooden footftools were made in the form 
 of tortoifes. 
 
 In this manner the origin of the ftamps on 
 current coin may be explained. But throughout 
 the Greek world the civic powers almoft every- 
 where ftepped in at an early date, and took over 
 to themfelves the right of ifTuing the coin of the 
 ftate. Neverthelefs, care was always taken to pre- 
 ferve the only folid guarantee which commanded 
 univerfal refpect, and the name of the god con- 
 tinued to be invoked on the coin as the patron of 
 the city. No mere king or tyrant, however abfo- 
 lute his rule, ever prefumed to place his own effigy 
 on the current coin, for fuch a proceeding would, 
 from old affociations, have been regarded as little 
 
Aegina. 
 
 fhort of facrilege. In fome rare cafes, indeed, the 
 right of coinage would even feem to have been 
 retained by the priefts down to a comparatively- 
 late period ; for coins exift, dating from the fourth 
 century B.C., which were ifliied from the famous 
 temple of the Didymean Apollo, near Miletus, 
 having on the obverfe the head of Apollo laureate 
 and with flowing hair ; and on the reverfe the 
 lion, the fymbol of the fun-god, and the infcrip- 
 tion Er AIAYMQN IEPH, " facred money of 
 bidyma." 
 
 We will now feleft a few of the almoft in- 
 numerable examples of ancient coin-types in illus- 
 tration of the religious fignification of the fymbols 
 which appear upon them. 
 
 Firft in importance comes the plentiful coinage Aegina. 
 of the hland of Aegina, iflued according to tradi- 
 tion by Pheidon, King of Argos, probably in the 
 fan&uary of Aphrodite, in Aegina, the firft 
 European mint. Thefe coins bear the fymbol of 
 the goddefs, a tortoife or turtle ; and they were 
 foon adopted far and wide, not only throughout 
 Peloponnefus, but in moft of the ifland ftates, as 
 the one generally recognifed circulating medium. 
 When Pheidon firft iflued this new money, he is 
 faid to have dedicated and hung up in the temple 
 of Hera, at Argos, fpecimens of the old cumbrous 
 bronze and iron bars which had ferved the purpofe 
 of money before his time. 
 
 Pafling from Aegina to Athens, we have now Athens, 
 before us the very ancient coins which Solon ftruck 
 when he inaugurated that great financial reform 
 
1 6 Athens. 
 
 which went by the name of the Seifachtheia, a 
 meafure of relief for the whole population of 
 Attica, then overburdened by a weight of debt. 
 By the new law then enacted (circ. b.c. 590), it 
 was decreed that every man who owed one 
 hundred Aeginetic drachms, the only coin then 
 current, mould be held exempt on the payment of 
 one hundred of the new Attic drachms, which 
 were ftruck of a confiderably lighter weight than 
 the old Aeginetic coins. 
 
 The type which Solon chofe for the new 
 Athenian coinage was, like all the types of early 
 Greek money, purely religious. On the obverfe 
 we fee the head of Athena, the protecting goddefs 
 of the city; and on the reverfe her facred owl 
 and olive-branch. Thefe coins were popularly 
 called owls, yXavKtc, or maidens, Kopai, TrapOevoi. 
 Ariftophanes, who not unfrequently alludes to 
 coins, mentions thefe famous owls in the following- 
 lines, where he promifes his judges that if only 
 they will give his play their fufFrages, the owls of 
 Laurium mail never fail them : 
 
 Firft, for more than anything each judge has this at heart, 
 Never lhall the Laureotic Owls from you depart, 
 But mail in your houfes dwell, and in your purfes too 
 Neftle clofe, and hatch a brood of little coins for you. 1 
 
 ParTing now into Central Greece, let us paufe 
 for a moment at Delphi, the religious metropolis 
 of the Dorian race. Delphi was efTentially a 
 temple-ftate, independent of the Phocian territory 
 
 1 Birds, 1 106 (Kennedy). 
 
Delphi. 
 
 l 7 
 
 in the midft of which it was fituated. It wns, 
 moreover, the principal feat of the facred Amphic- 
 tyonic Council. Here were held the great Pythian 
 Feftivals, to which all who could afford it flocked 
 from every part of the Hellenic world. The town 
 of Delphi, which grew up at the foot of the 
 temple of Apollo, on the fouthern flope of 
 ParnafTus, was in early times a member of the 
 Phocian Convention ; but as the temple increafed 
 in wealth and preftige, the Delphians claimed to 
 be recognifed as an independent community ; a 
 claim which the Phocians always ftrenuoufly re- 
 lifted, but which the people of Delphi fucceeded at 
 length in eftablifhing. The town, however, as 
 fuch, never rofe to any political importance apart 
 from the temple, upon which it was always de 
 fatto a mere dependency. 
 
 As might be expected, the coins ifTued at Delphi 
 are peculiarly temple coins ; and were probably 
 ftruck only on certain fpecial occasions, fuch as the 
 great Pythian Feftivals, and the meetings, called 
 YlvXaia, of the Amphiclyonic Council, when many 
 ftrangers were ftaying in the town, and when 
 money would confequently be in requeft in larger 
 quantities than ufual. At fuch times markets or 
 fairs were held, called nrvkaril^ ayopai for the fale 
 of all kinds of articles connected with the cere- 
 monies and obfervances of the temple; and at 
 thefe markets a coinage iftued by the priefthood, 
 which all alike might accept without fear of fraud, 
 would be a great convenience. 
 
 The ufual type of this Delphian temple money 
 c 
 
i8 
 
 Delphi. 
 
 was a ram's head; the ram, Kapvog, being the 
 emblem of Apollo, Kapvelog, the god of flocks and 
 herds. There is alfo another emblem, which, 
 although it is ufually only an accefibry fymbol, 
 and not a principal type, muft not be paffed over 
 in filence, the dolphin (SsA^/e). Here we have 
 an alluflon to another phafe of the cultus of 
 Apollo, who, as we read in the Homeric hymn to 
 Apollo, 1 once took the form of a dolphin when 
 he guided the Cretan fhip to Crifia, whence, after 
 commanding the crew to burn their fhip and erect 
 an altar to him as Apollo Delphinios, he led them 
 up to Delphi, and appointed them to be the firfl: 
 priefts of his temple. 
 
 On another coin {truck at Delphi we fee the 
 Pythian god feated on the facred Omphalos, with 
 his lyre and tripod befide him, and a laurel-branch 
 over his moulders ; while around is the infcription 
 AM<HKTIONQN, proving the coin to have been 
 iffued with the fanction of the Amphictyonic 
 Council. 
 
 In the coinage of the neighbouring territory of 
 Boeotia, the moft ftriking charaCleriftic is that it is 
 a fo-called Federal Currency ; that is to fay, that 
 the various Boeotian cities pofTefTed from firft. to 
 laft fumcient cohefion to be able to agree upon 
 a common type, which might ferve to diftinguifh 
 the Boeotian currency from that of other ftates. 
 This is the more remarkable when we remember 
 the fierce political feuds which from the earlieft 
 times divided Boeotia into feveral hoftile camps. 
 
 1 1. 390, seqq. 
 
Boeotia. 
 
 19 
 
 Here then we have a clear proof that the Buckler, 
 which is the type from the earlieft times to the 
 lateft of all Boeotian money, is no mere political 
 emblem, but a facred fymbol, which friends and 
 foes alike could unite in reverencing; juft as in 
 mediaeval times all Chriftians, however hoftile to 
 one another, and to whatever land they might 
 belong, were ready to pay homage to the fign of 
 the Crofs. To what divinity this Boeotian fhield 
 efpecially belongs we do not know for certain, but 
 the Theban Herakles has perhaps the belt, claim 
 to it. 
 
 The cities of Boeotia, however, while they all 
 agreed to accept the buckler as the diftinctive 
 badge of their money, neverthelefs afferted their 
 feparate and individual rights on the reverfe fide 
 of their coins. On the obverfe we here get 
 uniformity, on the reverfe variety, and yet among 
 all the various types on the reverfes of the coins 
 of the Boeotian cities, there is not one which is 
 not diftinclly religious, whether it refer to the 
 worlhip of Herakles or Dionyfos at Thebes, to 
 Pofeidon at Haliartus, to Apollo as the sun-god 
 at Tanagra, or to Aphrodite Melainis as a moon 
 goddefs at Thefpiae. Sometimes the god himfelf 
 is directly portrayed, fometimes his prefence is 
 veiled under fome fymbolic form, as when the 
 amphora or the wine-cup ftands for Dionyfos, the 
 club for Herakles, the trident for Pofeidon, the 
 wheel for the rolling dilk of the fun-god, and the 
 crefcent for the goddefs of the moon. 
 
 Proceeding now northwards through ThejfTaly Th 
 
20 Thrace. 
 
 and Macedon, we come upon a region where filver 
 money was coined in very early times, probably 
 long before the Perfian invafion, by the mining 
 tribes who inhabited the mountainous diftrict 
 oppofite the ifland of Thafos. Here again we find 
 the fame clofe connection between the religion of 
 the people and the types of their coins. The 
 fubjects reprefented on the money of this northern 
 land are Satyrs and Centaurs bearing off ftruggling 
 nymphs, rudely but vigoroufly executed, in a ftyle 
 of art rather Afiatic than Hellenic. 
 
 SILVER COIN OF THASOS. 
 
 Such types as thefe bring before us the wild 
 orgies which were held in the mountains of 
 Phrygia and Thrace, in honour of the god 
 Sabazius or Bacchus, whofe myfterious oracle ftood 
 on the rugged and fnow-capped height of Mount 
 Pangaeum, while around, among the dark pine 
 forefts, cluttered the village communities of the 
 rude mining tribes who worked the rich veins of 
 gold and filver with which the Pangaean range 
 abounded. 
 
 We will now take an example from Afia Minor, 
 where we fhall find the fame invariable connection 
 between the coinage and the local religious cultus. 
 
 The coins of the great city of Ephefus, " firft 
 
Ephefus. 2 1 
 
 city of Afia," are from very early times marked 
 with a bee on one fide, and a ftag and palm-tree 
 on the other. The hierarchy of the Ephefian 
 Artemis confifted of a college of priefts, at the 
 head of which was a High Prieft called 'E^v 
 (the king bee), the leader of the fwarm, while his 
 attendant priefterTes bore the name of Meliflae or 
 Bees ; and however difficult it may be for us to 
 feize the exact idea which was intended to be con- 
 veyed by this fymbol, there can be no doubt that 
 it was one of the molt diftinctive emblems of the 
 Ephefian goddefs in her character of a goddefs of 
 nature. The flag is a fymbol which every reader 
 of the Greek poets will at once recognife as be- 
 longing to Artemis, as is alfo the facred palm-tree, 
 TrpuToyovoQ <£otV<,£, beneath which Leto was fabled 
 to have brought forth Apollo and his fitter 
 Artemis. 
 
 In the Weft, no lefs than in Greece and Afia, the Elite. 
 religious afpect of the coin-types is very ftriking. 
 Thus on Etrufcan coins we meet with the head of 
 the gorgon Medufa and of Hades. Here, too, 
 we fee Cerberus and griffins and fphinxes and 
 chimaeras, as well as • the head of a prieft or augur 
 — types which are fymbolical of thofe gloomy and 
 fantaftic ideas connected with death and the world 
 of fhades which were peculiarly character iftic of the 
 ftrange uncanny beliefs of the Etrufcans. 
 
 In the fertile and vine-growing Campania, on Campania 
 the other hand, the moft frequent reverfe type is a 
 human-headed bull, a tauriform Chthonian divinity 
 or Earth-god, worfhipped very generally throughout 
 
22 
 
 Magna Graecia. 
 
 Southern Italy under the name of Dionyfos Hebon ; 
 a god whofe nature partook both of that of Hades 
 and of Dionyfos, and who was arTociated with a 
 female divinity, refembling both Perfephone and 
 Ariadne, a perfoniflcation of the eternal renewal 
 of nature in the fpring-time. The beautiful head 
 of this goddefs is the conftant obverfe type of the 
 money of Neapolis (Naples). 
 
 SILVER COIN OF TARENTUM. 
 
 Magna I n Magna Graecia the fplendid feries of the 
 
 Graecia. 0 1 
 
 Tarentum money of Tarentum offers the curious type of a 
 naked youth riding on a dolphin. This is Taras, 
 the founder of the flrft Iapygian fettlement on 
 the Calabrian coafl:, who was faid to have been 
 miraculoufly faved from fhipwreck by the inter- 
 vention of his father Pofeidon, who fent a dolphin, 
 on whofe back Taras was borne to the more. At 
 Tarentum divine honours were paid to him as 
 oekift or founder, and hence his prefence on the 
 coins. The rider who appears on the reverfe of 
 the coins of Tarentum may be taken as an example 
 Agonistic of what is called an agoniftic type, i.e., a corn- 
 Types, memoration on the ftate-money of victories in the 
 games held at Tarentum in the hippodrome. All 
 Greek games partook of a religious nature, and 
 were held in honour of one or other of the gods: 
 
Metapontum. 23 
 
 at Olympia, for example, in honour of Zeus, at 
 Delphi of Apollo, and at Tarentum probably of 
 Pofeidon. 
 
 Another, and a very remarkable early example Metapcn. 
 of one of the agoniftic types is furnifhed by a 
 coin of Metapontum, in Southern Italy: on the re- 
 verse is the figure of the river Acheloiis in human 
 form, but with the horns and ears of a bull, juft 
 as he is defcribed by Sophocles, 1 as av^puix) kvtu 
 QovTTpwpoQ ; and around him is the infcription in 
 archaic characters AXEAOIO A0AON, mowing that 
 games were celebrated at Metapontum in honour 
 of Acheloiis, king of all Greek rivers, and as fuch 
 revered from the time of Homer onwards. The 
 coins with this type were doubtlefs ftruck on the 
 occafion of the feftival held in honour of Acheloiis, 
 and may even have been diflributed as prizes, 
 aOXa, among the fuccefsful athletes. 
 
 At leaft one fide of every Metapontine coin was 
 always dedicated to Demeter, to whofe efpecial 
 favour was attributed the extraordinary fertility of 
 the plain in which the city flood. The ear of 
 corn was the recognifed fymbol of the worfhip of 
 this goddefs. On this ear of corn is often feen a 
 locuft, a bird, a field-moufe, or fome other creature 
 destructive to the crops, which was probably added 
 to the main type as a fort of propitiation of the 
 daemons of destruction, and the maleficent in- 
 fluences in nature. 
 
 The Acheloiis on this interesting coin of Meta- Sicilv - 
 
 0 River-gods. 
 
 pontum may ferve to introduce us to a whole 
 1 Track 12* 
 
2 4 Sicily — R iver-gods. 
 
 feries of river-gods as coin-types on the money of 
 many of the towns of Sicily. River-worfhip would 
 feem, indeed, judging from the coins, to have been 
 efpecially prevalent in that ifland in the fifth 
 century B.C., during which the Sicilian coafts were 
 girdled by a chain of magnificent Greek cities, all, 
 or nearly all, of which were fhortly afterwards 
 either deftroyed by the Carthaginians, or delivered 
 by the tyrants of Syracufe into the hands of a 
 rapacious foreign foldiery. 
 
 In Sicily we fee the. river Gelas at firft as a 
 rufhing man-headed bull, and later as a beardlefs 
 youth with horns fprouting from his forehead. 
 
 SILVER COIN OF GELA. 
 
 The Crimiflus on a coin of Segefta takes at firft. 
 the form of a dog, and later that of a hunter 
 accompanied by two dogs. The Hipparis at 
 Camarina is feen as a young horned head emerging 
 from the imidft of a circle of waves. The Hypfas 
 at Selinus is a naked youth offering a libation at 
 the altar of the god of health, in gratitude for the 
 draining of the marfh, which had impeded the 
 courfe of his ftream, and for the cleanfing and purifi- 
 cation of his waters. On the reverfe of this coin 
 we fee Apollo and Artemis in a chariot, the former 
 as uX&'iku k?c difcharging his radiant arrows and 
 
Water-nymphs. 
 
 25 
 
 flaying the Peftilence as he flew the Python, while 
 his fitter Artemis ftands befide him in her capacity 
 of uXdQvia or crowStVa, for the plague had fallen 
 heavily on the women tOO, toart kcli rag yvvaiicag 
 
 SILVER COIN OF SELINUS. 
 
 From the cultus of rivers we may pafs to that Water- 
 
 . m J 1 nymphs 
 
 of nymphs, of which we may again find examples 
 among the beautiful coins of Sicily. One of the 
 moft charming of thefe reprefentations is that of 
 the nymph Camarina on a coin of that city, who 
 is pictured riding on the back of a fwan, half- 
 flying, half-fwimming acrofs the waves of her own 
 lake, as fhe holds with one hand the corner of her 
 peplos or garment, which, filled by the breeze, 
 ferves the purpofe of a fail. 
 
 More famous frill is the fountain-nymph Are- 
 thufa, on a tetradrachm of Syracufe, a work which, 
 in delicacy of treatment, and in the fkilful adapta- 
 tion of the fubjecl: to the fpace at the difpofal of 
 the artift, leaves nothing to be defired. On this 
 coin the head of the nymph is feen facing the 
 fpectator — a true water-goddefs — 
 
 With her rainbow locks * 
 Streaming among the ftreams ; 
 
 1 Diog. Laert., viii. 2, 70. 
 
26 ; Eagles Devouring a Hare. 
 
 Eagles de- 
 vouring a 
 Hare. 
 
 while dolphins are playing around her, darting 
 and leaping about among the rich mafles of her 
 floating hair. The artift has here ftriven to convey 
 the idea of the fweet waters of the fountain in 
 the ifland of Ortygia riling out of the midft of 
 the fait waves of the harbour of Syracufe, the fait 
 fea being fymbolized by the dolphins. 
 
 As in the cafe of the river-gods, the head of 
 the nymph is on this coin accompanied by her 
 name, APE 9 02 A. 
 
 Another Sicilian coin flands out as a truly power- 
 ful work. It is a filver coin of Agrigentum, on 
 which two eagles are feen on a rocky height, the 
 one fcreaming with uplifted head, the other with 
 raifed wings and head ftretched downwards. The 
 two birds ftand fide by fide on the dead body of a 
 hare, which they are about to tear in pieces. As 
 a coin-type, fuch a fubjecl feems hard to explain : 
 perhaps it refers to some local myth long loft ; 
 but it is fcarcely pofiible to conceive that the artift 
 
 SILVER COIN OF AGRIGENTUM. 
 
 who engraved the die had not ringing in his 
 ears the grand chorus in the Agamemnon where 
 Aefchylus depicts the " winged hounds of Zeus " 
 
Coinage of Philip, 
 
 27 
 
 in juft fuch a fcene as the engraver, with equally 
 imperifhable touches, has handed down to us 
 acrofs the ages : 
 
 On lofty ftation, manifeft to fight, 
 
 The bird kings to the navy kings appear, 
 
 One black, and one with hinder plumage white, 
 
 A hare with embryo young in evil hour 
 
 Amerced of future courfes they devour. 
 
 Chant the dirge, uplift the wail, 
 
 But may the right prevail. 1 
 
 From the coinage of free and autonomous Coinage oi 
 
 tOWnS, We Will nOW pafs tO that Of Philip of Alexander 
 
 Macedon, the founder of that vaft monarchy 
 which was deftined, in the 'hands of his fon and 
 fuccefTor Alexander the Great, to fpread the arms, 
 the arts, the literature, and the civilization of 
 Greece as far as the mores of the Cafpian and the 
 banks of the Indus and the Nile. But abfolute 
 as was the power of Philip and Alexander, thefe 
 monarchs were ftill efTentially Greek, and as 
 Greeks they were careful never to place upon 
 their money any effigy lefs auguft than that of 
 fome one of the gods of Greece. Thus Philip, 
 when he had united in his fingle hand the whole 
 of northern Greece, and when he reorganized the 
 currency of his empire, had recourfe to the two 
 great religious centres of Hellas, Delphi and 
 Olympia, for the types of his gold and filver 
 money. On the gold money appears the head of 
 the Pythian Apollo, and on the filver that of 
 the Olympian Zeus. The reverfe types are in 
 each cafe agoniftic ; that is 'to fay, they com- 
 1 Agam.y 115 (Swanwick). 
 
28 Coinage of Philip and Alexander. 
 
 memorate in a general way Philip's fuccefTes in 
 the great Greek games, in which, we are told, it 
 was his efpecial pride to be hailed as a victor. 
 Pallas and her attendant, Victory, with Herakles 
 and the Olympian Zeus, are the gods under whofe 
 aufpices Alexander's gold and filver went forth 
 from a hundred mints over the vaft expanfe of 
 his heterogeneous empire. But, more than mortal 
 as Alexander was conceived, and perhaps almoft 
 believed himfelf to be, never once during his life- 
 time was his own portrait feen upon his coins, 
 though it had been the cuftom in the Eaft, from 
 the very foundation of the Perfian monarchy 
 which Alexander overthrew, for the great king 
 to place his own effigy upon the royal Daric coins. 
 What clearer proof can be required that none but 
 religious fubjects were at that time admiffible on 
 the coin ? 
 
 introduc- But after the death of the great conqueror a 
 traiture. change is noticeable, gradual at firft, and then 
 more marked, in the afpect of the international 
 currency inftituted by Alexander. The features 
 of the god Herakles on the tetradrachms little 
 by little lofe their noble ideality, and aflume an 
 expreffion in which there is an evident ftriving on 
 the part of the engraver towards an afTimilation of 
 the god to Alexander, now himfelf regarded as 
 one of the immortals and the recipient of Divine 
 honours. 
 
 Alexander's The firft real and diflinct innovation was, how- 
 ' ever, made by Alexander's general, Lyfimachus, 
 when he became King of Thrace. The money of 
 
Alexander s Succejfors. 29 
 
 this monarch bears moft unmiftakably a portrait 
 of the great Alexander — of Alexander, however, 
 as a god — in the character which in his lifetime 
 his flatterers had encouraged him to aflume, of 
 the fon of the Lybian Amnion with the ram's 
 horn over the ear. This was the firft ftep to- 
 wards the new faftiion of placing the head of the 
 fovereign on the coin of the realm ; but fo an- 
 tagonize does this practice feem to have been to 
 the religious fufceptibilities even of this late time, 
 that it was only by flow degrees that it came to 
 be adopted. When the centre of gravity, fo to 
 fpeak, of the Greek world was no longer to be 
 found in Hellas, but in the various capitals of 
 thofe femi-oriental monarchies which arofe out of 
 the ruins of the Perlian empire, Alexandria, 
 Antioch, and the reft, all Greece received an 
 indelible taint of oriental fervility. In com- 
 parifon with thefe new felf-conftituted BamXeiQ 
 and their defcendants, Philip and Alexander ftand 
 forth as Hellenes of the old type. Only in fuch 
 degenerate times did it become poffible for a king 
 to ufurp on the coinage the place of honour re- 
 ferred of old for gods and religious emblems; 
 nay, even to give themfelves out as very gods, 
 and to adopt fuch titles as 0«>e kirifyavriQ or Neoc 
 
 AtOi'UCTOC. 
 
 The firft of Alexander's fucceflbrs who fubfti- 
 tuted his own portrait on coins for that of the 
 deified Alexander was Ptolemy Soter, the founder 
 of the dynafty which ruled Egypt for two cen- 
 turies and a half. Both he and his queen, Berenice, 
 
30 : Portraits — Alexander, 
 
 were deified after their deaths, and appear with the 
 title Geo/ on the money of their fon, Ptolemy Phila- 
 delphus ; and the portrait of Ptolemy Soter was 
 perpetuated from generation to generation on the 
 coins of fuccemve rulers of Egypt down to the 
 time of the Roman conqueft, although not to the 
 exclufton of other royal portraits. 
 
 Greek coins, from the age of Alexander on- 
 wards, poftefs an intereft altogether different from 
 that with which the money, of the earlier ages 
 infpires us. The intereft of the pras-Alexandrine 
 coins is twofold. In the firft place, they illuftrate 
 local myths, and indireclly fhed much light on the 
 political revolutions of every corner of the Greek 
 world ; and in the fecond place, they are moft 
 valuable for the hiftory of art in its various ftages 
 of development. The intereft of the poft-Alex- 
 andrine coins is that of a gallery of authentic 
 portraits. " Here," fays Addifon, 1 " you fee the 
 Alexanders, Caefars, Pompeys, Trajans, and the 
 whole catalogue of heroes who have, many of 
 them, fo diftinguifhed themfelves from the reft 
 of mankind, that we almoft look upon them as 
 another fpecies. It is an agreeable amufement to 
 compare in our own thoughts the face of a great 
 man with the character that authors have given 
 us of him, and to try if we can find out in his 
 looks and features either the haughty, cruel, or 
 merciful temper that difcovers itfelf in the hiftory 
 of his aclions." 
 Portrays— Among the fineft portraits on Greek coins we 
 
 Alexander.- 
 
 1 Dialogues upon the Vfefulnefs of Ancient Medals. 
 
Demetrius Poliorcetes. 31 
 
 have fpace only to mention a few. Firft. comes 
 that of the great Alexander himfelf, on the coins 
 of Lyfimachus, idealized no doubt, but dill the 
 man in the likenefs of a god. In many of thefe 
 coins we may note the peculiarities recorded as 
 characteriftic of his ftatues by Lyfippus, the flight 
 twift in the neck and the ardent look in the eyes. 
 
 Then there is Demetrius Poliorcetes, the de- Demetrius 
 {troyer of cities, that foldier of fortune, terrible olorcete ~ 
 in war, and luxurious in peace, whofe beauty was 
 fuch that Plutarch fays no painter could hit off a 
 likenefs. That hiftorian compares him to Dionyfos, 
 and as Dionyfos he appears on the coins, with the 
 bull's horn of the god pointing up from out the 
 heavy locks of hair which fall about his fore- 
 head. 
 
 Another highlv characteriftic head is that of the pm- 
 
 etaerus. 
 
 eunuch Philetaerus, the founder of the dynafly of 
 the Attalid Kings of Pergamus. Here, at laft, is 
 realifm pure and fimple. The huge fat face and 
 vaft expanfe of cheek and lower jaw carry con- 
 viction to our minds that this is indeed a living 
 portrait. 
 
 To thofe who are familiar only with Greek art Realism, 
 in its ideal ftage, fuch faces as this of Philetaerus, 
 with many others that might be cited (Prufias, 
 King of Bithynia, for example), from among the 
 various Greek regal coins, will be at firft fomewhat 
 ftartling. We have become fo thoroughly imbued 
 with the ideal conceptions of godlike humanity 
 perpetuated, in Greek fculpture and its derivatives, 
 that when we firft take up one of thefe portrait- 
 
Mithradates. 
 
 coins of the third or fecond century b.c, we find it 
 hard to perfuade ourfelves that it is fo far removed 
 from our own times. This or that uninfpired 
 and commonplace face might well be that of a 
 profperous modern Englishman, were it not for 
 the royal diadem and Greek infcription which 
 defignate it as a King of Pontus or Bithynia, of 
 Syria or of Egypt. 
 
 Neverthelefs, although an almoft brutal realifm 
 is the rule in the period now under confideration, 
 there are instances where the artift feems to have 
 been infpired by his f abject and carried away out 
 Mithra- of the real into the ideal. Thus the majority of 
 dates. ^ coins of the great Mithradates are probably 
 unidealized portraits, fomewhat carelefsly executed, 
 of a man fcarcely remarkable unlefs for a certain 
 evil expreftion of tigerifh cruelty. But there are 
 others of this fame monarch on which, it is true, 
 the likenefs is unmiftakably preferved, but under 
 what an altered afpect ! Mithradates is here the 
 hero, almoft the god, and as we gaze at his head 
 on thefe coins, with flying locks blown back as if 
 by a ftrong wind, we can picture him ftanding in 
 his victorious chariot holding well in hand his 
 fixteen fplendid fteeds, and carrying off the prize ; 
 or as a runner, outstripping the fwifteft deer, or 
 performing fome other of thofe wondrous feats of 
 ftrength and agility of which we read. This type 
 of the idealized Mithradatic head alfo occurs on 
 coins of Ariarathes, a youthful fon of Mithradates, 
 who was placed by his father on the throne of 
 Cappadocia. The head, like that of Alexander, 
 
Cleopatra. 
 
 33 
 
 was afterwards perpetuated on the money of 
 various cities on the mores of the Euxine. 
 
 SILVER COIN WITH HEAD OF MITHKADATES. 
 
 We have fpace only to mention one other Cleopatra, 
 portrait, that of the famous Cleopatra on a coin 
 of Afcalon. This is certainly no ordinary face, 
 and yet we look in vain for thofe charms which 
 fafcinated Caefar and ruined Antony. The eyes 
 are wide open and eager, the nofe prominent and 
 flightly hooked, the mouth large and expreflive, . 
 the hair modeftly drefTed and bound with the 
 royal diadem. The evidence afforded by the 
 coins, taken in conjunction with a pafTage of 
 Plutarch, who fays that in beauty fhe was by no 
 means fuperior to Octavia, leads us to the con- 
 clufion that Cleopatra's irreiiftible charm lay rather 
 in her mental qualities and alluring manner, than 
 in any mere outward beauty. 
 
 Quite apart from the intrinfic importance, styles of 
 mythological or hiftorical, of the fubjects re pre- chrono- 
 fented on Greek coins, lies their value as illuftra- sequence, 
 tions of the archaeology of art. Of all the remains 
 of antiquity, ftatues, bronzes, terracottas, fictile 
 vafes, engraved gems, and coins, thefe laft alone 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 Styles of Art, 
 
 can, as a rule, be exactly dated. The political 
 conditions and viciffitudes of the autonomous coin- 
 ftriking ftates render it comparatively eafy for us 
 to fpread out before our eyes the fucceffive ifTues 
 of each in chronological fequence. In the feries 
 of each town we may thus at once obtain a few 
 definite landmarks, around which, by analogy of 
 fiyle, we mall have no great difficulty in grouping 
 the remaining coins. The characleriftics of Greek 
 art, in the various phafes which it parTed through, 
 we do not propofe, nor indeed is this the place, to 
 difcufs. It will be fuflicient to indicate the main 
 chronological divifions or periods in which the 
 coinage of the ancient world may be conveniently 
 claffified. Thefe are as follows : 
 
 I. Circa b.c. 700-480. The Period of Archaic 
 
 Art, which extends from 
 the invention of the art 
 of coining down to the 
 time of the Perfian 
 Wars. 
 
 II. „ „ 480-415. The Period of Tran- 
 
 fitional Art, from the 
 Perfian Wars to the 
 fiege of Syracufe by the 
 Athenians. 
 
 III. „ „ 415-336. The Period of Fineft 
 
 Art, from the Athenian 
 expedition againft Sicily, 
 to the acceffion of Alex- 
 ander the Great. 
 
Chronological Sequence. 
 
 IV. Circa b.c. 336-280. The Period of Later 
 
 Fine Art, from the ac- 
 ceffion of Alexander to 
 the death of Lyfimachus. 
 V. „ >, 280-146. The Period of the 
 
 Decline of Art, from the 
 death of Lyfimachus to 
 the Roman conqueft of 
 Greece. 
 
 VI. „ „ 146-27. The Period of con- 
 tinued Decline in Art, 
 from the Roman con- 
 queft to the rife of the 
 Roman Empire. 
 VII. b.c. 27 — a.d. 268. The Period of Graeco- 
 
 Roman Art, from the 
 reign of Auguftus to 
 that of Gallienus. 
 
 It is almoft always quite eafy to determine 
 to which of the above periods any given coin 
 belongs ; and as a rule it is poffible to fix its date 
 within the period with more or lefs precifion, by 
 comparing it in point of ftyle with others of which 
 the exact date is known. Even a fmall collection 
 of well-chofen fpecimens thus mapped out in 
 periods forms an epitome of the hiftory of art 
 fuch as no other clafs of ancient monuments can 
 furnifh. It is true that not all coin art is of the 
 higheft order for the age to which it belongs. 
 Often, indeed, it is extremely faulty; but, good 
 or bad, it is always inftructive, becaufe it is the 
 
36 
 
 Die Engravers. 
 
 veritable handiwork of an artift working in- 
 dependently, and not of a mere copyift of older 
 works. The artift may have been unknown, 
 perhaps, even in his own day, beyond the narrow 
 circle of his fellow-citizens ; but he was none the 
 lefs an artift who exprefTed to the beft of his 
 ability the ideas of his age and country, and he has 
 handed down to all time, on the little diik of metal 
 at his difpofal, a fpecimen, on a fmall fcale, of the 
 art of the time in which he was at work. 
 
 There is good reafon, moreover, to think that 
 the perfons employed to engrave the coin-dies 
 were by no means always artifts of inferior merit. 
 During the period of the higheft development of 
 Greek art it is not unufual, efpecially in Magna 
 Graecia and Sicily, to find the artift's name written 
 at full length in minute characters on coins of 
 particularly fine work ; and it is in the laft degree 
 improbable that fuch a privilege would have been 
 accorded to a mere mechanic or workman in the 
 mint, however Ikilful he may have been. That 
 artifts known to fame were (at leaft in the fourth 
 century) entrufted with the engraving of the coins, 
 is indeed proved by the fact that we find feveral 
 cities entirely independent of one another having 
 recourfe to the fame engraver for their money. 
 For inftance, Evaenetus, the engraver of the fineft 
 of thofe fplendid medallions of Syracufe, bearing 
 on one fide the head of Perfephone crowned with 
 corn-leaves, and on the other a victorious chariot, 
 places his name alfo on coins of two other Sicilian 
 cities, Camarina and Catana ; and what is ftill 
 
Die Engravers. 
 
 37 
 
 more remarkable, the Syracufan artift, EY9 
 appears alfo to have been employed by the mint 
 of Elis in Peloponnefus. 
 
 SYKACUSAN MEDALLION. 
 
 In Magna Greacia alfo we note that an artift, by 
 name Ariftoxenus, figns coins both of Metapontum 
 and Heracleia in Lucania; and another, , who 
 modeftly figns himfelf <I>, works at the fame time 
 for the mints of Heracleia, Thurium, Pandofia, 
 and Terina. 
 
 In Greece proper, artifts' ngnatures are of very 
 rare occurrence ; but of the town of Cydonia, in 
 Crete, there is a coin with the legend in full 
 1NEYANT02 EIIOEI ; and of Clazomenae, in 
 Ionia, there is a well-known tetradrachm, with a 
 magnificent head of Apollo facing, and the in- 
 fcription 0E0A0T02 EIIOEI. 
 
 Enough has been faid to mow that in the period 
 of fineft art there were die-engravers whofe re- 
 putation was not confined to a fmgh town, artifts 
 of the higher order, whofe fignatures on the coin 
 were a credit to the cities for which they worked. 
 Unfortunately, not a Tingle ancient writer has 
 thought of recording the name of any one of 
 
Magiftrates' Names. 
 
 thefe great matters of the art of engraving. How, 
 indeed, could they know that thoufands of thefe, 
 in their time infignificant, coins would outlaft the 
 grandeft works of architecture, fculpture, and 
 painting, and would go down from age to age, 
 uninjured by the lapfe of time, fole witnerTes to the 
 beauty of a long-forgotten popular belief, or to 
 the glory of fome fplendid city whofe very fite is 
 now a defert or a fwamp? Yet we muft not regret 
 that the old Greek engravers worked without any 
 idea of handing down either their own, or their 
 city's, or their ruler's glory to pofterity. Had 
 they thought of thefe things, the coins would have 
 furnifhed far lefs trustworthy evidence than they 
 now do, and we mould probably have had many 
 ancient examples of medals like that famous piece 
 of modern times which Napoleon I. ordered to be 
 ftruck with the infcription, Frappee a Londres. 
 Magi- Not to be confounded with artifts* fignatures on 
 
 strates' m ° 
 
 Names, coins are the names or the magiftrates under whofe 
 authority the money was iftued. All fuch names 
 are ufually written in large confpicuous characters 
 intended to catch the eye, while the names of artiflis 
 are often purpofely concealed ; and are indeed 
 fometimes fo fmall as to be hardly vifible with- 
 out a magnifying-glafs. About the end of the fifth 
 century B.C., at fome towns, though not generally 
 before the middle of the fourth, magiftrates begin 
 to place their flgnatures on the money. Some- 
 times we read their names at full length, fome- 
 times in an abbreviated form or in monogram ; 
 while not unfrequently a fymbol or fignet ftands 
 
Magiftrates* Names. 
 
 39 
 
 in place of the name. It is a matter of no fmall 
 difficulty to diftinguiSh fuch magistrates' fignets in 
 the field of a coin from religious fymbols which 
 are to be interpreted as referring more or lefs 
 directly to the principal type. Thus, for inStance, 
 an ear of corn might refer to the worfhip of 
 Demeter, or it might ftand in the place of the 
 name of a magistrate Demetrius. As a rule, all 
 fuch fmall acceflbry fymbols before the end of the 
 fifth century have a religious motive ; and the 
 fame fymbol will be found very constantly ac- 
 companying the main type. But in later times, 
 while the type remains conftant, the fymbol will 
 be frequently varied. It muSfc then be underftood 
 as the private feal of the magistrate entrusted with 
 the fupervifion of the coinage. Unfortunately we 
 know very little of the organization of the mints 
 in the various cities of the ancient world. It has 
 been proved that at fome cities the chief magi- 
 strate placed his name on the money hTued during 
 his tenure of office; thus, in Boeotia, the name 
 of the illuftrious Epaminondas occurs; and at 
 Ephefus we find the names of feveral of the 
 chief magiftrates, who are mentioned as fuch by 
 ancient writers or in infcriptions. This was not, 
 however, the univerfal rule: at Athens, for in- 
 fiance, the names of the Archons are not found 
 on the coins ; and at fome cities the high prieft, 
 and occafionally even a prieftefs, figns the municipal 
 coinage. 
 
 Under the Roman Empire, from AuguStus to Oreeic t rn- 
 
 r ° penal Coin- 
 
 Gallienus, the Greek cities of Afia, and a few in a s e - 
 
40 : Greek Imperial Coinage. 
 
 Europe, were allowed to ftrike bronze money for 
 local ufe. Thefe late iffues are very unattractive 
 as works of art, and their ftudy has been confe- 
 quently much neglected. In fome refpects, how- 
 ever, they are even more inftructive than the coins 
 of an earlier age, which they often explain and 
 illuftrate. It is to thefe Greek Imperial coins, as 
 they are called, that we muft have recourfe if we 
 would know what local cults prevailed in the out- 
 lying provinces of the Roman Empire, and efpe- 
 cially in what ftrange and uncouth guifes the half- 
 Greek peoples of Ajfia clothed their gods. 
 
 Only in this lateft period do we find on the 
 coinage actual copies of ancient facred images of 
 Afiatic divinities, fuch as that of the Ephefian 
 Artemis, with ftiff mummy-like body, half human, 
 half beftial, with her many breafts. It is not to 
 be queftioned that many fuch monftrous ftatues 
 exifted in various parts of Greece, facred relics of 
 a barbarous age, and that on great feftivals they 
 were draped in gorgeous attire, and exhibited to 
 public view ; but Greek art, as long as it was a 
 living art, fhrank from the reprefentation of fuch 
 images, and always fubftituted for them the beauti- 
 ful Greek ideal form of the divinity with which it 
 was cuftomary to identify them. 
 
 Thefe Greek Imperial coins are alfo valuable as 
 furniming us with copies of famous ftatues of the 
 great period of art, fuch as that of the chryf- 
 elephantine Zeus of Pheidias at Olympia, the 
 Aphrodite of Praxiteles at Cnidus, and many 
 others ; and they are particularly interefting for 
 
Greek Imperial Coinage. 41 
 
 the light which they fhed upon the facred games, 
 Pythia, Didymeia, Actia, Cabeiria, and other local 
 feftivals and religious ceremonies, of which, but 
 for our coins, little or nothing would have been 
 known. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ROMAN COINS. 
 
 HE coinage of Rome falls naturally 
 into two great clanes : (i) the Family 
 i or, as it is often mifcalled, the Con- 
 fular feries, ftruck under the Re- 
 
 public ; and (2) the Imperial feries, of the period 
 of the Roman and Byzantine Emperors, from 
 Auguftus to the capture of Conftantinople by the 
 Turks in a.d. 1453. 
 introduc- The date of the firft ifTue of a coinage at Rome 
 
 don of . . n 
 
 Coinage, is uncertain. The prefence of roughly calx lumps 
 of metal in treafure offered to divinities of foun- 
 tains, mixed with large quantities of coins, feems 
 to indicate that the firft attempt at a metal 
 currency at Rome confifted of rude lumps or 
 ingots of copper of uncertain weight and fize, 
 
 Aes rude, called aes rude. Thefe pieces are without any 
 mark of authority, and could only have circulated 
 by weight. The introduction of a coinage at 
 Rome has by ancient authority been attributed 
 to Servius Tullius, and he is faid to have been 
 "the firft to mark copper pieces with the repre- 
 
Introduction of Coinage. 43 
 
 fentations of an ox or fome other animal or 
 fymbol." No coins of this remote period have, 
 however, been preferved, and the tradition is 
 doubtlefs without foundation. Confiderably later 
 than the time of the Kings are thofe quadrilateral 
 or brick-fhaped pieces of copper, having on one 
 or both fides a fymbol, from which they have 
 been called aes fignatum. Thefe pieces muft have Aes signa- 
 been iflued in confiderable quantities, as they are 
 not uncommon at the prefent time. They are of 
 uncertain fizes and thicknefs, and were originally 
 caft in large blocks, and afterwards divided into 
 fmaller portions. Like the aes rude, thefe pieces 
 muft have circulated by weight. They appear to 
 have been in ufe up to a late period, even after 
 the coinage had pafled into another ftage. To 
 thefe rough pieces there fucceeded a much more 
 regular coinage, circular in fhape, called aes grave. Aes Grave. 
 It confifted of a large copper coin, the as, the 
 unit of the monetary fyftem, and, being of a pound 
 weight, called the as libralis, and of a number of 
 fractional parts, called the Jemis (half), the triens 
 (third), the quadrans (fourth), the fextans (flxth), 
 and the unci a (twelfth). Multiples of the as 
 were the dupondius (double as), the quincujjis (five- 
 as piece), and the decuffis (ten-as piece) ; but thefe 
 do not appear to have been iflued at Rome, but 
 only by the neighbouring cities, which adopted 
 this heavy copper coinage. All the pieces of this 
 new coinage are caft (not ftruck), in high relief, 
 and without any kind of legend or infcription 
 excepting the marks of value: for the as 1, for 
 
44 : Introduction of Coinage. 
 
 the femis S, and for the other divifions four, three, 
 two, or one dot or knob. The type of the 
 reverfe, a prow, was the fame throughout, but 
 that of the obverfe varied with each denomination. 
 On the as was the double-headed Janus, to whom 
 the firft. coinage was mythically attributed; on 
 the femis the head of Jupiter, the protector of 
 the Capitol ; on the triens the head of Pallas, the 
 protectrefs of Aeneas, or Minerva, the inventrefs 
 of numbers; on the quadrans the head of Her- 
 cules, the tutelary genius of the farmyard, and 
 thus in general the god of property and riches; 
 on the fextans the head of Mercury, the god of 
 traffic and commerce ; and on the uncia the head 
 of Roma, herfelf the tutelary goddefs of the city. 
 The weight of the as was nominally that of the 
 Roman pound of 12 oz., but very few fpecimens 
 extant come up to the full weight; they range 
 generally from 11 to 9 oz. This may be the 
 refult of a firft reduction of a pound of copper 
 from the condition of aes rude, or large quadri- 
 lateral pieces of metal, aes fignatum, circulating 
 by weight, to the form of a real and fyftematic 
 currency. 
 
 The origin of this libral fyftem is affigned by 
 Mommfen to the decemvirs, and more particularly 
 to the influence of the Lex Julia Papiria (b.c. 430), 
 which ordered that fines mould not be paid in 
 cattle but in money. But in ftyle and fabric the 
 libral coinage cannot be of fo early a date. Any- 
 one accuftomed to the fludy of numifmatics can 
 fee at a glance that thefe coins bear no trace of 
 
Early Gold and Silver Coins. 45 
 
 archaifm, and cannot be imitations of types that 
 originated in the fifth century. They belong 
 rather to a time that correfponds with the fine 
 period of Greek coinage. The Romans borrowed 
 all their ideas of painting and fculpture from the 
 Greeks, and no doubt reforted to the fame fource 
 for the types of their coinage. It muft therefore 
 be fuppofed that the fines ordered by the Lex Julia 
 Papiria were paid in metal by weight, and that the 
 as libralis was an eventual but not an immediate 
 effect of this law. 
 
 Befide this rather complicated feries of copper Early Gold 
 coins, no attempt appears to have been made by coLsIn* 
 the State to introduce either of the finer metals, 2 Rome?" 
 gold, or filver. In fixing the as to the weight 
 of a pound, the State had, however, made it 
 poffible to accept in circulation the gold and filver 
 coinages of neighbouring cities. At that period 
 the pound of copper was worth a fcruple of filver, 
 a relative value which had for fome time exifted 
 in Sicily, whofe inhabitants for convenience of 
 trade were defirous that their filver money and 
 the rude copper coins of Latium fhould have a 
 joint circulation. The coins that chiefly fupplied Campania « 
 this want were the gold and filver money of Cam- Coms ' 
 pania, with the name ROMANO* or ROMA. 
 The gold coin had for the type of the obverfe the 
 head of Janus, and on the reverfe two warriors 
 taking an oath over a youth facrificing a pig. 1 
 The filver coins vary in type, but the moft 
 common have on the obverfe the head of Janus, 
 1 Caefa iungebant foedera porca. — Aen. } viii. 641. 
 
46 Re duff ion of the As Libra lis. 
 
 and on the reverfe Jupiter in a biga, or two-horfe 
 chariot, accompanied by the divinity Vi&ory. 
 Both gold and filver coins of these types are 
 infcribed ROMA. The relative value of the 
 coins in gold, filver, and copper is a very difficult 
 queftion. At this period the ufual proportion 
 between gold and filver was 1 to 12, and between 
 filver and copper 1 to 250; but, in order to in- 
 creafe the value of their copper coins, the Romans 
 appear to have eftimated them above their ufual 
 worth, thus making the filver and copper at a 
 ratio of 1 to 183, and reducing in an equal degree 
 the ratio of the gold. 
 Reduction Although this large copper coinage muft have 
 ubraiis^ proved moft inconvenient for commercial tranf- 
 actions, a confiderable period elapfed before there 
 was any decided change in the Roman monetary 
 fyftem. The authorities of the Imperial age ftate 
 with a very confiderable uniformity of opinion 
 that the change took place during the period of 
 the firft Punic war (b.c. 264-241), and that the 
 as libralis fell fuddenly to 2 oz., the weight of 
 an as fextantalis. According to Mommfen, how- 
 ever, whofe opinion is borne out by the coins 
 themfelves, the fall was not fo rapid ; and what 
 took place appears to have been as follows. From 
 a weight of 10 oz. (nominally 12), the as fell to 
 8 oz., and at length was reduced to 4, or to that 
 Trientai of a triens, and thus became triental. This pro- 
 As ' bably occurred about B.C. 269, when the filver 
 coinage of Rome begins. The evidence afforded 
 by the coinages of neighbouring cities fubject to 
 
Sextantal As. 
 
 47 
 
 Rome bear out this ftatement. In b.c. 291 
 Venufia was founded, and ftruck coins of the 
 libral ftandard; and in b.c. 289 Hatria followed 
 her example; but in b.c. 251, when Lipara 
 became a Roman colony, we find that city iftuing 
 a triental coinage. It is therefore between thefe 
 dates that the reduction of the as muft be placed, 
 and in fixing it to b.c. 269 we make it fimul- 
 taneous with the introduction of the new filver 
 
 SEXTANTAL AS. 
 
 coinage. The dupondius (2 affes), treffis (3), and 
 decuffis (10), were now iffued at Rome, and alfo 
 the femuncia (-J oz.) and quadruncia (1 oz.). 
 Thefe two laft coins, together with the fextans and 
 uncia, were now no longer caft but ftruck, and 
 bore on the reverfe the infcription ROMA; the 
 other coins were all caft as before. The triental 
 as did not long preferve its full weight, but about 
 b.c. 250 fell to 2 oz., and was called the as y^-Sextantai 
 tantalis. When the coinage became Jextantal y 
 cafting was abandoned, and all coins were ftruck, 
 and bore the name of the city. Alfo the multiples 
 
48 Firji Roman Silver Coinage, 
 
 of the as were difcontinued, as well as the femuncia 
 and quadruncia. 
 First In B.C. 269 the firft filver coinage was ifTued 
 
 silver at Rome, and confifted of the denarius, its half 
 Coinage. quinarius, and its quarter the Jeftertius. The 
 legal weight of the early denarius was 4 fcruples 
 (72 grains), which .^ave a convenient number 
 of fcruples for each Roman coin. Thus the 
 quinarius = 2 fcrupks, and the feftertius = 1 fcruple, 
 and the Roman pound of filver produced 72 
 denarii, 144 quinarii, or 288 feftertii. The reafon 
 for adopting this new ftandard for the filver coins 
 is obvious, when we confider what had happened 
 with the copper coinage. This, as has been 
 mown, was reduced to one-third its original value, 
 and the new feftertius was therefore an equivalent to 
 the as libralis, of which many fpecimens mud have 
 ftill remained in circulation. In all indications of 
 funis fixed at the period of the introduction of 
 the new coinage, the Latin writers ufe as fynony- 
 mous terms the words Jeftertius and aes grave. 
 The relative value of filver and copper was by 
 this arrangement maintained, although it did not 
 long keep fo, as the weight of the copper coins 
 foon fell, and they became mere pieces of account 
 or tokens, like the bronze coinage of the prefent 
 day. In b.c. 217 the ftandard of the filver was 
 reduced, and the as became uncial. The denarius 
 was ftruck at 80 to the pound, and the quinarius 
 at 160. The iflue of the feflertius ceafed, and 
 was not again ftruck in filver, excepting at occa- 
 fional intervals during the firft century b.c. The 
 
ViBoriatus. 
 
 quinarius, after a very fhort time, fell into difufe, 
 and was only occafionally reiflued. The denarius 
 remained at this new ftandard for nearly three 
 centuries, and maintained its purity through- 
 out. 
 
 Another filver coin was alfo in circulation : this Victoriatus. 
 was the victoriatus^ fo-called from its type, which 
 showed on the obverfe the head of Jupiter, and on 
 the reverfe Victory crowning a trophy. This coin 
 was firft iflued in b.c. 228 ; it was in weight 
 3 scruples, or three-fourths of the denarius, and 
 was originally a Campanian coin ; but after the 
 fall of Capua, b.c. 211, the coinage of the Vic- 
 toriatus was transferred to Rome, itfelf, where it 
 continued to be coined for the ufe of the Provinces. 
 It was also current at Rome, perhaps, however, to 
 no great extent. When the weight of the denarius 
 fell in b.c. 217, that of the victoriatus was reduced 
 in like proportion, but after a few years its iffue 
 ceafed. The type was afterwards adopted for the 
 quinarius. 
 
 When the as fell from fextantal to uncial, its uncial As. 
 value was alfo changed from one-tenth to one- 
 fixteenth of the denarius. As the foldiers were 
 paid after the old ftandard of ten anes to the 
 denarius, that coin retained its mark of value X. 
 By this reduction the relation of filver to copper 
 fell to 1 to 112, lefs than half the original ratio. 
 Thus the copper coinage became ftill more a 
 money of account ; and when in b.c. 89 it was 
 again reduced to a Jemuncial ftandard no ill-effects 
 were produced. In b.c. 80 the copper coinage 
 
 E 
 
50 Gold Coins, after B.C. 269. 
 
 ceafed ; and, excepting a few pieces ftruck in the 
 eaftern and weftern provinces, it was not revived 
 during the period of the Republic. In b.c. 16 
 Auguftus introduced a new copper coinage con- 
 fiding of a feftertius of four afTes, a dupondius of 
 two afTes, an as, a femis, a triens, and a quadrans. 
 Gold Coins. The only other pieces which remain to be 
 
 after b c 
 
 269. mentioned are the gold. The early coins of 3, 2, 
 and 1 fcruple, marked lx., xxxx., and xx., with 
 the helmeted head of Mars on one fide and an 
 eagle ftanding on a thunderbolt on the other, 
 are ufually confidered a Campanian iflue. Thefe 
 were firft ftruck foon after b.c. 269 ; but from 
 their extreme fcarcity their iflue could only have 
 extended over a very fhort period. The firft 
 purely Roman gold money was ftruck by Sulla in 
 b.c. 84-82. They bear his own name and that of 
 his proquaeftor, L. Manlius, and from their fabric 
 appear to have been iftued in Greece, probably as 
 rewards to his veterans. The gold coins ftruck 
 by Julius Caefar in b.c. 49 are of the fame character 
 as thofe of Sulla ; and it is not till after Casfar's 
 death that a gold coinage is firmly eftablifhed, 
 which confifted of an aureus and a half-aureus, 
 the former ftruck at forty to the pound, and 
 reprefenting in value twenty-five denarii. 
 
 Types. The original type of the denarius is, on the 
 obverfe, the head of Roma wearing a helmet 
 adorned with wings, and a griffin's head for the 
 creft ; behind is the mark of value X ; and on 
 the reverfe, the Diofcuri on horfeback, charging, 
 their fpears couched, their mantles floating behind, 
 
Types. 
 
 5i 
 
 and their conical hats furmounted each by a ftar, 
 emblematic of the morning and evening ; below, 
 is the infcription ROMA. 
 
 DENARIUS OF THE FIRST ISSUE. 
 
 This is no doubt a reprefentation of thefe demi- 
 gods as they were feen, according to the legend, 
 fighting for the Romans at the battle of Lake 
 Regillus. Any change of type was at firft very 
 gradual. After a time the mark of value is re- 
 moved from behind the head of Roma and placed 
 under her chin, and the infcription is transferred 
 from the reverfe to the obverfe. About b.c. 125 the 
 mark of value changes to and in one inftance to 
 XVI., the latter to reprefent fixteen afTes, the true 
 value of the denarius at that time. About b.c. 90 
 the mark of value is no longer ftamped on the filver 
 coins. The firft inftance of a change in the head on 
 the obverfe can be fixed with certainty to b.c. 100. 
 In that year the Quaeftors Pifo and Caepio, having 
 been ordered by the Senate to purchafe corn and to 
 fell it to the people below the market value, re- 
 ceived a fpecial privilege to iflue coins to cover this 
 extraordinary expenditure. To diftinguilh their 
 coins from thofe {truck by the officers of the mint, 
 they varied the type by placing on the obverfe the 
 
Types. 
 
 head of Saturn, probably in allufion to L. Appu- 
 leius Saturninus, who had propofed the Lex 
 Frumentaria. Seven years later, in b.c. 93,' the 
 monetarii ifTued two fets of coins having the fame 
 reverfes ; but on the obverse of one fet was the head 
 of Roma, and on the other that of Apollo. After 
 this time the head on the obverfe changed year by 
 year, being either that of a divinity, fometimes but 
 rarely of Roma, or of a traditional or hiftorical 
 perfonage. Thefe types were generally in fome 
 way connected with the family of the monetarius. 
 In b.c. 44, by order of the Senate, the head of 
 Julius Caefar was placed upon the coins ; and after 
 a few years the ufual type is that of fome living 
 perfonage, generally of him who ifTued the coins. 
 
 The firft change in the type of the reverfe 
 occurred about b.c. 217, when Diana in a two- 
 horfed chariot is fubfHtuted for the Diofcuri. 
 But this was an exception, and it is not till after a 
 further interval of more than fifty years that 
 we again meet with any variation. From about 
 b.c. 160 the coins mow a delight in recording 
 the great deeds of Rome's heroes in the paft, 
 in reprefenting the mythological and historical 
 traditions of the nation, and in illuftrating public 
 Historical events after the manner of medals. One of the 
 ditional earlieft historical types is to be found on the coins, 
 yi " already referred to, of the Quaeftors Pifo and 
 Caepio, who are reprefented diftributing largefie 
 to the public. A fhill more remarkable coin is 
 that ftruck by Brutus after the murder of Julius 
 Caefar, having on one fide his own head, and on 
 
Types 
 
 53 
 
 the other a cap of Liberty between two daggers, 
 and the infcription EID. MAR. 
 
 DENARIUS OF BRUTUS. 
 
 Brutus had already, when a monetary triumvir, 
 recorded the famous deed of his anceftor L. Junius 
 Brutus, the banimer of the Tarquins, by placing 
 his head upon the coins. To the fame clafs 
 belong the coins of Sextus Pompeius, who for 
 a time defied the efforts of Oclavius to fupprefs 
 his piratical excurflons. Thefe have on one fide 
 the pharos of MefTana furmounted by a figure of 
 Neptune, and on the other the monfter Scylla, 
 half-dog, half-fifh, fweeping the fea with her 
 rudder. They refer either to the defeat of 
 Octavius at MefTana in b.c. 38, or to the deftrudtion 
 of his fleet off the Lucanian promontory in the 
 following year, on which occafion Pompeius offered 
 facrifices to Neptune for his timely affiftance, and 
 even ftyled himfelf the fon of Neptune. Of the 
 traditional types, perhaps one of the moft interest- 
 ing is that on a coin of the Poftumia gens, with 
 the buft of Diana on the obverfe, and on the 
 reverfe a rock on which is a togated male figure 
 before a lighted altar extending his hand towards 
 a bull. It illuftrates the worfhip of that goddefs 
 at Rome, to whom, for the ufe of the inhabitants 
 of Latium, then under Roman rule, Servius Tulliiw 
 
54 
 
 Types. 
 
 founded a temple on the Aventine. At their annual 
 feftival the augurs foretold the domination of 
 Rome over all the Latin race, which was accom- 
 plifhed by Aulus Poftumius at the battle of Lake 
 Regillus B.C. 496. In confequence of this victory, 
 the Poftumia gens claimed for itfelf the fulfilment 
 of the prophecy. On a coin of the Marcia gens 
 are the heads of Numa Pompilius and Ancus 
 Marcius, and a naked warrior (defultor) riding 
 two horfes ; thefe allude to the traditional defcent 
 of the Marcia gens from Mamerces, fon of Numa, 
 and the celebration of the games in honour of 
 Apollo, which were inftituted by the foothfayer 
 Marcius. We have alfo fuch legendary fubjecls 
 as Tarpeia crufhed beneath the bucklers, Aeneas 
 carrying Anchifes on his back and holding the 
 Palladium, UlyfTes returning from Troy and 
 recognifed by his dog, and the rape of the 
 Sabines. Still more numerous are the fimple 
 reprefentations of the divinities of the Roman 
 Pantheon. 
 
 The gold coins of Sulla and fubfequent iflues 
 have types fimilar to thofe of the denarius. The 
 copper coins of the reduced ftandard preferved 
 their original types. 
 Mark S y lnd ^ n i m P ortant feature in the gradual develop- 
 Names. ment of the types is the moneyers' marks and 
 names, which serve to indicate the fucceflive iflues 
 from the mint. At firft this mint officer only placed 
 a fymbol, a fly, cap, fpear, or prow, to diftinguifh his 
 ifTue from thofe of previous years. Later on he 
 added his initial, then his name, firft in monogram 
 
Money ers' Marks and Names. 55 
 
 and finally in full, the prenomen on the reverfe, 
 and the cognomen on the obverfe. Thefe infcrip- 
 tions are always in the nominative cafe. They 
 cease about B.C. 36, when, after the defeat of 
 Sextus Pompeius, and the fubmiffion of the 
 triumvir Lepidus, amongft the many honours 
 which Octavius received from the Senate, not the 
 leaft was the commemoration of his victories in 
 the types on the coins. To thefe was added his 
 portrait, and from b.c. 29, when he was created 
 Imperator, the coinage becomes imperial. 
 
 The right of ifiuing the coinage at Rome, as constitu- 
 elfewhere in all Republics, belonged to the State, Mitfoffi- 
 which fixed by decrees the ftandard and the cers ' etc ' 
 various denominations. At an early period the 
 duty of carrying into execution thefe regulations 
 was delegated to three officers, who were called 
 the tresviri auro y argento^ aere^ flando, feriundo. 
 The word flando may fhow that thefe officers were 
 nominated before the reduction of the as to the 
 sextantal ftandard. The office certainly exifted 
 before the adoption of the uncial as in b.c 217, as 
 we begin to meet with the initials and monograms 
 of the moneyers before that change took place. 
 It was an occafional office at firft, and appears 
 only to have been filled up when frefh iflues were 
 needed for the ufe of the State, About b.c. 104, 
 the more frequent occurrence of the moneyers' 
 names fhows that thefe officers were then appointed 
 at clofer intervals. Julius Caefar increafed the 
 number of this magiftracy to four, and thefe 
 continued to be nominated annually till the dif- 
 
56 Conjiitution of the Mint, Officers, etc. 
 
 fenfions caufed by the fecond triumvirate. In 
 B.C. 39 the office was quite fufpended, and does 
 not appear to have been reinftituted till b.c. 16, 
 when Auguftus, before his departure for Gaul, re- 
 appointed the quatuorviri. The office was abolifhed 
 about the year b.c. 3, and the Roman coinage 
 then entered on a new phafe. According to 
 law, each officer of the mint was independent of 
 the other, and could iflue his coins feparately 
 or in conjunction with his colleagues. Thefe 
 monetarii were not the only magiftrates who could 
 ftrike money. The urban quaeftors, ediles, and 
 praetors were fometimes charged with extraordinary 
 commiffions ; but thefe cafes were exceptional, and 
 generally in virtue of fome unufual expenditure. 
 Such pieces were marked with a fpecial formula, 
 as Ex. S. C. (Ex Senatus Confulto), or S. C. 
 (Sen at us Confulto), formulas never ufed by the 
 regularly appointed monetarii. The curule 
 ediles were alfo occafionally all wed to ftrike 
 coins to cover the expenfes of the great public 
 games. 
 
 Local Eefides the coins iftued in Rome, there were 
 
 Mints . ' 
 
 and issues, others ftruck outftde the city. Thefe may be 
 divided into two claries: the coinage of the neigh- 
 bouring cities, and the monetae caftrenfes or nummi 
 caftrenjes. It is evident from monograms and 
 letters on certain pieces of rude fabric that a few 
 cities, after they came under Roman jurisdiction, 
 were allowed to retain the right of coinage. 
 Amongft thefe places were Luceria, Canufium, 
 Crotona, and Hatria. Thefe coins were of the 
 
Local Mints and IJfues. 57 
 
 fame ftandard as thofe ftruck at Rome. This 
 privilege appears to have ceafed during the fecond 
 Punic War, or fhortly afterwards. The monetae 
 caftrenfes or nummi caftrenfes are coins iflued by 
 the general for payment of his foldiers, whether 
 as dictator, conful, proconful, or imperator. This 
 right could be delegated by the commander to 
 his quaeftor or proquaeftor, who ufually added his 
 own name, and in fome inftances placed it alone, 
 without that of his fuperior officer. Thefe coins 
 circulated throughout the Republic with the Stats 
 coinage, although the authority of the Senate was 
 not ufually infcribed on them. Finds in Spain, 
 Cifalpine Gaul, and elfewhere, mow that the nummi 
 caftrenfes were ftruck as early as the middle of 
 the fecond century B.C. ; but their iftue was 
 fufpended for a time after the outbreak of the 
 Social War. They are again found in large 
 quantities from the time of the Civil War between 
 Pompey and Caefar till the death of Mark 
 Antony. They may be clafTed under the follow- 
 ing diftricls: Sicily, Spain, Africa, Gaul, the Eaft, 
 which includes Greece and Afia Minor, and 
 Cyrenaica. 
 
 To the coins iftued extra muros belong thofe Oscan 
 ftr uck by the revolted Ita 1 tan States during the Social 
 or Marfic War. Thefe are of the denarii clafs, and 
 many bear the fame types as the State coinage of 
 the time, but they are of rude fabric. The greater 
 portion have the infcriptions in the Ofcan character, 
 and bear the names of the leaders, Papius Mutilus, 
 Pompaedius, Minius Jegius, and Numerius Cluen- 
 
58 
 
 Classification. 
 
 tius. Others, fimply infcribed ITALIA, are eafily 
 recognifabJe as belonging to this clafs. 
 
 The coins of the Roman Republic may be clafti- 
 fied in two ways, (i) by families, under the name 
 of the gens to which the monetarius belonged, 
 or (2) chronologically. In large collections for 
 facility of reference, the arrangement under 
 families is perhaps the more practicable, but by 
 this fyftem the hiftorical intereft of the coinage is 
 almoft entirely loft. There are a large number of 
 pieces which have no moneyer's name, others with 
 only a fymbol, a letter, or a monogram. In the 
 arrangement by families, many of thefe coins 
 would find no diftinct place. By a chronological 
 arrangement, each coin has its place, and we are 
 able not only to trace the fequence of the coinage, 
 and fee how the types gradually developed, but 
 alfo to follow the extenfion of Roman domina- 
 tion, as it fpread throughout Italy to the Weft, 
 to the Eaft, and onwards into Afia, and acrofs the 
 Mediterranean into Africa. The large feries of 
 coins of Julius Caefar, Pompey, Brutus, Caftius, 
 and the triumvirate, would teach us very little if 
 arranged under the Julia, Pompeia, Junia, Caftia, 
 Antonia, and Aemilia gentes. For affiftance in a 
 chronological arrangement, we have the evidence 
 afforded by the growth of the types, by hiftory, and 
 by the various finds. To this ftudy Mommfen has 
 given much attention, and the refults of his labours 
 are embodied in his learned work on the Roman 
 coinage. 1 But more can be accomplished than 
 1 Gefchichte des Romifchen Munzzvejens. 
 
Imperial Coinage. 
 
 59 
 
 even Mommfen has done as regards a local claffi- 
 fication, and this was done by the late Count 
 de Salis, who arranged the Roman coins in the 
 Britifh Mufeum, both republican and imperial, in 
 chronological and geographical order. 
 
 When Auguftus in b.c. 3 abolifhed the office of imperial 
 the monetarii, he referved to himfelf all rights 
 connected with the gold and filver coinages, and 
 thefe remained with all fucceeding emperors. To 
 the Senate, however, belonged the power of 
 ftriking the copper money, and its authority was 
 denoted by the letters S. C. (Senatus Confulto)^ 
 which alfo ferved to diftinguifh the copper coins 
 of Rome from thofe iffued in the provinces. 
 
 The coinage in circulation in Rome from that 
 time was — in gold, the aureus, of forty to the 
 pound, and the half-aureus ; in filver, the denarius, 
 of eighty-four to the pound, and its half, the 
 quinarius; and in copper, the feftertius, of four 
 affes, its half the dupondius, the as, the femis or 
 half-as, the triens or one-third-as, and the quadrans 
 or quarter-as. The aureus was worth twenty-five 
 denarii, and the denarius fixteen afTes. The as 
 was nearly equal in weight and fize to the dupon- 
 dius, but it was diftinguifhed by being of red 
 copper ; whilft the feftertius and the dupondius 
 were of yellow brafs or onchalcum, being a com- 
 pofition of copper and zinc. The earlieft deteriora- 
 tions in the Imperial coinage took place in the 
 reigns of Nero and Caracalla; and in a.d. 215 
 the aureus was only the fiftieth of a pound, and 
 the denarius became fo debafed that it contained 
 
Imperial Coinage. 
 
 Argenteus. only 40 per cent, of pure filver. When Caracalla 
 had thus corrupted the coinage, he introduced a 
 new filver piece, called the argenteus Antoninianus, 
 of fixty to fixty-four to the pound, which was 
 worth a denarius and a half, and which foon 
 became the principal coin of the Empire. This 
 piece may be ealily diftinguifhed from the denarius 
 by its having the head of the emperor radiate and 
 the buft of the emprefs upon a crefcent or half- 
 moon. 
 
 From the reign of Caracalla to that of Diocletian 
 the greateft diforder prevailed in the coinage, and 
 the period of the fo-called Thirty Tyrants was one 
 of complete bankruptcy to the State. Each 
 Emperor debafed the coinage more and more, fo 
 that the intrinfic value of the filver currency was 
 not one-twentieth part of its nominal value. The 
 argenteus fupplanted the denarius, and after a 
 fhort time, from a filver coin became only a copper 
 one warned with a little tin ; and, having driven 
 the copper money out of currency, became itfelf 
 the only piece in circulation with the exception of 
 the gold. Diocletian, in a.d. 296, put an end to 
 this confufion by withdrawing from circulation all 
 the coinage, and iffuing another entirely frefh one, 
 bafed on the ftandard of the currency of the firft 
 Diode- century a.d. The aureus was ftruck at fixty to 
 
 tian s J J 
 
 Reforms, the pound, and a new coin in filver, called the 
 cententionalis^ took the place of the denarius ; 
 whilft in copper two new pieces were iffued, called 
 the follis and the denarius. Special intereft is 
 attached to this new coinage, as it affords the 
 
Diocletian s 'Reforms. 
 
 means of explaining the prices marked in the 
 great tariff of the Roman Empire which was 
 publifhed in a.d. 301, and which fixed the "maxi- 
 mum" price of almoft every article of food or 
 produce that found its way into the market. It 
 was the abrogation of this tariff which occafioned 
 a flight modification in the monetary fyftem during 
 the reign of Conftantine, who reduced the weight 
 of the aureus to feventy-two to the pound, and 
 gave to this new coin the name of folidus in Latin J^ dus 
 and nomifma in Greek. This piece remained in 
 circulation fo long as the Empire lafted, maintain- 
 ing its full weight ; and when current at a later 
 period in Weftern Europe, it received the name of 
 bezant or byzant. Conftantine added two freih 
 filver coins to the currency, the miliarenfis, and its 
 half, the Jiliqua y twelve of the former being equal 
 in value to the folidus. Except fome flight 
 modifications in the copper money made by 
 Anaftafius and by Bafil I., no further important 
 changes remain to be mentioned. 
 
 The obverfe of the Imperial coinage had for its imperial 
 type the head or buft of the Emperor, the Emprefs, rypes ' 
 or the Caefar, and occafionally that of a near 
 relative, fuch as the Emperor's mother or fifter. 
 The type varied with the period. In Pagan 
 times the head or buft was laureate, i.e. bound 
 with a wreath, or radiate, i.e. wearing a radiated 
 crown, fometimes bare, but rarely helmeted; in 
 the Chriftian and Byzantine period it is ufually 
 adorned with a diadem or a crefted helmet. The 
 portraits, too, may be divided into two claffes, 
 
62 
 
 Imperial Types. 
 
 realiftic and conventional. The early Caefars, and 
 their fucceflbrs to Gallienus, fall under the firft 
 clafs, and the remaining Emperors, including the 
 Chriftian and Byzantine, under the fecond. The 
 types of the reverfe are commonly mythological 
 (divinities), allegorical (perfonifications), hiftorical 
 (events connected with the hiftory and traditions 
 cf Rome), and architectural (the principal public 
 
 SESTERTIUS OF VESPASIAN. 
 
 buildings, efpecially thofe at Rome). On the 
 coins of Vefpafian and Titus is recorded the con- 
 queft of Judaea, figured as a woman feated weeping 
 beneath a palm-tree, near which ftands her con- 
 queror, or elfe the ferocious Simon, who headed 
 the revolt and only furvived to adorn the triumph 
 of his enemies. On the large brafs of Titus is to 
 be feen a reprefentation of the Flavian Amphi- 
 theatre, begun by his father and completed by 
 himfelf, ftanding between the Meta Sudans and 
 the Domus Aurea, with its many ftoreys or 
 arcades, and its vaft interior filled with fpectators 
 witnefiing the magnificent dedication feftival of a 
 hundred days. The coins of Trajan record his 
 conqueft of Dacia, Armenia, Mefopotamia, and 
 
Imperial Types. 
 
 63 
 
 his defcent down the Euphrates and the Tigris to 
 the Indian Ocean, the only Roman general who 
 accomplifhed this feat. There are reprefentations 
 of the Forum, the moft memorable of all Trajan's 
 works ; the Circus Maximus, which he embellifhcd 
 with the obelifk of Auguftus; and the Aqua 
 Trajana, by which he turned a portion of the 
 pure and limpid Aqua Martia into the Aventine 
 quarter of the city. The coins of Hadrian, befides 
 bearing allegorical reprefentations of divinities, 
 countries, and cities, are of fpecial intereft as 
 illuftrating his extenfive journeys into every 
 Roman province, from Britain to the far Eaft. 
 
 Such is the fucceflion of types till the reign of 
 Gallienus, when their intereft flags, and for the 
 moft part we meet with badly executed reprefenta- 
 tions of mythological perfonages. 
 
 The coins of the Chriftian Emperors differ much christian 
 in their character. At firft the types are generally Types * 
 allegorical ; and though free from Pagan inten- 
 tion are not without Pagan influence, as may be 
 feen in the types of Victory infcribing the 
 Emperor's vota on a fhield, or two Victories hold- 
 ing a wreath, or the feated figures of Rome and 
 Conftantinople. Though the coins of Conftantine 
 the Great are of a fomewhat Chriftian character, 
 yet purely Chriftian types are at firft unufual. 
 After a while, however, Victory no longer holds a 
 wreath, but ftands grafping a crofs, and in place of 
 reprefentations of fome mythological perfonage w T e 
 find the monogram of Chrift formed of X and P. 
 In the purely Byzantine period all the Pagan 
 
Chrijiian Types. 
 
 influence difappears, and Christian types prevail, 
 the more common being that of the Holy Crofs 
 raifed high on fteps. 
 iconogra- xhe coins of the later Emperors of the Eaft are 
 
 phic Types. m m r m 
 
 fpecially interefting for their iconographic types. 
 Reprefentations of a large number of facred figures 
 are to be found upon them, and thefe reprefenta- 
 tions are far fuperior in execution, and, therefore, 
 of much greater value for the ftudy of Chriftian 
 iconography than any to be found on the mediaeval 
 coins of Weftern Europe. The figures of Chrifl: 
 and the Virgin offer a variety of different attitudes. 
 The former is moft frequently feated, holding in 
 one hand the gofpels and with the other giving 
 the Greek benediction. The Virgin is frequently 
 feated ; fometimes fhe holds in her arms the infant 
 Saviour, fometimes fhe crowns the Emperor who 
 ftands befide her, often with both hands raifed 
 in the attitude of prayer. In one very interefting 
 type fhe {lands amidft the walls of Constantinople. 
 A number of Saints are alfo reprefented, among 
 which may be cited St. George, St. Michael, St. 
 Demetrius, St. Theodore, and (St.) Conftantine 
 the Great; alfo in one famous inftance we fee 
 depicted the worfhip of the Magi, 
 inscrip The inferiptions on the coins of the Pagan 
 emperors are either defcripti ve, giving the Emperor's 
 name and the date, partly on the obverfe, and 
 partly on the reverfe ; or elfe they are of a dedi- 
 catory nature, adding to the name of the Emperor 
 a reference to the type. From Titus to Severus 
 Alexander the chronological character of the in- 
 
Infcriptions. 
 
 6J 
 
 fcription is maintained, giving the current conful- 
 fhip of the Emperor, or his laffc confulmip, and the 
 year of his tribunefhip ; but in the latter half of 
 the third century we meet with the Emperor's 
 name alone on the obverfe, and a dedicatory in- 
 fcription on the reverfe. Very little change occurs 
 under the early Chriftian Emperors, except that 
 the legend on the reverfe lofes its mythological 
 character, and it is fome time before the gradual 
 transformation of the Roman State into the 
 Eaftern Empire is traceable in the coinage. Anafta- 
 fius was the firft who ufed Greek letters to indicate the 
 value of the coins ; yet although under Juftinian I. 
 the Greek language was much ufed by the people, 
 it is not till the reign of Heraclius that the Greek 
 legend EN TOYTQ MKA is found upon the coins. 
 In the eighth century the Greek titles of Bafdeus 
 and Defpotes make their firft appearance in the 
 place of Auguftus, and under the Bafilian dynafty 
 Greek infcriptions occupy the field of the reverfe 
 of both filver and copper coins ; but the reverfe 
 of the folidus retains its Latin form till the latter 
 part of the eleventh century, when it is found for 
 the laft time on the coins of Michael VII., a.d. 
 1078. Alexius I. was the firft Emperor who 
 adopted entirely Greek legends for his coins, and 
 after his acceftion Latin never appears again on the 
 coinage of the Roman Empire, which now lofes 
 all trace of its Weftern origin, and becomes purely 
 Byzantine. The moft remarkable change in the 
 coinage of the late Byzantine period was the in- 
 troduction of concave pieces, scyphati nummi. This 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 Local Mints. 
 
 form was introduced as early as the close of the 
 tenth century, but did not become the prevailing 
 type of the gold, lilver, and copper coinages till 
 the end of the eleventh. 
 
 When the Roman Empire came under the fvvay 
 of Auguftus, the Roman monetary fyftem was im- 
 pofed as the official ftandard in financial bufinefs 
 throughout the Empire, and no mint was allowed 
 to exift without the imperial licence. This per- 
 miffion was, however, conceded to many Greek 
 cities, which for the moft part (truck only copper 
 coins ; a few ifiued filver, but the only local mint 
 of which gold coins are known is that of Caefarea 
 in Cappadocia. Thefe coins are ufually defignated 
 Greek Imperial. 1 Pure filver coins do not appear 
 to have been ifTued to any great extent ; and, if 
 we except the large filver pieces ftruck in the pro- 
 vinces of Afia, and ufually called medallions, the 
 local currencies in this metal may be faid to have 
 ended with the reign of Nero, when the abundance 
 of copper money placed the filver at a premium, 
 and gradually drove it out of circulation. 
 
 The copper coinage of the Provinces had for the 
 type of the obverfe the head of the Emperor, etc., 
 and for the reverfe fome mythological or hiftorical 
 fubjecT:: the infcriptions were always in Greek. 
 In the fecond century the iffues of this copper 
 money increafed very rapidly.; but as the Roman 
 denarius became more and more debafed, and the 
 local mints could no longer make a profit by 
 ifTuing coins on any local ftandard, one city after 
 
 1 See Chapter II., page 40. 
 
Local Mints. 
 
 67 
 
 the other gradually ceafed to exercife the right 
 of coining, and by the end of the reign of 
 Gallienus almoft the only provincial mint of im- 
 portance remaining was that of Alexandria, which 
 
 . ... . . Alexin- 
 
 continued to iflue its coins till the reign of Dio- drian 
 cletian. This mint was able to hold out longer Coinag 
 than the others, becaufe it adopted the fame tactics 
 as the imperial mint at Rome: as the denarius 
 became more and more debafed, Alexandria, to 
 keep pace, lowered the ftandard of all her coins, 
 and the filver became potin, and the potin, 
 copper. 
 
 Apart from thefe mints there exifted from time 
 to time others, which iflued gold and filver coins 
 after the Roman types and ftandard. It is pro- 
 bable that thefe coins were of the fame nature 
 as the nummi caftrenjes of the time of the Re- 
 public, their iflue being fuperintended by the 
 military or civil governors of the provinces. One 
 of thefe mints was eftablifhed at Antioch in the 
 time of Vefpafian and continued through the fuc- 
 ceeding reigns to Gallienus. Its coins, the aureus 
 and denarius, are of a peculiarly rude fabric. The 
 denarius was alfo ftruck at Ephefus during the 
 reigns of Vefpafian and Domitian. In the weftern 
 part of the Empire Spain ftruck coins of the 
 Roman ftandard and types in confiderable numbers 
 from the reign of Auguftus to that of Titus, and 
 in Gaul we find a large number of aurei iflued 
 during the fame period. The coinages of Clodius 
 Macer in Africa, of Clodius Albinus in Gaul, of 
 Pacatianus, Regalianus, and Dryantilla at Sifcia, 
 
Local Mints. 
 
 and fimilar ifTues, muft be confidered as excep- 
 tional and as having no legitimate authorifation. 
 
 When the bafe filver State coinage had driven 
 the Greek Imperial copper coins out of circulation, 
 Gallienus eitablifhed local mints throughout the 
 whole Empire, which ftruck money after the Roman 
 types and ftandard. The number of thefe mints 
 was further increafed by Diocletian, and they con- 
 tinued to exercife their rights till the extinction of 
 the Roman rule in the Weft and afterwards in the 
 Eaft. At firft there was no indication on the coin 
 that it was ftruck out of Rome ; but Diocletian 
 placed on all the coins, both of Rome and elfe- 
 where, a monogram or initial letter of the city 
 whence they were ifTued. 
 Medallions Befides coins proper, there are certain pieces 
 Tickets. in metal which refemble money in appearance, but 
 which were never meant to pafs as currency. Thefe 
 are the medallions, which correfpond to medals of 
 the prefent time, and the tickets, which ferved as 
 pafTes to the public entertainments, etc. 
 
 The types of the medallions refemble thofe of 
 the copper feftertius, having on one fide the portrait 
 of an imperial perfonage, and on the other fome 
 mythological, dedicatory, hiftorical, or architec- 
 tural fubject, which more often than in the cafe of 
 the coinage has fome fpecial reference to the im- 
 perial family. The fize of the medallion is ufually 
 fomewhat larger than that of the feftertius, and it is 
 ealily diftinguifhed from the coins by the abfence of 
 the letters s.c, by its finer workmanfhip, and by 
 being in high relief. Thefe pieces were ftruck in 
 
Medallions and Tickets. 
 
 gold, filver, and efpecially copper. The filver and 
 copper medallions were apparently firfr. iflued in 
 the reign of Domitian ; but the firft gold fpecimen 
 extant is of the reign of Diocletian, after whofe time 
 gold and filver medallions are more general than 
 thofe of copper. The fineft pieces were iflued by 
 Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus ; 
 but the quality of the work was fairly maintained at a 
 later period, when the coinage had much deteriorated 
 in ftyle and character. Even during the reigns of 
 Conftantine the Great and his fucceflbrs, the execu- 
 tion of the medallions is throughout much fuperior 
 to that of the current coins. It is probable that 
 thefe pieces were all ftruck as honorary rewards 
 or memorials, and were prefented by the Emperor 
 to his troops or to thofe about the court. It 
 has been fuppofed that they were intended to be 
 placed on the ftandards, becaufe fome are pro- 
 vided with deep outer rims, but this feems doubt- 
 ful, as in all reprefentations of ftandards on the 
 column of Trajan and other buildings it may be 
 feen that the medallions, with which they are 
 adorned, have the buft of the Emperor facing, 
 whereas on exifting pieces it is always in profile. 
 
 Of the tickets the mofl important are the con- 
 torniates, fo called becaufe they have the edge 
 (lightly turned over. Thefe pieces are of copper, 
 of the fize of the feftertius, but fomewhat thinner, 
 and they have for types on one fide fome mytho- 
 logical, agoniftic, or hiftorical fubjecl:, relating to 
 the public games or to the contefts which took 
 place for the honours of the amphitheatre, the 
 
jo Medallions and Tickets. 
 
 circus, the ftadium, or the odeum; and on the 
 other fide, a head or buft, imperial or regal, or of 
 fome philofopher, author, or poet. The queftion 
 of the object of thefe pieces, and the time when 
 they were {truck, has provoked much difcuflion, 
 but thefe two points feem now to have been 
 fairly fettled. It appears that they were made for 
 prefentation to the victors at the public games and 
 contefts, who ufed them as a kind of check, on the 
 prefentation of which at fome appointed place and 
 time they were awarded the allotted prizes ; and, 
 judging from the fabric, their iflue appears to have 
 begun in the reign of Conftantine the Great, 
 and to have been continued to about that of An- 
 themius, a.d. 464-472, that is, for a fpace of about 
 150 years. 
 
 In the maflive and rude forms of the early 
 coinage of Rome, bold in relief, and not without 
 fome knowledge of the laws of perfpective, we 
 fee illuftrated the ftern, hard character of the 
 Roman, whofe entire attention was given either 
 to univerfal conqueft abroad or to agricultural 
 purfuits at home. Art to him poflefled no charm; 
 he was devoid of elegance and tafte, and even the 
 nobles prided themfel ves on their natural deficiency 
 in matters of art, which they confidered unworthy 
 of a warlike and free people. This feeling, at the 
 end of the fecond century B.C., became fomewhat 
 foftened by the prefence in Rome of the vaft 
 fpoils of Greece, confifting chiefly of ftatues and 
 paintings; and if the people ftill defpifed the 
 practical cultivation of the arts, they were in 
 
Medallic Art. 
 
 7 1 
 
 general delighted with the beauty, or perhaps the 
 novelty, of thefe acquifitions. This increafing 
 tafte for art may be traced in the types of the 
 coins, which during the Republic acquire a pictorial 
 character. If compared artiftically with the earlier 
 period, this may be called progreftive. 
 
 With the Auguftan age came a vifible change, and 
 Greek artifts were encouraged to visit Rome, not 
 only to adorn the temples of the gods, but ajfo to 
 embellifh the villas of the rich, into many of which 
 numerous original works from Greece, Afia, and 
 Egypt had already found their way. As the tafte 
 increafed, and it was impoflible to furnifh all with 
 original Greek works, there arofe a great demand for 
 copies of the moft famous and beft-known objects. 
 Inftances of thefe copies may be feen in the Britifh 
 Mufeum in fuch works as the Difcobolus, which 
 is fuppofed to be taken from a bronze figure by 
 Myron ; the Townley Venus, which, if not a 
 work of the Macedonian period, may be a copy 
 of one ; and the Apollo Citharoedus, probably 
 adapted from fome celebrated original, fince two 
 other nearly fimilar figures exift. Though we can- 
 not claim much originality for the Roman artifts 
 at this period, they are not mere fervile copyifts; 
 by a frequent modification of the original defign 
 they give a ftamp of individuality to their works. 
 What has been faid of fculpture applies < alike to 
 medallic art, and the effect of this Greek influence 
 is very marked on the coins of the Auguftan age, 
 and efpecially on thofe of the two Agrippinas, 
 Caligula, and Claudius. The mythological figures 
 
7 2 
 
 Medallic Art. 
 
 which we meet with on thefe coins often ftrike us 
 very forcibly as copies of Greek ftatues. Jupiter 
 feated holding his thunderbolt and fceptre ; 
 Minerva leaning on her fpear and fhield orna- 
 mented with the ferpent ; Spes tripping lightly 
 
 MhDALLION OF ANTONINUS PIUS. 
 
 forward, holding a flower and gently raifing her 
 ctrefs ; and Diana rufhing onward in the chafe, her 
 bow in her outmatched hand, and her hound 
 at her heels — are all reprefentations of Greek 
 fubjects. The coins of Nero mow the perfection 
 which portraiture had attained, the growth of 
 his paffions being traceable in the increafing 
 brutality of his features; whilft the coinages of 
 Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Aurelius 
 difplay the higheft ftate of Roman medallic 
 art. With the decay of the Empire comes an 
 immediate decline in the workmanfhip of the 
 coinage ; from Commodus to Diocletian it was 
 one continued downward courfe. The coins of 
 the early Chriftian Emperors mow a flight artiftic 
 revival, and when, in later times, the artifts 
 of the Weft poured into Conftantinople, carrying 
 with them all that remained of artiftic life in the 
 
Medallic Art. 
 
 73 
 
 ancient world, they imported into the coinage that 
 ftyle of ornament fo peculiarly Byzantine, the 
 traces of which are ftill to be feen in the archi- 
 tecture of the Greek Church both in Europe and 
 Afia. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE COINAGE OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE. 
 
 NDER this title is included the coinage 
 of all that portion of Europe which 
 was not fubjecl: to the rule of Mo- 
 hammadan princes, from the fall of 
 the Weftern Empire to our own day. When we 
 confider what vaft fields of fpace and time are 
 covered by this branch of numifmatics, it will be 
 feen to be too large a fubjecl: to be fully dealt 
 with in a fingle chapter. The difficulty is found 
 to be increafed when we take into account how 
 many different interefts the ftudy touches. The 
 mere economic, the hiftorian, the fludent of the 
 hiftory of art, and the ftudent of ChrifHan icono- 
 graphy, might each expecl to have his enquiries 
 anfwered were there an entire volume at our 
 difpofal. The only circumftance which makes it 
 poffible to deal with the fubjecl briefly as a whole 
 is the fortunate tendency which in all ages the 
 different countries of Europe have mown to bring 
 their coinage into fome fort of common conformity. 
 
The Coinage of Chrijlian Europe. 75 
 
 Of this tendency we have plenty of examples in 
 our own day, as, for inftance, the practical uni- 
 formity which by the " Monetary Convention of 
 the Latin Nations" was eftablifhed in the coinages 
 of Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Italy ; in the 
 recently-eftablifhed uniformity of coinage through- 
 out the German Empire ; and in the inclination 
 which the eftabliftiers of this coinage have lhown 
 to model their currency upon that of England. 
 The fame kind of tendency among contemporary 
 nations is to be detected throughout the numif- 
 matics of the Middle Ages, and in truth by no 
 means diminifhes in force the further we retreat 
 toward the beginnings of mediaeval hiftory; a 
 fact which will feem ftrange to thofe who are 
 accuftomed to look upon the Europe of thefe 
 days as a mere collection of heterogeneous atoms, 
 and its hiftory as nothing better than a " fcuffling 
 of kites and crows." 
 
 It is thus poffible in fome degree to ftudy the 
 numifmatics of the Middle Ages, and of more 
 modern times, as a whole ; and in a very rough 
 way to divide its hiftory into certain periods, in 
 each of which the moft ftriking characteriftics 
 numifmatically and the moft important events can 
 be pointed out, without any attempt to follow in 
 detail the hiftory of the currency in each land. 
 When in a fubfequent chapter we come to fpeak 
 of the Englifh coinage, a more minute treatment 
 of that fpecial branch will be poffible. 
 
 The periods into which I propofe to divide the 
 numifmatic hiftory of Chriftian Europe are thefe: 
 
Divifions of the Coinage, 
 
 Period I. Tranfition between the Roman and 
 the true mediaeval : let us fay, from the depofition 
 of Romulus Auguftulus (a.d. 476) to the acceflion 
 of Charlemagne (a.d. 768). 
 
 Period II. From the rife of the new currency 
 which was inaugurated by the houfe of Heriftal, 
 and which attained its full extenfion under Charles 
 the Great, for* all the time during which this 
 currency formed practically the fole coinage of 
 Weftern Europe. 
 
 Period III. From the re-introduction of a gold 
 coinage into Weftern Europe, which we may date 
 from the ftriking of the Fiorino d'oro in Florence, 
 in 1252, to the full development of RenaifTance 
 Art upon coins, about 1450. 
 
 Period IV. From tfris year, 1450, to the end 
 of the RenaifTance Era, in 1600. 
 
 Period V. That of modern coinage, from a.d. 
 1600 to our own day. 
 ?pedai This divifion of our fubiect may ferve at once 
 
 Points of . ■ J . J . 
 
 interest to give the ftudent fome general notion or the 
 to each ° fort of intereft which pre-eminently attaches to the 
 numifmatics of each period. If he is concerned 
 with the earlieft hiftory of the Teutonic invaders 
 of Roman territory, with what may almoft be 
 called the prehiftoric age of mediaeval hiftory, he 
 will be difpofed to collect the coins which belong 
 to our firft divifion. The coins of the fecond 
 period are of great value for the ftudy of the true 
 Middle Ages, not only as illuftrations of that 
 hiftory, but for the light which they fhed upon 
 the mutual relations of the different nations of 
 
/. — Augujlulus to Charlemagne, 77 
 
 Chriftendom, upon the economical hiftory of this 
 age, and laftly upon the iconography of this, the 
 dominant, era of mediaeval Catholicifm. The 
 coinage of the third period illuftrates, among other 
 things, the rife in wealth and importance of the 
 Italian cities, the greater consideration which from 
 this time forward began to attach to the purfuits 
 of wealth and commerce, and a confequent growth 
 of art and of intellectual culture. The coins of 
 the fourth period, befide their deep hiftorical 
 intereft for the portraits which they give us of the 
 reigning fovereigns or rulers, are pre-eminent in 
 beauty above thofe of any other of the five periods, 
 and alone in any way comparable with the money 
 of Ancient Greece. Finally, the fifth period will be 
 moft attractive to thofe whofe hiftorical ftudies have 
 lain altogether in the age to w T hich it belongs. 
 
 It is generally found' that a monetary change period 1. 
 follows fome time after a great political revo- Augustuius 
 
 1 • -r. 1 • v 1 r 1 toCharle- 
 
 lution. Jreople cannot immediately forego the magne. 
 coinage they are ufed to, and even when this has 
 no longer a raifon d'etre, it is ftill continued, or 
 is imitated as nearly as poffible. Thus, though 
 from the beginning of the fifth century (a.d. 405) 
 a fteady ftream of barbarian invafion fet into the 
 Roman Empire, from the Vifigoths in the fouth 
 and from the Suevi and Burgundians and their 
 allies in the north (in Gaul), no immediate change 
 in the coinage was the refult. The money of the 
 Roman Empire in the Weft and in the Eaft cir- 
 culated among thefe barbarians, and was imitated 
 as clofely as poftible by them. The new-comers 
 
/. — Augujlulus to Charlemagne. 
 
 did not even venture to place their names upon 
 the money; but the names of their Kings were 
 fometimes suggefted by obfcura monograms. The 
 firft coin which bears the name of any Teutonic 
 conqueror is a fmall filver coin which mows the 
 name of Odoacer (a.d. 476-490), and this piece 
 is of great rarity. The Oftrogothic Kings in Italy, 
 after the acceflion of Athalaric to the end of their 
 rule (a.d. 526-553), and the Vandal Kings in 
 Africa fubfequent to Huneric (i.e. from a.d. 484- 
 533), placed their names upon coins, but only 
 upon thofe of the inferior metals. The full rights 
 of a coinage can fcarcely be claimed until the 
 fovereign has ventured to ifTue coins in the higheft 
 denomination in ufe in his territory. Thefe full 
 rights, therefore, belonged, among the people of 
 the Tranfition Era, only to three of the conquer- 
 ing Teutonic nationalities: (1) to the Vifigoths in 
 Spain, (2) to the Franks in Gaul, and (3) to the 
 Lombards in Italy. 
 
 The Vifigothic coinage begins with Leovigild 
 in 573, and ends with the fall of the Vifigothic 
 kingdom before the victorious Arabs at the battle 
 of Guadaleta in 711. The coins are extremely 
 rude, mowing (generally) a buft upon one fide, on 
 the other either another buft or fome form of 
 crofs. Three main types run throughout the 
 feries, which confifts almoft exclufively of a coinage 
 in gold. 
 
 The Frankifh coinage is likewife almoft exclu- 
 fively a gold currency. It begins with Theodebert, 
 the Auftrafian (a.d. 534), and, with unimportant 
 
I—Augujiulus to Charlemagne. 79 
 
 intervals, continues till the acceflion of the houfe 
 of Pepin. At firft the pieces were of the (ize of 
 the Roman Jolidus (Jolidus aureus), but in latter 
 years more generally of the fize of the tremijfis. 
 Below is a fpecimen of a Frankifh tremirTis, ftruck 
 by Chlovis II. (a.d. 638-656), and with the name 
 of his treafurer, St. Eloi. It is noticeable that in 
 this feries only a few pieces bear the names of the 
 monarchs, while the reft have {imply the names 
 of the towns and the moneyers by whom they 
 were ftruck. 
 
 COIN OF CHLOVIS II. 
 
 The Lombardic coinage of North Italy — of the 
 Kings of Milan and Pavia — begins with Cunipert £ in i!om. 
 (a.d. 687), and ends with the defeat of Defiderius bards ' 
 by Charlemagne, 774, in which year the Frankifh 
 king afTumed the crown of Lombardy. The 
 coinage is generally of gold, and of the type of 
 
 COIN OF CUNIPERT (680— 702). 
 
 the coin of Cunipert reprefented in the figure, 
 mowing on one fide the buft of the King (imitated 
 from the Roman money), and on the reverfe the 
 figure of St. Michael, legend scs Mihahil. This 
 
80 . II. — True Mediaeval Period. 
 
 faint was, we know, efpecially honoured by the 
 Lombards. 1 Another Lombardic coinage was that 
 of the Dukes of Beneventum, who ftruck pieces 
 upon the model of the money of the Eaftern 
 Emperors. 
 
 The figure below reprefents the earlieft papal 
 coin, that ftruck by Pope Adrian I. after the defeat 
 of Deftderius in a.d. 774. 
 
 COIN OF POPE ADRIAN I. (772—795). 
 
 period 11. The fecond age is the true Middle Age, or 
 Mediaeval what is fometimes called the Dark Age ; for with 
 eno ' the beginning of our third period, which it will 
 be feen is nearly that of the laft crufade, the firft 
 dawn of the Renaiftance is difcernible. It follows 
 that in the fcarcity of printed monuments of this 
 age, the coinage of the period is one deferving of 
 a very attentive ftudy, and of a much more 
 detailed treatment than I am able to beftow 
 upon it. 
 
 The coinage inaugurated by the houfe of Pepin 
 has the peculiarity of being totally unlike any 
 currency which preceded it. The three chief 
 autonomous barbarian coinages which we have 
 enumerated above conlifted almoft excluftvely of 
 gold money ; the coinage inaugurated by the 
 1 Paul. Diac, Hift. Lang., iv. 47; v. 3, 41. 
 
Carlovingian Coinage. 81 
 
 Carlovingian dynafty was almoft exclufively of 
 filver. Silver from this time forth, until the end 
 of our fecond period, remained the fole regular 
 medium of exchange ; a gold coinage difappeared 
 from Weftern Europe, and was only reprefented 
 by fuch pieces as were imported thither from the 
 eaft and the fouth. Such gold coins as were in 
 ufe were the bezants or byzantii, i.e., the gold 
 coins of the Roman Emperors of Conftantinople, 
 and (much lefs frequently) the maravedis, or 
 gold coins ftruck in Spain by the Moorifh dynafty 
 of Al-Moravides (El-Murabitin). When Charles 
 extended his Empire to its greateft limits, he intro- 
 duced almoft everywhere in Europe the new filver 
 coinage, which was known as the new denier (novus 
 denarius), or pombly in German as pfenning. 1 This 
 denarius was the firft coinage of Germany. In 
 Italy it generally fuperfeded the Roman denarius, 
 or the coinage of the Lombards. 
 
 The ufual type of this New Denarius was at n 
 firft (i) limply the name or monogram of the 
 Emperor, and on the reverfe the name of the mint 
 or a plain crofs ; (2) the buft of the Emperor, with 
 a crofs on the reverfe ; or (3) the buft of the Em- 
 peror on the obverfe, and on the reverfe a temple 
 infcribed with the motto xpistiana religio. 
 The pieces engraved on the next page, probably of 
 Charles the Bald, are good examples of the earlieft 
 
 1 Our word penny (orig. pending, pening) is equivalent to the 
 Old High German Phantine, whence Pfenning, Pfennig, and is 
 derived from the Anglo-Saxon pand (German Pfand), a pledge. 
 So Sanders and Skeat ; but F. Kluge (Etym. Worterb., 1883) 
 fpeaks doubtfully concerning the derivation of Pfennig. 
 
82 Carlovingian Coinage. 
 
 types of denarii. One of the firft documents re- 
 ferring to this coin is a capitulary of Pepin the 
 Short (755), making its ufe compulfory in his 
 dominions. In imitation of the new denarius, the 
 fenny was introduced into England by OfTa, King 
 of Mercia (757-794). The only exceptions to the 
 general ufe of this denarius in Weftern Europe were 
 afforded by thofe towns or princes in Italy which 
 imitated the money of the Byzantine Empire. 
 
 CARLOVINGTAN DENARIT. 
 
 This was the cafe with fome of the earlier Popes, as 
 is mown by the coin of Adrian I., reprefented on 
 p. 80, which is quite Byzantine in type. Venice, 
 which at firft ftruck denarii of the Carlovingian 
 pattern, after a fhort time changed this currency for 
 one clofely modelled upon the Byzantine pattern, 
 while other neighbouring cities followed her 
 example. 
 
 Mediaeval After the acceflion of the race of Capet to the 
 France. throne in France, the denarii continued little 
 
Coinage of France and Germany. 
 
 changed ; and not only in the diftricts over which 
 ruled the early kings of this dynafty, but over the 
 greater part of what is now France. The number 
 of feudal divifions into which the country was 
 fpiit up is mown by the numerous princes' names 
 which appear upon the currency, but they did not 
 caufe much variety in the type of the money. 
 The types continued to be various combinations 
 of ( i ) an infcription over all the face of the coin ; 
 (2) a rude buft, fometimes fo degraded as to be 
 barely diftinguifhable ; (3) the conventional equal- 
 limbed crofs ; (4) a changed form of the temple, 
 made to take the appearance of a Gothic arch 
 between two towers. This type in its moft altered 
 Ihape has been fometimes taken for the ground- 
 plan of the fortifications of Tours. 
 
 In Germany, the Carlovingian Emperors were of Ger- 
 fucceeded by the Saxon dynafty, which in its turn many * 
 gave place to that of Franconia. During all this 
 period (a.d. 91 9-1 125), the denarius continued 
 the chief, and almoft the fole, coin in ufe in 
 Germany. Here, however, the variety of types 
 was much greater, though moft of thefe varieties 
 may be fhown to have fprung out of the old 
 Carlovingian types. The right of coinage was at 
 this time even more widely extended in Germany 
 than in France ; but in the former country the 
 nominal fupremacy of the Emperor was generally 
 — though far from univerfally — acknowledged, 
 and his name was placed upon the coinage. 
 
 In Italy, moft of the towns which pofteffed the ontaiy. 
 right of a coinage derived it direclly from the 
 
84 German Braffeates. 
 
 Emperor : thus Genoa obtained this right from 
 Conrad III. ; Venice (at firft), Pifa, Pavia, Lucca, 
 Milan, are among the cities which ftruck coins 
 bearing the names of the early German Emperors. 
 
 The firft change which took place in the coinage 
 of this our fecond period arofe in Germany from 
 the degradation of the currency. This reached 
 fuch a pitch (efpecially in the ecclefiaftical mints) 
 that the filver denarius, of which the proper weight 
 was about 24 Englifh grains, was firft reduced to 
 Piennigeora fmall piece not more than one-third of that 
 
 Bracteates. we jgJ lt ^ anc [ next tQ a pi ece fo thin that it COuld 
 
 only be ftamped upon one fide. This new money, 
 for fuch it was in fact, though not in name, arofe 
 about the time that the dynafty of Hohenftaufen 
 obtained the imperial crown, that is to fay, in the 
 middle of the twelfth century. The pieces were 
 called fubfequently Pfaffen-Pfennige (parfon's 
 pennies), becaufe they were chiefly ftruck at eccle- 
 fiaftical mints ; they are now known to numif- 
 matifts as brafieates. 
 
 Befide the coinages of France, Germany, Italy, 
 and England, we have alfo briefly to notice thofe 
 of Scandinavia and of Spain, both of which were 
 inaugurated during the fecond age of mediaeval 
 numifmatics. 
 
 Arabic It is a curious lact chat in the north, during the 
 haThe ncy ninth and tenth centuries, we find that a large 
 North. num ber of the contemporary Arabic filver coins 
 (dirhems) were current. It feems at firft fight extra- 
 ordinary that they fhould have travelled fo far, but 
 lefs ftrange- when we bear in mind the extenfive 
 
Viking Hoards. 
 
 85 
 
 Viking expeditions which took place during the 
 fame period. As has been well laid by a recent 
 writer, 1 the Vikings gave a fort of reality to the 
 popular notion that Chriftian Europe was an 
 ifland ; for, ftarting on one fide to the weft, they 
 crept down all that coaft of the continent until 
 they reached the Straits of Gibraltar, and thence 
 made their way into the Mediterranean, while on 
 the other fide, mounting the rivers which emptied 
 themfelves into the Baltic- — the Viftula or the 
 Dvina — with but a few miles of land-carriage 
 they brought their boats to the Dnieper, and by 
 that route upon the eaftern fide ftole down into the 
 fame Mediterranean. It was in this way that the 
 Vikings came in contact with the Arab merchants, 
 and carried Arab money to the far North. It 
 happened that this filver coin, the dirhem, was in 
 weight juft double that of the denarius current in 
 Europe. Carlovingian denarii, Englifh pennies, 
 and Arab dirhems were alike hoarded by the 
 Norfe pirates. . It was not till the end of the tenth 
 century that the Danes and Scandinavians began 
 to make numerous imitations of the contemporary 
 coinage of England. On the accefiion of Canute 
 the Great to the Englifh throne, a.d. 1016, a 
 native currency obtained a firm footing in Den- 
 mark. 
 
 Between the battle of Guadaleta (a.d. 711) and Spain, 
 the union of the crowns of Caftile and Aragon 
 (a.d. 1479), tne Chriftian coinage of Spain was 
 reprefented by the coins of thefe two kingdoms, 
 
 1 Steenftrup : Normanneme, page 1. 
 
86 
 
 Iconography. 
 
 the reft of the peninfula being in the hands of the 
 Arabs or Moors. The coinage of CaftiJe begins 
 with Alfonfo VI. (107 3-1 109); that of Aragon 
 with Sancho Ramirez of Navarre (1063-1094). 
 The money of thefe countries is a denarius of 
 the fame general module as the contemporary 
 denarii of France. The ufual types of thefe 
 coins, as of all the contemporary coinage of 
 Europe, confift of fome combination of a profile 
 head and a crofs. Some pieces have a buft, 
 facing. 
 
 The beft fpecimens of Chriflian iconography 
 contained upon coins are to be found in the feries 
 of Byzantine coins. Of thefe mention has been 
 already made. In Italy we have S. Michael on 
 the coins of the Lombards ; S. Peter on the Papal 
 money ; S. Mark on that of Venice ; and S. John 
 upon the coinage of Florence. The Virgin and 
 Child appear on the copper coins of the Norman 
 Kings of Sicily, and S. Matthew on thofe of the 
 Norman Dukes of Apulia. The Santtus Vultus 
 or holy icon of Chrift, ftill preferved at Lucca, is 
 reprefented on the money of that town. Upon 
 the denarii of Germany and' the Low Countries 
 the iconographic types are alfo numerous, but 
 the reprefentation of the perfons is very rude. 
 Befides the fymbols of the Three Perfons of the 
 Trinity — the Hand, the Crofs, and the Dove 
 — the fecond univerfal, the third comparatively 
 rare — we fee reprefentations of numerous faints, 
 each on the money of the town of which he 
 was the fpecial patron. Thus we have S. Lam- 
 
777. — Return to a Gold Currency. 
 
 bert for Liege and Maeftricht, S. Servatius for 
 Maastricht, S. Martin for Utrecht, S. Remachus 
 (Stablo), S. Maurice (Magdeburg), S. Charlemagne 
 (Aix la Chapelle), S. Boniface (Fulda), S. Kilian 
 (Wiirzburg), S. Stephen (Metz ana other places 
 in Lorraine), SS. Simon and Jude (Magdeburg, 
 Gollar), S. Peter (Lorraine, Toul, Cologne, Berg, 
 Treves, etc.), the Virgin (Lower Lornine, Huy, 
 Hildefheim, Spier, Augfburg). 
 
 On the coins of France facred types and fymbols, 
 excepting the crofs, which is all but univerfal, are 
 lefs frequent during this age. The head of the 
 Virgin occurs upon fome coins. On the money 
 of the Crufaders iconographic types are very 
 common. 
 
 The general revival of a gold coinage in Europe period 
 followed, as we have faid, the coining of the Return tc 
 
 ji • jy • ^ i r n a Gold 
 
 jiorino a oro in 1252. But the nrlt attempt to Currency, 
 inftitute a currency in the moft precious metal was 
 made in Apulia by the Norman Dukes of that 
 place. Roger II., who had long made ufe in 
 Sicily of Arabic gold coins of the Fatimy type, at 
 length ftruck gold coins of his own, which having 
 'his name and title, dvx apvliae, were called 
 ducats. Thefe pieces were ftruck about a.d. 1150. 
 After the Hohenftaufen dynafty had fucceeded the 
 Norman Dukes in Apulia and Sicily, Frederick II., 
 belides ftr iking fome gold pieces for his Arab fub- 
 je6ls, iflued a very remarkable coinage modelled 
 upon the old Roman folidus and half folidus : on 
 the obverfe the buft of the Emperor in Roman 
 drefs, and on the reverfe an eagle with wings 
 
The Fiorino d!Oro. 
 
 difplayed. The legend was (obv.) fridericvs, 
 (rev.) imp. rom. cesar avg. The next State to 
 follow this example was Florence, which in a.d. 
 The Fio- 1252 ftruck the gold florin, bearing on one fide 
 nno d Oro. ^ fig ure G f g # John the Eaptift, and on the 
 other the lily of the city. The correfponding 
 filver coin bore the rhyming Latin verfe, 
 
 " Det tibi florere 
 Chriftus, Florentia, vere." 
 
 Owing in part to the great commercial pofition 
 of the city, in part to the growing want felt 
 
 FIORINO D'ORO. 
 
 throughout Europe for a gold coinage, the ufe of 
 the gold florin fpread with extraordinary rapidity — 
 
 " La tua citta 
 
 Produce e spande il maladetto fiore 
 Ch'a difviate le pecore e gli agni 
 Pero c'ha fatto lupo del pastore." 1 
 
 So general was the currency obtained ,by this 
 coin in Europe that we prefently find it largely 
 copied by the chief potentates in France and 
 Germany, as, for example, by the Pope John XXII. 
 (at Avignon), the Archbifhop of Aries, the Count 
 of Vienne and Dauphiny, the Archduke Albert of 
 Auflria, the Count Palatini of the Rhine, the 
 
 1 Paradifo, ix. 1 27-13 1. 
 
Florins. Sequins. Agnels. Gros. 89 
 
 Archbifhop of Mainz, the free town of Liibeck, 
 the Kings of Hungary and Bohemia, and the 
 King of Aragon ; while in other places, as France 
 and England, where the firft gold coinage was not 
 fo diftinctly an imitation of the florin, it was 
 obvioufly fuggefted by it. 
 
 The town of Italy which rivalled Florence in 
 the extent of its iflues was Venice, which firft 
 flruck its gold coin, the ducat, about a.d. 1280. 
 The piece was afterwards called zecchino (fequin). 
 It bore on one fide a ftanding figure of Chrift, on 
 the other the Doge receiving the ftandard (gon- 
 f alone) from S. Mark. The motto was of the 
 fame kind as that on the filver florin : 
 
 " Sit tibi, Chrifte, datus, 
 quern tu regis, ifte ducatus." 
 
 Genoa alfo ifTued a large currency in gold, as did 
 the Popes (when they returned to Rome), and the 
 Kings of Naples and Sicily. 
 
 The country north of the Alps which firft iflued 
 an extenflve gold coinage was France. This was 
 inaugurated by S. Louis, of whom we have 
 numerous and various types. Of thefe the agnel y 
 with the Pafchal Lamb, is the moft important. 
 Louis's gold coins are, however, now fcarce, and 
 it is poflible that the iflue was not large. It 
 became extenflve under Philip the Fair. 
 
 Other changes were introduced into the money 
 of Northern Europe at this period. Large denarii, 
 grojji denarii, afterwards called grojfi (gros), and 
 in Englifh groats, were coined firfl at Prague, after- 
 
90 Fourteenth Century. 
 
 Fourteenth 
 Century. 
 
 wards chiefly at Tours. We have already fpoken 
 of the fo-called bratle cites of Germany. Thefe at 
 this time became larger, to correfpond in ap- 
 pearance with the grofTi of France and the Low 
 Countries. The ufe of gold coins and of groats 
 became general in England during the reign of 
 Edward III. 
 
 We have now arrived at the fourteenth century. 
 The coinage of this period has certain marked 
 characteriftics, though the exact types are far too 
 numerous to be even mentioned. The general 
 characteriftics of the fourteenth century money are 
 thefe. In the firft place it reflects the artiftic, 
 fpecially architectural, tendencies of the time. 
 The architecture of this period, leaving the fim- 
 plicity of the earlier Gothic, and approaching the 
 Decorated or Flamboyant ftyle, when more atten- 
 tion is paid to detail, is very well fuggefted by 
 the coins, where we fee the effects of the fame 
 minute care and beautiful elaboration. Nothing 
 can in their way be more fplendid than the gold 
 deniers of Louis IX. But as time paffes on, this 
 "elaboration becomes extreme, the croffes lofe their 
 fimple forms, and take every imaginable variety 
 fuggefted by the names fleury, rleurt, quernee, 
 avellanee, etc., while the cufps and treffures around 
 the types are not lefs numerous and varied. The 
 iconographic types are fewer upon the whole, 
 efpecially in comparifon with the number of types 
 in exiftence at this time ; the croffes themfelves 
 are rather parts of the ftructure of the coins than 
 religious fymbols, while now for the firft time 
 
IV. — The Renaijfance Era. 91 
 
 fhields and other heraldic devices, fuch as crefts, caps 
 of maintenance, mantlets, etc., become common. 
 The coin below may ferve as a fample of the 
 coinage of the early years of the fifteenth century. 
 Anyone who is acquainted with the hiftory of 
 this century, the white dawn, as we may call it, of 
 the RenaifTance, will difcern in thefe characleriftics 
 of the coinage the figns of the times. 
 
 GROS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 From the time of the ifiue of the fiorino d'oro, p £ RI0r> 
 the initiative in moft of the great changes which Th . e Re - 
 
 o o raissance 
 
 were wrought in the coinage of Europe belonged Era. 
 to Italy. It is naturally on the coinage of Italy 
 that the firft rife of the artiftic renaifiance is dis- 
 cernible. It is in the fifteenth century that we 
 firft have portraits upon coins which are diftinclly 
 recognifable, and no longer merely conventional. Portraits. 
 This century is the age of the greater!: Italian 
 medallifts, of Pifano, Sperandio, Boldu, Melioli, 
 and the reft; and though thefe earlieft medallifts 
 were not themfelves makers of coin dies, it was 
 impoftible that their art could fail before long 
 to influence the kindred art of the die-engraver. 
 Portraits begin to appear upon the Italian coins 
 about 1450. In the feries of Naples we have 
 
9 2 
 
 Portraits of Renaiffance Era. 
 
 during this century money, bearing the heads 
 of Ferdinand I. and Frederick of Aragon, and 
 later on of Charles V. and Philip of Spain. The 
 Papal feries is peculiarly rich in portrait coins, 
 which were engraved by fome of the moft cele- 
 brated artifts of the fifteenth and fixteenth cen- 
 turies, as by Francefco Francia and Benvenuto 
 Cellini. The portraits of Alexander VI., Julius II., 
 and Leo X., are efpecially to be noted. Cellini 
 alfo worked for Florence, and we have a fine feries 
 of the Dukes and Grand Dukes of this city, be- 
 ginning with the AlefTandro il Moro. In Milan 
 we have coins with the heads of AlefTandro Sforza, 
 of Galeazzo Maria and the younger Galeazzo, of 
 Bona, the mother of this laft, and of Ludovico, 
 and again, after the French conqueft, of Louis XII. 
 and Francis ; later ftill, of Charles V. and Philip. 
 The coins of Mantua, Ferrara, Modena, Bologna, 
 . Parma, and Mirandola, are all worth a lengthy 
 ftudy. Venice and Genoa alone among the great 
 towns of Italy kept their money almoft unchanged, 
 probably from commercial conflderations, like thofe 
 which prompted Athens to adhere to the archaic 
 form of her tetradrachms. 
 
 In France, authentic portraits upon coins firft 
 appear in the reign of Louis XII., and the beauty 
 of the medallic art in France is well illuftrated by 
 the money of Francis I. and Henry II. , and only 
 one degree lefs fo by that of Charles IX. and 
 Henry IV. The celebrated engravers Dupre and 
 the two Warins worked during the latter part 
 of the feventeenth century. In England, the 
 moft beautiful portraits are thofe on the coins of 
 
V. — Modern Coinage. 
 
 93 
 
 Henry VII. and Henry VIII., though thofe of 
 Mary and Edward VI. are only one degree in- 
 ferior. The firft Scottilh coins with portraits are 
 thofe of James IV. The German coins show 
 traces of the peculiar development of German art. 
 Thofe of the Emperor Maximilian are the moft 
 fplendid and elaborate. Some of thefe are worthy 
 of the hand of Diirer, to whom they have been 
 attributed — though without much authority. Next 
 to thefe, the feries of Saxony, of Brunfwick, of 
 Brandenburg, and the coins of fome of the German 
 and Swifs towns, are to be noted. Even the remote 
 northern lands, Sweden and Denmark, did not 
 efcape the influence of the age. 
 
 We muft not omit to mention that the firft 
 rude coinage of RufTia begins during this period. 
 The country, however, poftefTed no properly 
 ordered monetary fyftem before the reign of Peter 
 the Great. 
 
 The coinage iubfequent to 1600, though itJ^RioDV 
 receives more attention from collectors than any Coinage 
 other, muft be pronounced, upon all hiftorical 
 grounds; by far the leaft interefting. And for this 
 reafon, if for no other, that our hiftorical docu- 
 ments for this period are fo voluminous that the 
 coins can ferve little purpofe, fave as illuftrations 
 of thefe documents ; we cannot hope to gain from 
 them any important light upon the times. Still, 
 it cannot be denied that they have an intereft 
 regarded as illuftrations merely, and fome phafes 
 of this intereft muft be briefly indicated. 
 
 And firft, in a general way, the modern coinage 
 
94 Mechanical Improvements. 
 
 illuftrates well the rile of the commercial fpirit of 
 the Weft, which, taking a frefh flart with the dis- 
 covery of America in the fifteenth century, has 
 fince become perhaps the chief determining force 
 of our modern civilization. For new the coinage 
 of all countries becomes as much improved for 
 commercial purpofes as it is artiftically debafed. 
 The introduction of the " mill " in the manufac- 
 ture of coins, in place of the older device of 
 ftriking them with a hammer, greatly improved 
 their fymmetry and the facility with which the 
 money could be counted, while the ufe of an in- 
 dented edge (commonly called " a milled edge ") 
 prevented the practice of clipping, which was fc 
 frequent in earlier times, and thus tended to keep 
 coins to a juft weight, and fo greatly to Amplify 
 exchange. 
 
 of In a more particular way the coins of each 
 nation are interefting, as now always, or nearly 
 always, bearing the head of the reigning Sovereign 
 of the country. By this means we get a feries of 
 hiftoric portraits, which, if not of much artiilic 
 excellence, are, on the whole, truftworthy. Thefe 
 are the better from the fact that large filver coins 
 (crowns or thalers) were now generally current in 
 Europe, having been introduced during the pre- 
 ceding epoch. Guftavus Adolphus, Frederick the 
 " Winter King " of Bohemia, and other heroes of 
 the Thirty Years' War ; Chriftina, Queen of 
 Sweden ; the " Great Elector " of Brandenburg ; 
 Charles XII. and Peter the Great ; Louis XIV. 
 and the contemporary Emperors of the Houfe 
 
Coins of Medaiiic Character. 
 
 95 
 
 of Auftria ; Frederick William I. of PrufTia ; 
 Frederick the Great and Maria Therefa ; an ex- 
 cellent feries of the Popes ; and finally the Englifh 
 fovereign, may be cited as the coin-portraits moft 
 likely to intereft the hiftorical ftudent. The money 
 of the Czar Peter deferves, indeed, a fpecial atten- 
 tion, as it is the firft regularly ordered feries of 
 coins ifTued in Ruffia, and, when compared with the 
 money which preceded it, is a type by itfelf of the 
 improvements which Peter introduced into the 
 condition of the country. 
 
 Another feature connected with the large filver Medaiiic 
 
 . ... r \ 1 Character 
 
 coins is a certain tendency which we find to make 
 ufe of thefe for medaiiic purposes. This is espe- 
 cially the cafe in Germany. Among the earlieft 
 examples of this ufe may be cited the Luther 
 celebration medals, ifTued in Saxony on the jubi- 
 lees of the Reformation held in 1617 and 1630. 
 The lateft is the Sieges-Thaler^ ftruck after the 
 Franco-German War in 1870. The thalers ifTued 
 by Ludwig, King of Bavaria, father of the prefent 
 King, almoft all of which commemorate either 
 fome event of his reign or the erection of fome 
 public building, form the larger!: feries of coins of 
 this medaiiic kind. The Schutz-th'dler ', ifTued in 
 Germany and Switzerland as rewards to thofe who 
 had oeen fuccefsful in the national or cantonal 
 fhooting-contefts, deferve mention in this place. 
 The Papal coins are alfo frequently commemo- 
 rative of hiftorical events or of the erection of 
 public monuments. 
 
 Finally, in fome of the towns of Germany 
 
Modern Coins, 
 
 views of and Switzerland, the reverfes of the coins bear 
 views of thefe towns, which are fometimes fo 
 drawn as to form a very pleafing defign. Bale, 
 Lucerne, Zurich, Augsburg, Cologne, Conftance, 
 Danzig, Hamburg, Magdeburg, and Nuremberg, 
 give examples in various degrees of excellence of 
 this ftyle of decoration. Thus, while the coinage 
 of England, as we lhall have occafion to remark 
 in, the next chapter, toward the end of the Seven- 
 teenth century lofes all artiftic merit and origi- 
 nality of defign, and ceafes to perform any func- 
 tion fave that of a medium of exchange, the fame 
 fate does not till more than one hundred years 
 later overtake fome of the continental ifTues. The 
 lateft coins which can boaft of artiftic beauty are 
 thofe of Napoleon I., efpecially the feries ftruck 
 for Italy, on which the head is finely modelled. 
 Some of the coins ftruck during the French Revo- 
 lution are interefting from their containing allu- 
 fions to contemporary hiftorical events, 
 wights The ftudent of European hiftory muft be upon 
 Denomi- his guard againft the danger of confounding money 
 nations. ^ account with coined money. As we have faid, 
 the new denarius of Charlemagne was, from the 
 time of its introduction till the thirteenth century, 
 practically the only piece coined in weftern conti- 
 nental Europe. The Roman gold coin, the Joli- 
 dus, however, continued to be ufed for fome time, 
 and for a much longer period it remained in ufe 
 as a money of account. The folidus was tranf- 
 lated in the Germanic languages by /chilling, /hil- 
 ling, /killing. Thus when we read of folidi and 
 
Weights and Denominations. 97 
 
 millings it does not in the leaft follow that we are 
 reading of actual coins. The real coins which 
 pafTed current on the occafion fpoken of were very 
 probably limply the denarii, or pennies, but they 
 were reckoned in the fhilling or folidus of account 
 which contained (generally) twelve denarii. 
 
 Other moneys of account were in reality limply 
 weights, as (1) the pound, which was the Roman 
 weight, the libra, containing twelve ounces, and in 
 filver reckoned as equal to 240 denarii ; and (2) 
 the German (Teutonic) weight, the mark, equal to 
 two-thirds of a pound, i.e., eight ounces and 180 
 denarii. It need hardly be faid that the actual 
 weight of the denarius foon fell below this nominal 
 weight of twenty-four grains. The recollection 
 of the three denominations of libra, folidus, and 
 denarius is preferved in our abbreviations £ s. d. 
 for pounds, millings, and pence. 
 
 We have already fpoken of the grojfus, or 
 groat. The gold coins in France received a 
 variety of names, of which the moft ufual and 
 the wideft fpread was ecu. In Germany the 
 earlieft gold pieces feem to have been called ducats, 
 and this name was continued in the fubfequent 
 gold coinage of the fixteenth and feventeenth 
 centuries. The weight of the ducat was founded 
 upon the weight of the fiorino of Florence and of 
 the ducat or zeccbino of Venice, ufually about 
 fifty-four grains, and thefe equal to about one 
 hundred denarii of the old value. As, however, 
 the filver coins contemporary with thefe ducats, 
 though nominally denarii, were exceedingly de- 
 
 H 
 
Weights and Denominations. 
 
 bafed, the relative value of the gold was very 
 much higher. 
 
 One other coin-name of wide extenfion is the 
 thaler y or dollar. The origin of this name lies in 
 the Joachimsthal near the Harz Mountains, the 
 mines of which furnifhed the filver from which thefe 
 large pieces were firft ftruck. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 COINAGE OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 
 
 N the laft chapter a brief Iketch was 
 given of the general numifmatic 
 hiftory of Europe in Chriftian times. 
 In the prefent chapter we confine 
 our attention altogether to the coinage of our own 
 iflands ; not, however, from Chriftian times only, 
 but from the earlieft period in which a coinage 
 was known here. During the greater part of this 
 fketch it will be neceftary to keep in mind the 
 character of the currency in the other lands of 
 Europe, for the monetary hiftory of the Middle 
 Ages — we might add the political hiftory alfo — 
 can only be properly ftudied as a whole. The 
 different epochs into which the hiftory of the 
 coinage of Europe has been divided will there- 
 fore ferve us again in the prefent cafe. Our firft 
 period, however, precedes any of thefe epochs, for 
 here we have to do with a currency in ufe in 
 Britain before the introduction of Chriftianity. 
 The circumftances attending the firft introduc- 
 
ioo The Coinage of the Britons. 
 rhe Coin- tion of a coinage into thefe iflands require fome 
 
 age of the . ° . 1 . 
 
 Britons, explanation, bor the remote caules or this event 
 we have to go back as far as to the times of Philip 
 of Macedon, and to the acquisition by him of the 
 gold mines of Crenides (Philippi). The refult of 
 this acquisition was, as is well known, to fet in cir- 
 culation an extenfive gold currency, the firft which 
 had been widely prevalent in the Greek world. 
 The gold ftaters of Philip obtained an extenfive 
 circulation beyond the limits of Greece — a much 
 wider circulation than could have been obtained 
 by any filver currency. Through the Greek colony 
 of MalTalia (Marfeilles), they came into the hands 
 of the Gauls. MalTalia was, we know, the chief 
 trading centre for the weftern lands, and for the 
 barbarian nations of Northern Europe. It was 
 not long after the death of Philip that Pytheas, 
 the great " commercial traveller " of Marfeilles, 
 made his voyages to Britain and the coafts of 
 Germany, as far as the mouth of the Elbe, or 
 even, fome think, the Baltic. We may readily be- 
 lieve that Marfeilles was then in fome relation 
 with Northern Europe through Gaul ; and it 
 would feem that at this time the Gauls began to 
 appreciate the ufe of a coinage, and to make one 
 for themfelves. The pieces thus manufactured 
 were limply imitations of the gold ftater of Philip. 
 That coin bore on the obverfe a beardlefs head 
 laureate, generally taken to be the head of Apollo, 
 but by fome the head of young Heracles, or of 
 Ares. On the reverfe is a two-horfe chariot 
 (biga). The Gaulifh coins were copies of this 
 
The Coinage of the Britons. 101 
 
 piece, gradually becoming more rude as time went 
 on, and about the middle of the fecond century 
 B.C., the fouthern coaft of Britain adopted from 
 Gaul the fame habit. The earlieft Britim coins 
 were thus of gold, and though immediately 
 only copies of the Gaulilh money, they were in 
 a remote degree copies of the ftaters of Philip 
 of Macedon. The copies have, in nearly every 
 cafe, departed fo widely from the original, that, 
 were it not that the Gaulifh money affords us 
 examples of an intermediate type, we mould have 
 
 BRITISH GOLD COIN. 
 
 great difficulty in recognifing the relation/hip of 
 the Britim to the Macedonian coin, This is the 
 hiftory of the introduction of a coinage into the 
 Britim Ifles. 
 
 The earlieft coins of Britain were exclufively of 
 gold, and were devoid of infcription ; any fign 
 which has the appearance of a letter being in 
 reality only a part of the barbarous copy of the 
 Greek coin, and without meaning in itfelf. About 
 the time of Caefar's invafion, however 5 the coins 
 begin to carry infcriptions upon them — the name 
 of fome chief or tribe, the former being in moft 
 
102 
 
 Roman Mints. 
 
 cafes unknown to hiftory fave from his coins. One 
 or two historical names do occur — as Commius, 
 poflibly the King of the Atrebates, who may be 
 fuppofed to have fled into England ; and certainly 
 Cunobelinus, King of the Trinobantes, the Cym- 
 beline of Shakefpeare. After the Roman con- 
 quest of Gaul, the native currency there was 
 exchanged for the imperial coinage, and the 
 change foon affected the coinage of Britain, which 
 from about the Chriftian era began to make 
 coins upon the Roman pattern. This fad is Sym- 
 bolical of the Romanifing influence in the fouthern 
 diftricts, which in this country, and in fo many 
 others, preceded the actual fubjugation of the land 
 by Roman arms. 
 
 After the complete Roman conqueft the native 
 currency ceafed. Roman mints were not eftab- 
 lifhed in Britain until the time of Carauflus (a.d. 
 287-293), who was Emperor in Britain only. 
 Caraufius' mints were Londinium and Camulo- 
 dunum (Colchefter). Between the time of Allectus 
 and that of Conftantine the Great no money was 
 coined in Britain. The latter Emperor did not ufe 
 a mint at Colchefter, and Struck at London only. 
 The laft imperial coins Struck in Britain were thofe 
 of Magnus Maximus (died a.d. 388). 
 
 From this period till after the beginning of 
 the feventh century there is an almoft total want 
 of numifmatic documents. There can be no quef- 
 tion that the Britons continued to ufe the later 
 Roman coins, efpecially thofe of Conftantine and 
 his immediate SucceSTors, which feem to have been 
 
Coinage of the Saxons. 103 
 
 ftruck in large numbers. Such coins as came into 
 the hands of the Saxon invaders would probably 
 be cherifhed rather as ornaments than for any- 
 other purpofe. This would at any rate be the 
 cafe with the gold coins. We find that Roman 
 gold coins were very extenfively ufed as ornaments 
 by the northern nations during the Viking age, 
 and that they were imitated in thofe peculiar difc- 
 like ornaments known as bracleates. 1 In the fame 
 way we find an imitation of a gold coin of Hono- 
 rius engraved with Saxon runes. But gold be- 
 longed rather to the chiefs than to the great body 
 of the people, and for the ufe of thefe laft a 
 regular coinage of filver appeared foon after the 
 beginning of the feventh century. 
 
 The earlieft Saxon coins, like the earlieft Britifh, The Sceat - 
 are anonymous, the only trace of letters upon 
 moft of them being nothing more than a blundered 
 imitation of the coin-legend which the engraver 
 was endeavouring to copy ; and for this reafon it 
 is impoflible accurately to determine their date. 
 Thefe early Saxon coins are generally known to 
 numifmatifts as Jceattas, and it feems probable 
 that at one time they were diftinguifhed by that 
 name. But fee at properly fignifies only treafure, 2 
 and it is not likely that the word was at firft used 
 to denote any fpecial denomination of coin. 
 
 The anonymous fceattas, hardly pofTefting an 
 
 1 Thefe bra&eates are not to be confufed with the German 
 filver bracleates fpoken of in the laft chapter. Thefe were of 
 gold, were made in the Scandinavian countries, and ufed as 
 ornaments, not as coins. 
 
 2 Primarily, treafure ; fecondarily, tax. 
 
104 The Sceat. 
 
 hiftoric, or, in the ftrict fenfe, a numifmatic 
 intereft, have fufFered too much neglect at the 
 hands of collectors. For they are, in fome re- 
 flects, the moft curious and noteworthy coins 
 which have been iflued fince the Chriftian era. In 
 no other feries of coins do we find among fo fmall 
 a number of individual pieces fo great a variety of 
 defigns. The only feries of coins which can in 
 this refpect be compared with the fceattas is that 
 of the electrum pieces ftruck in Afia Minor in 
 the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The larger 
 number of actual pieces among the fceattas are 
 indeed copied from Roman coins ; many alfo from 
 Merovingian filver pieces. But among thofe which 
 remain there are a great number of defigns which 
 feem perfectly original, and which far outnumber 
 the types taken from any other fource. Of thefe 
 apparently original and native works of art we 
 may count between thirty and forty diftinct de- 
 figns ; and as they are probably earlier than moft 
 or" the extant remains of Saxon or Irifii architec- 
 ture, and earlier than moft of the Saxon and Irifh 
 manufcripts, the intereft which belongs to thefe 
 pieces is very great. It is impoftible to defcribe 
 thefe defigns here ; a great number confift of fome 
 fantaftic bird, or animal, or ferpent, fimilar to the 
 animals which appear in fuch profufion in the 
 Saxon manufcripts, and at a later period in archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 It is evident that the Germanic peoples had a 
 fpecial partiality for a coinage in filver ; and this 
 may have dated back to quite early days, when 
 
T/ie Penny. 
 
 105 
 
 the old confular denarii (ferrate, bigatique 1 ) were 
 current among them. Mommfen tells us that 
 when the filver coinage of Rome was debafed, the 
 old pieces of pure metal were almoft abforbed for 
 the purpofe of exchange with the barbarian nations 
 of the North. We find further evidence of this 
 partiality in the fact that the filver fceattas were 
 current in England before the grand reform made 
 by the introduction of the new denarius into 
 Europe, 2 and in the fact that this very reform was 
 due to the moft Teutonic (laft Romanifed) fection 
 of the Frank nationality. When, therefore, the. 
 great reform was brought about on the Continent, 
 of which we have fpoken in the preceding chapter, 
 the effect was lefs felt in England than in any 
 other land ; it refulted merely in the exchange of 
 the fceat for the filver penny, the former ftanding 
 probably to the latter in the proportionate value 
 of 12 to 20 ( = t), though according to fome 
 documents they, were in the proportion of 24 
 to 25. 
 
 PENNY OF OFFA. 
 
 The penny, introduced about 760, differed from The 
 the fceat in appearance. The latter was fmall and Peur 
 thick, the penny much broader but thin. The 
 
 1 Tacitus, Germ., c. 5. 
 
 2 See Chapter IV., p. 81. 
 
io6 
 
 The Penny. 
 
 pennies of OfFa are remarkable for the beauty and 
 variety of their defigns and an artiftic excellence 
 which was never recovered in after years. The 
 ufual type of the penny confifts of, on one fide, 
 a buft, a degraded form of the buft on Roman 
 coins, and on the reverfe a crofs ; but a very large 
 number of coins have no buft, and the crofs is by 
 no means an invariable concomitant. The legend 
 gives the name of the King as offa rex, aelfred 
 rex, or with the title more fully given, offa rex 
 merciorum. On the reverfe appears the name of 
 the moneyer, that is to fay, the actual maker of 
 the coin ; at firft the name fimply, as eadmuun, 
 ibba, later on with the addition of moneta (for 
 monetarius), and later ftill with the name of the town 
 at which the piece has been ftruck, as go dm an on 1 
 lund. Town names begin to appear on coins in 
 the reign of Egberht, King of Weflex. They are 
 not infrequent on the pennies of Aelfred, and 
 univerfal from the time of Aethelred the Unready. 
 
 It is to be noticed that the treafure plundered 
 from England by the Vikings feems firft to have 
 given to the Northern people the notion of ifiuing 
 a currency. Rude imitations of Saxon money are 
 frequently difcovered in the Weftern Ifles of 
 Scotland, and were doubtlefs ifTued by order or 
 for the behoof of the Danifh or Norwegian Kings 
 of thofe parts. In the fame way we find that the 
 Norfe Kings in Ireland ifTued a coinage in imita- 
 tion of that of Aethelred II. Moft of the early 
 coins of Norway are likewife copied from the coins 
 of this King. When the Danifh dynafty of Cnut 
 1 Probably for [m]on[etarius]. 
 
Norman Coinage. 
 
 (Gormsfon) fupplanted the Englifh line of Kings, 
 it made no change in the coinage of this country, 
 though it was inftrumental in introducing an im- 
 proved coinage into Denmark. 
 
 Nor, again, did the Norman conquer!: make any £° r ™^ 
 immediate change in the Englifh currency. The 
 penny long remained the fole Englifh coin. The 
 variety of towns at which money was ftruck, of 
 moneyers employed for this work, and of types 
 made ufe of by them, reach their maximum in the 
 reign of Edward the ConfefTor ; but thofe of 
 William I. and William II. (for the coins of thefe 
 two Kings cannot with certainty be diftinguifhed) 
 are little lefs numerous. After the reign of 
 William II., however, all thefe begin fteadily to 
 decline, until we find, in the reign of Henry II., 
 only two different types, and the latter of the 
 two extending, without even a change in the name 
 of the King, into the reign of Henry III. This 
 fimplification in the appearance of the penny cor- 
 refponds with a certain amount of centralization in 
 the regulation of its ifTues. It would feem that 
 down to the middle of the reign of Henry II. 
 each feparate moneyer was refponfible for the 
 purity of his coins, but that fhortly after this date 
 a general overfeer was appointed, who was re- 
 fponfible to the King's Government. 
 
 In this approach to uniformity the general types 
 which furvive are thofe which have on the obverfe 
 the head or butt of the King facing, and on the 
 reverfe fome kind of crofs. At the beginning of 
 the reign of Henry II. the latter is a crofs patee 
 
Norman Coinage. 
 
 cantoned with crofQets. This changes to a fhort 
 crofs voided (that is, having each limb made of two 
 parallel lines, very convenient for cutting the coin 
 into halfpence and farthings), and that again changes 
 to a longer crofs voided. But in the reign of Ed- 
 ward I. the forms of both obverfe and reverfe become 
 abfolutely ftereotyped. And this ftereotyping of 
 the coin into one fingle pattern is the firft very 
 important change in the penny which took place 
 fince its introduction. The ftereotyped form hence- 
 forward until the reign of Henry VII. is as follows : 
 obverfe, the King's head (fometimes with flight 
 traces of buft), crowned, facing; reverfe, a long 
 crofs fatee with three pellets in each angle. In 
 this reign, too, the names of moneyers ceafe to be 
 placed upon coins. Robert de Hadleye is the laft 
 money er whofe name appears. Finally we have to 
 notice that Edward I. re-introduced a coinage of 
 halfpence, unknown fince Saxon times, and firft 
 Groat, ftruck the groat and the farthing. The groats were 
 faxthSgJ' not in general circulation till the reign of Edward III. 
 
 We have many documents mowing that in 
 making thefe changes of coinage Edward I. alfo 
 reformed the conftitution of the mint in many 
 particulars. His pennies obtained a wide circula- 
 tion not only in this country but on the Continent, 
 where they prefently (much as the fiorino did) 
 gave rife to imitations. The clofeft copies are to 
 be feen in the money of the various ftates of the 
 Low Countries, as the Dukedom of Brabant, the 
 Counties of Flanders, Hainault, etc. Other 
 imitations are to be found in the denarii of the 
 
Introduction of a Gold Coinage. 109 
 
 Emperors of Germany and the Kings of Aragon. 
 The Englifh money never followed the rapid courfe 
 of degradation which was the lot of the con- 
 tinental coinages ; wherefore thefe Englifh pennies 
 (alfo called efterlings^ fterlings^ 3. word of doubtful 
 origin) were of quite a different ftandard from 
 the continental denarii. The Englifh penny did, 
 indeed, continually diminifh in fize, fo that before 
 the type introduced by Edward I. was radically 
 changed (in the reign of Henry VII.), the penny 
 had fhrunk to not more than half of its original 
 dimenfions. But this degradation was flow com- 
 pared to that which was undergone by the conti- 
 nental coins. 
 
 We have now for a moment to retrace our fleps Intr °- 
 
 r duction 
 
 to the latter part of the reign of Henry III. In a Gold 
 the preceding chapter we fpoke of the re-introduc- 
 tion of a gold currency into Weflern Europe. 
 Only a few years after the firft ifTue of the fiorino 
 d'oro, namely, in 1257, we find the firft record in 
 the annals of the Englifh. coinage of the ifTue of a 
 gold currency. In this year Henry III. ftruck a 
 piece called a gold penny. It reprefented on one 
 fide the King enthroned, on the other bore a crofs 
 voided cantoned with rofes; and was at firft valued 
 at twenty pence, afterwards at twenty-fix. The 
 innovation was premature, and the coin being un- 
 popular had foon to be withdrawn from circula- 
 tion. It was not till nearly ninety years afterwards 
 that a regular gold coinage was fet on foot. 
 
 In 1343 or 1344 Edward III. ifTued this 
 new gold coinage. It at firft confifted of pieces 
 
I 10 
 
 Florins — Nobles. 
 
 called florins, half and quarter florins. The 
 obverfe types of thefe three orders of coins 
 were — (i), the monarch enthroned between two 
 leopards ; (2), a Angle leopard bearing the Englifh 
 coat ; (3), a helmet and cap of maintenance with 
 fmall leopard as creft ; a crofs formed the re- 
 verfe type in every cafe. Thefe pieces were rated 
 too high, and were almoft immediately with- 
 drawn from circulation ; after which were hTued 
 coins of a new type and denomination, nobles, 
 half-nobles, and quarter-nobles. 
 
 NOBLE OF EDWARD III. 
 
 The nobles and half-nobles were the fame in 
 type; on the obverfe they mowed the King ftanding 
 in a lhip ; the quarter-noble contained a fhield 
 merely on the obverfe. The type of the noble is 
 perhaps commemorative of the naval victory off 
 Sluys. The legend on the noble was ihs [jesus] 
 
 AVTEM TRANSIENS PER MEDIVM ILLORVM IBAT 
 
 (S. Luke iv. 30), a legend which long continued 
 on the Englifh money, and which has given rife 
 to a good deal of abfurd fpeculation. The legend 
 was a charm againft thieves, but poflibly bears fome 
 further reference to the victory commemorated 
 
Anglo-French Coinage. 1 1 1 
 
 by the type. The noble was made equal to half 
 a mark (a money of account), or 80 pence Eng- 
 lifh ; in weight it was exactly that of the modern 
 Englifh fovereign, 120 grains. As it was of very 
 pure gold, and perhaps the fineft coin then current 
 in Europe, it was, like the penny of Edward L, 
 a good deal imitated abroad (always, we may be 
 fure, to the advantage of the imitator), and laws 
 were conftantly being enacted, without much fuc- 
 cefs, to hinder its exportation. 
 
 Before we leave the reign of Edward III. we p^nch 
 rauft caft one glance at a clafs of coins which now Coina s a 
 began to aflume confiderable dimenfions, namely, 
 the Anglo-French money, or coins ftruck for the 
 Englifh pofteflions in France. Thefe naturally 
 followed French types and denominations. As 
 early as the reign of Henry II. we have deniers 
 ftruck for Aquitaine ; Richard I. ftruck for Aqui- 
 taine, Poitou, and Normandy ; Edward I. coined 
 for Aquitaine and Bordeaux. But under Edward 
 III. and the Black Prince (Governor of Guienne) 
 quite a large iftue of Anglo-French coins, both in 
 gold and filver, appeared. The gold coins of Ed- 
 ward III. were the guiennois (ftanding figure in 
 armour), leopard, chaife (King enthroned), and 
 mouton (Pafchal Lamb), and in filver the hardi 
 (half-figure holding fword), double-hardi, gros, 
 demi-gros, denier, demi-denier (alfo apparently called 
 ardit \_fic~]). Edward Prince of Wales ftruck guien- 
 nois, leopard, chaife, demi-chaife, hardi (dor), and 
 pavilion (prince under a canopy), and in filver 
 money the fame as his father. Edward III. began, 
 
112 Anglo- Gallic Coinage. 
 
 too, the iflue of Calais filver groats, which (as 
 Calais was really henceforth an Englifh town) can 
 fcarcely be counted among the Anglo-French 
 coinage. In every refpecl:, this coin, as well as 
 the Calais half-groat, penny, etc., exactly corre- 
 fponded to the Englifh money. In order to end 
 the fubjecl: we may add that Richard II. ftruck 
 gold and filver hardis and demi-hardis as well as 
 deniers and half-deniers. Henry V. ftruck in gold 
 moutons and demi-moutons, and poftibly Jalutes 
 (the angel faluting Mary), and gros. Henry VI. 
 ftruck falutes, angelots, and francs, and in filver 
 grand and petit blancs. He alfo continued an ex- 
 tenfive iflue of Calais money. With Henry VI. 
 the Anglo-French coinage really comes to an end. 
 
 Edward IV. introduced fome important changes 
 into the gold coinage. He feenis to have ftruck 
 a few nobles of the old type ; but he very foon 
 made an alteration in the type of the noble by 
 fubftituting on the reverfe a fun for the older 
 crofs, and on the obverfe, placing a rofe upon the 
 fide of the fhip, in the form of which laft fome 
 other changes were introduced. From the rofe 
 on the obverfe the coins came to be called rofe 
 nobles, and owing to changes in the relative values 
 of gold and filver they were now worth ios. (120 
 pence), inftead of 6s. 8d. (80 pence) as before. 
 To fupply a coin of the old value of half a mark, 
 a new gold piece was ftruck, called at firft the 
 angel-noble, but foon fimply the angel. On one 
 fide it reprefented a fhip, bearing (inftead of the 
 King) a crofs ; on the other was S. Michael 
 
The Coinage of Scotland. 113 
 overcoming Satan. The motto was per crvcem 
 
 TV AM SALVA NOS XPE (cHRISTE) REDEMPTOR. 
 
 They have in England 
 A coin that bears the figure of an angel 
 Stamped in gold, but that's infculped upon : 
 But here an angel in a golden bed 
 Lies all within. 1 
 
 Shakefpeare is much given to playing upon this 
 word, 2 and we find frequent allufions of the fama 
 kind in other writers, his contemporaries. 
 
 ANGEI, OF EDWARD IV. 
 
 We have fpoken of fome coins probably ftruck Scottish 
 
 1 • 1 1 Coinage. 
 
 by the Norfemen in the weftern ifles. The regular 
 coinage of Scotland does not begin before 11 24 
 (David I.), when an iflue of pennies (or fter lings, Sterling, 
 as they were generally called in Scotland) began. 
 Even yet we find that offences were more fre- 
 quently punifhed by fines of cattle than of money. 
 At firft the money of Scotland copied very clofely 
 the contemporary currency of England. Thus 
 the pennies of David refemble thofe of Henry I. ; 
 the next coinage, that of William the Lion, grand- 
 fon of David (1165-1214) refembles the money of 
 
 1 Merchant of V enice, ii. 7. 
 
 2 Cf. Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3 ; King John, ii. 1. 
 
 I 
 
H4 : The Coinage of Scotland. 
 
 Henry II. ; the pennies of Alexander II. have 
 fhort and long voided croffes, like thofe of 
 Henry III., and the coins of Alexander III. are 
 like thofe of Edward I. This King, like Edward, 
 added halfpennies and farthings to the currency of 
 pennies. But both the moneyers and the places of 
 mintage are far lefs numerous in Scotland than in 
 England. We count no more than fixteen of the 
 latter. The coinage of John Baliol and of Robert 
 Bruce followed the type of Alexander III. The 
 mint-records for thefe reigns are loft : they begin 
 again in the reign of David II. This King ifTued 
 nobles after the pattern of Edward III.'s nobles. 
 He alfo ftruck groats and half-groats, pennies, 
 halfpennies, and farthings. 
 
 All this time it will be feen that, defpite the 
 war between the two countries, Englifh influence 
 was paramount in determining the character of 
 the Scottifh coinage. There was prefent a certain 
 French influence as well, which may be detected 
 in minor marks upon the coins (fleurs-de-lis, and 
 fuch like), and which was exercifed alfo in a very 
 unhappy direction towards a degradation of the 
 currency. Scotland followed the continental 
 fafhion in this refpect, and the commercial rela- 
 tions of the two bordering countries are marked 
 by a perpetual chorus of complaint on the part of 
 England of the debafed character of the Scottifh 
 money. Thus in 1372 we find both Scottifh gold 
 and filver forbidden in England, and as if the 
 prohibition had been relaxed, it is repeated in 
 1387. In 1390 Scottifh money is admitted at 
 
The Coinage of Ireland. 115 
 
 half its nominal value; in 1393 it is forbidden 
 again, fave as bullion, and in 1401 there is a 
 decree of Parliament to the fame effect. 
 
 In the reign of Robert II. Scotland took a new- 
 departure by coining fome gold pieces of an ori- 
 ginal type (no longer borrowed from England), 
 viz., the Lion and St. Andrew. The firft had p 0 "- 
 
 ' ■ _ St. Andrew 
 
 the fhield of Scotland with rampant lion, the 
 fecond the figure of St. Andrew with a fhield on 
 the reverfe. In the reign of Robert III. we note 
 a further fign of continental influence in the in- 
 troduction of billon (bafe metal) coins. James I. 
 ftruck the demy (Obverfe, arms in lozenge ; Re- Demy, 
 verfe, crofs in trefTure) and half-demy ; James II. 
 ftruck demies, St. Andrews, and half St. Andrews. 
 James III. introduced two new types of gold coins, 
 viz., the rider (knight on horfeback) and the Rider. 
 unicorn^ which fhows a unicorn fupporting the Unicom. 
 Scottifh fhield. The fame King ifTued feveral de- 
 nominations of billon coins, as placks, half-placks, P1 * ck - 
 farthings. 
 
 Hoards of Englifh coins of the ninth century The Coin- 
 have been found in Ireland, and were doubtlefs Ireland, 
 taken there by the Norfemen fettled in the land. 
 The actual coinage of thefe Norfe Kings, how- 
 ever, docs not begin till the end of the tenth 
 century. It copies almoft invariably a peculiar 
 type of the coinage of Aethelred II. (978-1016), 
 having on one fide a buft uncrowned, and on the 
 other a lung voided crofs. After that we have no 
 Irilh coinage until fubfequent to the conqueft of a 
 portion of the country by Henry II. Henry made 
 
1 1 6 ; The Coinage of Ireland, 
 
 his fon John governor of the ifland, and John 
 ftruck in his own name pennies, half-pennies, and 
 farthings, having on the obverfe a head (fuppofed 
 to be that of John the Baptift) and on the reverfe a 
 crofs. During his own reign John coined pennies 
 having the King's buft in a triangle on one fide ; on 
 the other the fun and moon in a triangle. Henry 
 III.'s Irifh. pennies are like his Englifh long crofs 
 type, fave that the King's head is again furrounded 
 by a triangle. This diftinclion once more ferves 
 to feparate, in point of type, Edward L's Irifh 
 from his Englifh coins, the reverfe types of the 
 two being the fame. John ftruck at Dublin and 
 Limerick, Henry III. at Dublin, and Edward I. 
 at Dublin, Cork, and Waterford. One or two 
 Irifh pennies of Henry V. or VI. have been fpoken 
 of, but there was no extenfive coinage for Ireland 
 between the reigns of Edward I. and Edward IV. 
 The Irifh coins of Edward IV. were very nume- 
 rous, and confifted of double-groats, groats, half- 
 groats, pennies, and (in billon) halfpennies and 
 farthings. The types of thefe coins are varied ; 
 fome are but flight divergences from the corre- 
 fponding Englifh coins ; others have for reverfe a 
 fun in place of the ufual crofs ; others again have 
 a fingle crown on obverfe, on the reverfe a long 
 crofs ; and another feries has three crowns, with the 
 Englifh fhield for reverfe. The mints are Dublin, 
 Cork, Drogheda, Limerick, Trim, Waterford, 
 and Wexford. No gold coins were ever ftruck 
 for Ireland. 
 
 Hen. vxi. We have thought it beft to difpofe of the 
 
Henry VII. 
 
 117 
 
 Middle Age coinage of all Great Britain and 
 Ireland before we come to fpeak of any currency 
 ftruck in more modern days. We have thus 
 carried our enquiries down to the acceffion of 
 Henry VII. The divifion which has been thus 
 made in our fubje6t is not, indeed, an equal divi- 
 fion in refpect of time nor even of recorded 
 hiftorical events ; but it is obvioufly the mod: 
 fuitable which could be found. It correfponds 
 generally with the line of demarcation feparating 
 modern from mediaeval hiftory, and with what we 
 may call the inftallation of the Renaiftance. The 
 line is always more or lefs fhadowy and indefinite, 
 but nowhere is it lefs fo than in England. The 
 Wars of the Rofes were the final act in the drama 
 of mediaeval Englifh hiftory. When thefe ended 
 in the Battle of Bofworth the new era definitely 
 began. 
 
 We have feen 1 that this age of the Renaiflance 
 was for the whole of Europe, fo far as the coins 
 were concerned, notable chiefly as being the era of 
 portraiture. Portraits begin on Englifh coins with 
 Henry VII. Up to his nineteenth year this King 
 continued the older forms of filver currency, but 
 in 1504 he made a complete change. He coined 
 fhillings in addition to the groats, half-groats, shilling, 
 pennies, etc., which had up to that time been 
 current ; and on all the larger pieces, in place of 
 the conventional buft facing which had prevailed 
 fince the days of Edward I., he placed a profile 
 
 Chapter IV., pp. 91-9; 
 
1 1 8 : Artiftic Excellence. 
 
 buft which had not been feen on coins fince the 
 days of Stephen. 1 The buft appears upon all 
 coins of higher denomination than the penny. A 
 new type was invented for the latter coin, the full- 
 length figure of the monarch enthroned. The 
 portrait of Henry VII. is a work of the higheft 
 art in its own kind. Nothing fuperior to it has 
 appeared fince, nor anything nearly equal to it 
 except upon fome of the coins of Henry VIII. 
 Art. and Edward VI. The artiftic merit of thefe pieces 
 is fo confiderable that on that account alone they 
 are worthy of peculiar ftudy. It has been well 
 pointed out by archaeologifts that one intereft 
 belonging to the ftudy of Greek coins lies in the 
 fact that they are tokens of the artiftic work of 
 many places of which no other fuch monuments 
 remain. The fame may almoft be faid of the 
 coinage of England during the RenaifTance. In 
 the great artiftic movement of thofe days, England 
 feems at fir ft fight to take no part. While Italy, 
 France, and Germany had each its own fchools of 
 artifts, and each its feparate character of defign, 
 the confpicuous monuments made in England 
 were the work of foreigners; they were the 
 fculptures of Torrigiano or the paintings of 
 Holbein. But as .{mailer monuments the con- 
 temporary coins are an evidence of native talent, 
 
 1 It is worth noticing that Henry VII. was the firfl; King 
 fubfequent to Henry III. who ufed a numeral upon his coins. 
 Some of his Ihillings read henric vii., others henrig septim. 
 James IV. in the fame way introduced (for the firft time on 
 Scottifh coins) the word quart, after his name. 
 
The Sovereign. 119 
 
 for moft of the engravers to the mint during thefe 
 reigns bear genuinely Englifh names. 1 
 
 Next to the evidence of art-culture which the Increased 
 coins afford, comes the evidence of greater wealth, Wealth> 
 of larger trade and manufacture, and of an in- 
 creafed demand for a medium of exchange. When 
 Henry VII. afcended the throne, although the 
 country had juft been fuffering from a bitter and 
 prolonged civil war, the great mafs of the com- 
 munity was far from having been impoverifhed 
 thereby. It was during all this period fteadily 
 acquiring wealth, and the wealth of the country, 
 as a whole, was upon the increafe. 2 The careful 
 reign of Henry VII. foilered this increafe. It 
 need not furprife us, therefore, to find an addi- 
 tion made to the coinage of the previous reigns. 
 
 SOVEREIGN OF HENRY VII. 
 
 Henry VII. ftruck the principal gold coins which 
 were current in former reigns ; that is to say, 
 
 1 Nicholas Flynte, John Sharpe, and Demaire, are the 
 
 names of the engravers during the reigns of Henry VII. and 
 Henry VIII., as given by Ruding ; the third may, likely 
 enough, be a French name. 
 
 2 Rogers' Hift. of Prices, vol. iv., Intr., p. 22. 
 
120 
 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 the ryal, or rofe-noble (now worth ten millings), 
 Sovereign, the angel, and the angelet. In addition to thefe 
 pieces he ftruck for the firft time the pound 
 fovereign, or double ryal, worth twenty millings, 
 a large gold coin reprefenting the King enthroned, 
 and on the reverfe a double rofe charged with the 
 Englifh mield. The piece meafured more than 
 one-and-a-half inches, and weighed two hundred 
 and forty grains ; that is to fay, twice as much as 
 the prefent fovereign. It was without queftion 
 the fineft gold coin then current in Europe. It 
 does not appear, however, to have been iflued in 
 large quantities. 
 Hen. viii. As we follow the hiftory of coinage under the 
 Tudors, we fee the currency gradually increafing 
 in quantity and in the variety of its denomina- 
 tions. Henry VIII. did not indeed make any 
 decided ftep in this direction, and in one refpecl, 
 prefently to be noticed, he made a confpicuous 
 retrogreflion. Neverthelefs he {truck fome two- 
 fovereign pieces, and he largely increafed the 
 number of fovereigns. At firft this coin followed 
 the type inftituted by Henry VII., but later on 
 a fecond type was introduced, having the King 
 feated on a throne upon one fide, and on the 
 other the Englifh mield fupported by a lion and a 
 griffin. Henry coined half-fovereigns of the fame 
 Crown. type. He coined crowns or quarter-fovereigns 
 and half-crowns in gold, having on one fide the 
 Englifh mield, and on the other the Tudor rofe. 
 He likewife ftruck rofe-nobles or ryals, angels, 
 and angelets of the types formerly in ufe. The 
 
Heraldic Devices. 
 
 121 
 
 older nobles had given place to the ryals which, at 
 firft meant to be current for (ix-and-eightpence like 
 their predecefTors, had at once rifen to be worth ten 
 (hillings. Henry VIII. now iflued a new feries of 
 nobles at the lefier value. They were called George Georga 
 nobles, from having on the obverfe the figure of St. Noble - 
 George on horfeback (laying the dragon. In filver 
 Henry (truck pieces of the fame denomination as 
 thofe of his father — namely, (hillings, groats, half- 
 groats, pennies, halfpennies, and farthings. The 
 earlier groats mowed a profile buft like the groats 
 of Henry VII., but in 1543 for this was fubfti- 
 tuted a buft facing or turned three-quarters towards 
 the fpeclator, and the millings of Henry VIII., 
 which were firft coined at this date, were of the 
 fame pattern. 
 
 It has been noticed how in the continental 
 coinage heraldic devices begin during the four- 
 teenth century to take the place of the (impler 
 crofTes which generally decorate the mediaeval 
 coins. Owing to the ftereotyped character of 
 the Englifh coinage between Edward I. and 
 Henry VII., the fame change could not be fo 
 early difcovered here. But it is very noticeable in 
 the currency of the Tudor dynafty. From the time 
 of Henry VII. the Englifh fhield (quartering 
 France) is rarely abfent from the coins. It is laid 
 over the crofs on the reverfe, which in many cafes 
 it almoft completely hides from view. A great 
 number of the heraldic devices, with which we are 
 fo familiar in the chapel and tomb of Henry VII. 
 in Weftminfter Abbey, are introduced upon his 
 
122 fc Wolfey s Groat. 
 
 coins or thofe of his immediate fuccefTors, as the 
 lion, the griffin, the double rofe, the portcullis. 
 The laft device was derived from the Beaufort 
 family (the legitimated children of John of Gaunt 
 and Catherine Swynford), from which Henry could 
 claim defcent. 
 
 One coin of Henry VIII. has a fpecial historical 
 intereft. It is the groat (truck at York by Cardinal 
 Wolfey when Archbifhop of York. On the piece 
 he placed his cardinal's hat ; and as this act 
 was accounted illegal, and even treafonous, it 
 was included in the bill of indictment againft 
 him : 
 
 That out of mere ambition you have caufed 
 Your holy hat to be ftamped on the king's coin. 1 
 
 In the actual articles of indictment he is only 
 blamed for, " of his pompous and prefumptuous 
 mind," ftamping the hat upon the groats ftruck 
 at York, as if the offence lay efpecially in the 
 ifTuing of fuch large pieces with the infignia of his 
 office. Several prelates before his time had placed 
 their own initials and fome fymbol of their dignity 
 upon the pennies of York, Durham, etc. It may, 
 however, have been confidered part of the offence 
 for which, as a whole/ Wolfey was held to have 
 incurred the penalties of a 'praemunire ; namely, 
 the endeavour to exalt unduly the pofition of his 
 holy office, and to fpread an impreffion among 
 the people that his legate/hip gave him a power 
 independent of the power of the Crown. The 
 groats and half-groats ftruck by Cardinal Wolfey 
 1 Henry Fill., iii. 2. 
 
Edward VI. and Mary. 
 
 123 
 
 have, beneath the fhield on the reverfe, a cardinal's 
 hat, and on either fide of the fhield the letters 
 t. w. 
 
 Edward VI. ftill further increafed the gold Ed w. vi. 
 coinage, efpecially the coinage of fovereigns. He 
 ftruck triple, double, and fingle fovereigns. The 
 latter at firft followed the type of Henry VII., 
 and the earlier fovereigns of Henry VIII., and 
 Edward's double fovereign was of that type alfo. 
 Other pieces fhowed the king with fhorter robes, 
 and of this type was the triple fovereign. Later 
 Edward adopted a new defign — the half-length 
 figure of the King to right, crowned, and holding 
 the fword and orb. On the reverfe was a fhield. 
 The half-fovereign was either of this type, or elfe 
 prefented only the buft of the King, with head either 
 crowned or bare, and the reverfe as before. In filver 
 Edward VI. coined for the firft time crowns, half- 
 crowns, and fixpences. The firft two denomina- Sixpence, 
 tions reprefented the King riding to right, and the 
 Englifh fhield on the reverfe. The millings and 
 fixpences contained a buft crowned, either in profile 
 to right or facing. The coins of this reign are Date, 
 the firft of Englifh coins which bear a date. 
 
 Mary coined fovereigns of the earlieft(Hen.VII.'s) Mary, 
 type, the ryal of the old type — only that the 
 figure in the fhip is the Queen — as well as angels 
 and angelets. Her groats, half-groats, and pennies 
 were all of the fame type, having a crowned buft 
 of the Queen to right upon the obverfe, and on 
 the reverfe a fhield. After her marriage with 
 Philip, Mary ftruck half-crowns and fhillings. 
 
124 
 
 "Elizabeth. 
 
 The former have the buft of the King and Queen 
 upon the two fides of the piece, while the latter 
 have the two together, facing one another, 
 " amorous, fond, and billing," on the obverfe, and 
 on the reverfe a fhield. 
 Elizabeth. The number of coin denominations reaches its 
 maximum in the reign of Elizabeth, from whofe 
 mints were iffued no lefs than twenty diftinct 
 kinds of coin ; that is to fay, in gold, the fove- 
 reign, ryal, half - fovereign, quarter - fovereign, 
 half-quarter-fovereign, angel, half-angel, quarter- 
 angel ; in filver, the crown, half-crown, milling, 
 Three- fixpence, groat, threepenny, half-groat (or two- 
 Two- 7 ' penny), three - halfpenny - piece, penny, three- 
 farthings, half-penny, farthing. Fortunately the 
 varieties of type were much lefs numerous. It is 
 enough to fay that, of the firft iffue, the fovereign, 
 the ryal, and the angel did not materially differ 
 from the correfponding coins of Mary, and that 
 the fovereign of the fecond iffue, with all its 
 divifions, mowed fimply a crowned buft to left, 
 with hair flowing behind ; on the other fide, the 
 fhield, as before. The filver crown and half- 
 crown had a crowned profile buft to the left hold- 
 ing a fceptre ; and all the other denominations of 
 filver coins had a crowned profile buft without 
 the fceptre. The fixpence and its divifions were 
 diftinguifhed by arofe placed at the back of the head. 
 
 Another feries of coins ftruck by Elizabeth 
 deferves particular mention. By virtue of a com- 
 miffion, dated January nth, 1600, or 1601, a 
 coinage was ordered, " unknown to the Englifn 
 
Coinage for Eaji India Company. 125 
 
 mint, either before or fince her time, for it was by 
 law exportable, and intended for the ufe of the 
 Eaft India Company." This is, in fact, the firft company, 
 appearance of a colonial coinage for England. 
 This coinage confuted of filver pieces, the fize of 
 the Spanifh coins of eight, four, and two ryals. 
 The coins had on one fide the royal arms, on the 
 other a portcullis. The reafons which induced 
 the Queen to take this ftep were found and ftates- 
 manlike. The Eaft India Company had applied 
 for leave to export Spanifh dollars, reprefenting 
 that thefe coins alone were familiarly known, and 
 therefore readily accepted, in the Eaft. The 
 Queen determined to irTue a currency which v/as 
 genuinely Englifh, in order " that her name and 
 effigies might be hereafter refpected by the Afi- 
 atics, and fhe be known as great a Prince as the 
 King of Spain." 
 
 All the facts which we have here fummarifed 
 witnefs to the growth of fifcality throughout the 
 profperous reigns of the Tudor dynafty. With 
 this growth a number of economic queftions came 
 to the front, which long continued to tax the 
 fagacity of ftatesmen. We are too ready to con- 
 gratulate ourfelves on our fuppofed fuperiority 
 over our anceftors in the art of ftatecraft. But 
 there can be no queftion that in one refpect we 
 ftand in a pofttion of immenfe advantage over 
 them— in refpect, that is, to our maftery of the 
 moft important laws of economy and finance. 
 There can be nothing more melancholy than to 
 follow the enactments of fucceftlve reigns con- 
 
126 
 
 'Economic Fallacies. 
 
 cerning the fupply of bullion, and to note the 
 radically falfe conception which the laws fhow 
 touching the nature of wealth. Thus, in the 
 reign of Henry VII., an Act was pafTed forbidding 
 <c any perfon dwelling in the realm to pay to any 
 alien for merchandife, or other thing, any piece of 
 gold coined in that or any other realm" etc. 
 And the fame kind of enactments follow one 
 another with wearifome iteration. A ftill more 
 important example of the ignorance of economic 
 laws was mown in the liberties which the Govern- 
 ment took with the purity and weight of the 
 currency. 
 
 In earlier times, though men were no better 
 inftructed in economic fcience, a certain healthy 
 moral inftinct had long kept the rulers from de- 
 grading the title of the coins they ifTued. Men's 
 inftinct had taught them that fuch an act was 
 fraudulent and unworthy, though in many cafes, 
 efpecially among the petty Princes (and ftill more 
 efpecially the Prince Prelates) of Germany, this 
 inftinct had not been very efficient. Philip the 
 Fair, of France, was one of the firft who perfts- 
 tently debafed his coinage, and Dante's fcornful 
 defcription of Philip- 
 Li fi vedra lo duol che fopra Senna 
 Induce, falfeggiando la moneta, 
 Quei che morra di colpo di cotenna 1 — 
 
 mows in what way his acts were regarded by 
 healthy minds. But at the age at which we are 
 
 1 Paradifo, xix. 1 18. 
 
Debajement of Coinage. 
 
 127 
 
 now arrived, no traditional laws of morality could 
 hold their force unqueftioned. Why, it was faid, 
 feeing that a pound or a milling gains its value 
 through the royal fan&ion, may not the fame 
 fanclion and the fame value be given to a piece of 
 much lower metallic value, and thus the Govern- 
 ment be the gainer, and yet the fubjects not the 
 lofers? From the time of Philip the Fair the 
 degradation of the coinage had proceeded rapidly 
 in France and in moft other European countries, 
 including Scotland ; but the purity of the Englifh 
 money had been hitherto unafiailed. Henry VIII. 
 was the firft of Englifh monarchs who debafed the 
 fterling finenefs of the coin. Some of his millings 
 and groats contained only one-third filver to two- 
 thirds copper. Some of his gold coins confifted 
 of about five-fixths of gold to one-fixth of filver. 
 This evil continued through the two fucceflive 
 reigns, and was finally reformed by Elizabeth. 
 Even Elizabeth, however, did not do her work 
 completely, as, inftead of withdrawing the bafe 
 coins completely from circulation, me pafied them 
 oyer St. George's Channel for the ufe of her fub~ 
 jects in Ireland. It is a curious fact, and one 
 which reflects credit upon the Queen and her ad- 
 vifers, that her reform of the coinage, wife, and 
 indeed necefTary as it was for the welfare of her 
 fubjects, was by no means forced upon the Queen 
 by public opinion, but was on many fides viewed 
 with great diflike. The oppofite ftate of things 
 would, of courfe, confer fome flight and temporary 
 advantages upon the producer, while the chief 
 
128 
 
 Tokens. 
 
 fufferers would be, as Elizabeth's proclamation 
 faid, "All poor people that lived of their hand- 
 labour, as well artificers in cities and towns as 
 labourers in hufbandry, or men that took dayetall 
 wages, either by land, by fea, or by frefh waters, 
 and all mean gentlemen that lived upon pennons 
 and ftipends, foldes and wages." 
 
 Another reafon why the old ftate of things 
 was favoured by fome was that it would tend to 
 bring into circulation a large number of pieces of 
 low denomination. So foon as men had come to 
 an underftanding that a penny and a halfpenny 
 were each not worth more than half their nominal 
 values, a large number of what really were half- 
 pennies and farthings would be found to be in 
 circulation, and the making of fmall purchafes 
 would be greatly facilitated. There is no doubt 
 that thefe facilities were very much dented by the 
 poor, and the want of a lower currency was much 
 felt. Up to this time no regular copper coinage 
 had been introduced. The place of it was firfb 
 fupplied by the iffue of tokens by private perfons. 
 Thefe appear ntft to have been of lead. Erafmus 
 fpeaks of the plumbei Angliae, apparently referring 
 to leaden tokens in the reign of Henry VII. In 
 the reign of Elizabeth there was a very extenfive 
 irTue of private tokens in lead, tin, latten, and 
 leather. At length propofals were made for the 
 irTue of a copper coinage — propofals not then 
 carried into effect, though fome patterns were 
 {truck. 
 
 To bring this fubject to a clofe, we may add 
 
A Copper Coinage. 129 
 
 that in James I/s reign the ufe of copper tokens 
 was fully recognifed, but that the monopoly of 
 ftriking them was conferred upon certain indi- 
 viduals, at firft upon Lord Harrington. The fame 
 cuftom was continued in the reign of Charles L, 
 but in the abolition of privilege, which refulted 
 from the Civil War, the monopoly lapfed, and the 
 refult was an iflue of copper tokens by the prin- 
 cipal tradesmen of almoft all the towns of Eng- 
 land. Thus arofe the Jeventeenth century tokens^ 
 which are much prized by their collectors, and 
 which are often of confiderable value to the local 
 hiftorian. In 1672 an authorized copper coinage 
 of halfpennies and farthings was undertaken, and 
 in confequence the iflue of copper tokens, though 
 it did not immediately ceafe, fell gradually into 
 difiife. It revived again for a Ihort time at the 
 end of the laft century, and the early years of this ; 
 that is to fay, from 1787 to 1795, and again from 
 1811 to 1815, owing to a fcarcity in the copper 
 money of the realm. 
 
 In order to difmifs the hiftory of copper 
 4 coinage, we have advanced far beyond the period 
 with which we had been dealing. Before we 
 again return to it — -that is, to the Englifh coinage 
 immediately fubfequent to the death of Elizabeth 
 — we will take one glance at the Scottilh coinage 
 during the intervening period between the ac- 
 ceffion" of James IV., already fpoken of, and that 
 of James I. 
 
 The coinage of Scotland during this period Scotland, 
 follows the fame general lines as the Englifh 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 Bonnet Pieces. 
 
 currency, but in many refpects it like wife mows 
 clear traces of French influence. Such influence 
 is moft apparent in matters belonging to art. We 
 have faid that the firft coins with portraits are 
 fome groats of James IV. Thefe pieces are notice- 
 able from the fact that the type of buft does not 
 refemble the type on any Englifh contemporary 
 coin. It is a three-quarter face to left. James V. 
 at firft ftruck groats nearly refembling thofe of 
 Henry VII.'s later coinage ; that is to fay, having 
 a crowned buft to right. The moft artiftically 
 beautiful among the Scottifti coins belong to this 
 reign and the early part of the fucceeding one — 
 the reign of Mary. Few coins are more beautiful 
 than the bonnet-piece of James V., a gold coin in 
 weight 88|- grains, midway between the Englifh 
 half-fovereign and the angel, and having on the 
 obverfe the buft of the King wearing a fquare cap 
 or bonnet, or than the ryal of the early years 
 of Mary's reign. The fame influences which 
 were at work bringing about an immenfe exten- 
 fion of the Englifh coinage, are traceable, though 
 in a lefs degree, between the reigns of James IV. 
 and James VI. A large number of gold coins was 
 irTued during thefe reigns. James IV. ftruck St. 
 Andrews, riders, and unicorns, with the divifions 
 of thefe pieces ; James V., ecus and bonnet-pieces ; 
 Mary, ecus or crowns, twenty -Jhilling pieces, lions, 
 ryals, and ducats, with the divifions of moft of 
 thefe coins. The fame Queen ftruck filver ryals, 
 a much larger coin than had been iflued by any of 
 her predecefibrs. Her other filver coins were the 
 
Debafed Coinage. 131 
 
 two-third and third ryal, and the teftoon and half- 
 teftoon. 
 
 We have faid that the Scottifh monarchs went 
 far beyond the Englifh both in degrading the title 
 and in debafing the material of their money. No 
 profeffedly billon coins were ever iflued from the 
 Englifh mint : the Scottifh had long eftablifhed a 
 currency in this bafe metal {landing between filver 
 and copper. 1 Moreover, the Scottifh penny had 
 long fallen in value far below that of the Englifh 
 penny. The Kings of Scotland from time to time 
 made efforts to eftablifh a currency which mould 
 be exchangeable with that of the neighbouring 
 country, and we find orders taken for the making 
 of certain fpecial denominations of money defigned 
 to ferve this end. In 1483, for example, it was 
 ordered that a gold coin fhould be ftruck of the 
 finenefs and weight of the Englifh rofe noble, and 
 groats of the value of the Englifh groat. The 
 firft of thefe defigns was never carried into effect, 
 but in 1489 a groat of the defired ftandard was 
 coined. We find that it was equal to fourteen- 
 pence Scottifh, fo that the Scottifh penny was 
 between a quarter and a third of the Englifh coin. 
 When James VI. came to the Englifh throne, how- 
 ever, the Scottifh penny had funk to be one-twelfth 
 of the Englifh. 
 
 James I. of England and VI. of Scotland had to James 1 
 
 1 Among thefe billon pieces the bawbee (corrupted from bas 
 piece, in Scottifh French) was the longeft remembered, and is 
 the moft worthy of notice. The name is expreffive of the 
 influences under which the bafe money was introduced into 
 Scotland. 
 
132 
 
 James I. 
 
 maintain a double currency. In fact, the coinages 
 of the two realms were not brought into entire uni- 
 formity until the reign of Anne, when the complete 
 union was effected, For Scotland James ftruck in 
 gold the twenty -'pound piece \ the ducat, the lion 
 noble, the thiftle noble, and the rider, before his 
 acceffion to the Englifh throne ; and in filver, the 
 Jword dollar, the thiftle dollar, and the noble, with 
 the divifional parts of moft of thefe coins, as 
 well as pieces of two, four, five, eight, ten, fixteen, 
 twenty, thirty, and forty millings, and feveral 
 billon pieces. After his acceffion his peculiarly 
 Scottifh coins were the fword and fceptre piece, 
 and the thiftle mark. 
 
 The Englifh coins of James were the fovereign, 
 and the double or rofe ryal. Thefe were during 
 his reign generally current for thirty millings. 
 The type of the ryal was that of the fovereigns 
 of Henry VII. The half of this was the fpur 
 ryal, which at firft followed the old type of the 
 rofe nobles or ryals, but afterwards mowed on one 
 fide a lion fupporting the Englifh fhield (quartering 
 Scotland and France), on the reverfe the fpur, or 
 fun as on the rofe nobles. The angel mowed fome 
 variety of type from that of the previous reign. 
 But the moft diftinctive coin of James L, and that 
 which fuperfeded all the others, was the unite or 
 broad, a piece of twenty fhillings, and defigned to 
 pafs current in both countries. The type was at 
 firft a half figure holding fword and orb ; fubfe- 
 quently a buft, either crowned or laureate. This 
 laft type prevailed, and earned for the piece the 
 
Denominations of Coin. 133 
 
 name laurel, while the motto faciam eos in 
 gentem unam was the origin of its older name. 
 The laurel wreath had never appeared upon the 
 head of any previous Englilh monarch upon his 
 coins. As it is commonly worn by the Roman 
 Emperors on their money, it was moft likely 
 adopted by James with the object of proclaiming 
 his imperial rank as King of England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland ; for we find that he alfo, for the firft 
 time, adopted the title Imperator upon fome of his 
 medals. 
 
 It is noticeable that in the reign of James I. we Valu3 » 
 for the firft time have the values of the coins 
 given upon them. His thirty, Hfttcn, ten, and 
 five-milling pieces in gold, and his lhillings, fix- 
 pences, half-groats and pennies, are marked with 
 numerals exprefling their value. The cuftom was 
 continued in the reign of Charles I., and during 
 the Commonwealth. 
 
 The variety of coin denominations reaches, as dumber of 
 
 ; . . Denomina- 
 
 has been faid, its maximum under Elizabeth. From tions - 
 the time of the introduction of the unite this 
 number begins rapidly to decline ; fo that in the 
 reign of Charles I. it almoft reached the fame fim- 
 plicity which it now has. A comparifon might, in 
 truth, be instituted between the refpective coinages 
 of the Tudor and the Stuart dynafties and their 
 refpective literatures. The greater! artiftic excel- 
 lence belongs to the coinage (as to the literature) 
 of the firft era, while that of the fecond era ftands 
 next to it, and fuperior to anything which was 
 fubfequently produced. In the fecond clafs we 
 
134 
 
 Charles I. 
 
 find a marked tendency toward fimplicity and 
 adaptability to the ordinary needs of life. 
 
 Thus the filver coinage of the Stuarts is prac- 
 tically the fame as that which now exifts, with the 
 exception that James I. did not ftrike the fmaller 
 pieces, and that Charles L, in the midft of the 
 Civil War, ftruck fome large coins which were 
 never afterwards reproduced. The crowns and 
 half-crowns of James I. reprefent the King on 
 horfeback, the millings the crowned buft of the 
 King, the ordinary fhield (now without any ap- 
 pearance of a crofs) forming the reverfe in each 
 cafe. 
 
 Charles I.'s ufual gold coinage is the unite, 
 half-unite, and crown. Thefe pieces have the 
 King's buft on the obverfe, and on the reverfe a 
 mield. His filver coins of higher denominations 
 were like thofe of his father, and the lower de- 
 nominations follow the type of the milling. After 
 the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles adopted for 
 the reverfe of his coins, both in gold and filver, 
 what is called the Declaration type, namely the 
 legend relig. prot. leg. ang. liber, parl. (The 
 Proteftant Religion, the Laws of England, and 
 the Liberty of Parliament), written in two lines 
 acrofs the field of the reverfe, Of this type he 
 ftruck fome pieces of three pounds, as well as 
 Jarge filver coins worth twenty and ten fhillings, 
 made out of the plate which was brought by his 
 adherents to the royal mints. 
 
 Charles I. eftablifhed mints at a great number 
 of towns during the Civil War. Altogether we 
 
Oxford Crown. 135 
 
 have coins ftruck during his reign at the follow- 
 ing places : Aberyftwith, Briftol, Chefter, Cork, Mints! s 
 Dublin, Edinburgh, Exeter, London, Oxford, 
 Shrewsbury, Weymouth, Worcefter, York. Befide 
 the regular coinage, there was during the Civil Sie(re 
 War a large iflue of fiege-peces ftruck in towns or Pieces - 
 caftles which were in a ftate of ftege. Thefe are 
 of Beefton Caftle, Carlifle, Colchefter, Newark, 
 Pontefract, and Scarborough. Some of the Ponte- 
 fracl: pieces may count as the earlieft coins ftruck 
 in the name of Charles II. The caftle ftill held 
 out after the death of Charles I. Accordingly 
 the governor placed upon the ftege-pieces the 
 legend carolus secundus, or carol, ii., etc., 
 and on the other fide post mortem patris pro 
 filio. 
 
 In artiftic merit the coinage of Charles I. is 
 
 OXFORD CRQWN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 only inferior to that of the earlier Tudor fove- 
 reigns. This King, whofe tafte in art is well 
 known, employed upon his money feveral en- 
 gravers of diftinguifhed merit. Among thefe 
 
i 3 6 
 
 Ccmmonwealth. 
 
 were Thomas Rawlins and Nicholas Briot. The 
 latter had firft been engaged at the French mint, 
 and while there had invented feveral improved 
 methods of ftriking coins ; but finding no appre- 
 ciation of his talents, he came to England, and 
 was at once employed by Charles. Rawlins was 
 for a long time engraver at the Tower mint, and 
 on the outbreak of the Civil War he removed 
 with the mint to Oxford. While there he exe- 
 cuted the famous Oxford Crown. The coin, 
 though it does not differ materially from the 
 crowns of Charles I. of the Declaration type, 
 mows, behind the figure of the King on horfe- 
 back, a view of the city of Oxford, in which the 
 fortifications and fome of the chief buildings, 
 notably Magdalen tower, are very clearly pour- 
 trayed. 
 
 The Commonwealth employed as their en- 
 graver the famous medallift, Thomas Simon, 
 whofe medallic portraits, made in conjunction 
 with his brother Abraham, are among the fineft 
 art products of that age. The extreme fimplicity 
 of the types upon the coins did not, however, 
 give Simon room for any great difplay of artiftic 
 talent. The coin bore upon one fide a fhield 
 charged with St. George's crofs (England), on the 
 other fide two fhields, one with St. George's crofs, 
 and the other with the harp of Ireland. Prefum- 
 ably the figure of the faint would have been con- 
 fidered more idolatrous than his emblem prefented 
 in the balded form. It is remarkable, too, that 
 during the Commonwealth was adopted for the 
 
Simon's Portraits. 
 
 l 37 
 
 fir ft, and alfo unhappily for the laft time, the 
 fenfible device of having the legends both on ob- 
 verfe and reverfe in Englim inftead of Latin. On 
 the obverfe was fimply the commonwealth of 
 England, on the reverfe the motto god with us. 
 In 1656, when Cromwell had been raifed to the 
 rank of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, he 
 entrufted to Thomas Simon the tafk of preparing 
 dies for a new coinage, which had on one fide 
 the profile buft of the Protector, on the other the 
 fhield of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and as 
 an efcutcheon of pretence that of Cromwell him- 
 felf. The motto was appropriate and expreflive, 
 pax quaeritur bello ; and the whole piece was 
 one of the fineft of Thomas Simon's works. 
 
 All this time the coinage had been wonderfully 
 Amplifying its character. We have feen that 
 James VI. definitely fettled the filver currency 
 upon the bafis (fo far as the number of pieces is 
 concerned) which it has fince refted upon. In the 
 time of the Commonwealth there were, in reality, 
 only two regularly current gold coins — the broad 
 and half-broad. During the reign of Charles II. 
 further changes were made, which had the effect 
 of definitely fettling the denominations of coins 
 down to the middle of the reign of George III. 
 So that all that is really worth record in the 
 hiftory of Englifh money comes to an end in the 
 courfe of the reign of Charles II. 
 
 After his reftoration Charles II. continued for 
 fome little time to employ the engraver of the 
 Commonwealth, Thomas Simon, and this artift 
 
1 3 8 
 
 Guineas. 
 
 executed the fovereigns and {Killings of the firft 
 years of the reign, which are the moft beautiful of 
 Charles II.'s coins, in truth the laft really beau- 
 tiful coins which were iflued from Englim mints. 
 Simon was fuperfeded by the engraver Blondeau, 
 who had produced fome patterns for Common- 
 wealth coins, and Blondeau was fucceeded by the 
 Roettiers. Simon, in order to obtain his recall, 
 executed his famous petition crown, in which the 
 King is befought to compare the likenefs upon 
 that piece with any that was ifTued by the Dutch 
 engraver to the Royal Mint. And in truth there 
 can be no queftion that this pattern is in delicacy 
 of treatment fuperior to any other Englifh 
 coin. 
 
 In the fame year the twenty-milling pieces 
 began to be called guineas, from the fact that 
 moft of them were made from gold brought from 
 Guinea by the African Company. The pieces 
 actually made of this gold were ftamped with an 
 elephant below the buft, but the name which 
 properly belonged to them was tranfferred to all, 
 and by accident the value of the piece increafed 
 from twenty to twenty-one millings. The earlieft 
 coinage of Charles had confifted of twenty and 
 ten-milling pieces and crowns: but in 1662 this 
 iflue was exchanged for a coinage of pieces made 
 by the mill, which were five guineas, two guineas, 
 guineas, and half-guineas. This currency became 
 henceforth ftereotyped, fo that from the reign of 
 Charles II. to that of George II. inclufive, the 
 Englilh coinage confifted of five guineas, two 
 
Irifh Coins of James II. 
 
 guineas, guineas, half-guineas, in gold ; of crowns, 
 half-crowns, millings, fixpences, groats, three- 
 pennies, two-pennies, and pennies, in filver. The 
 last four denominations were only ftruck for ifTue 
 as Maundy money. The copper coinage during 
 thefe reigns was much lefs fixed. It generally 
 conlifted of halfpennies or farthings. Five-guinea 
 and two-guinea pieces were not coined after the 
 reign of George II., and in the courfe of the reign 
 of George III. a twenty-milling piece was once more 
 introduced, bearing the older name of fovereign. 
 
 The only coins ftruck fubfequent to the reign 
 of Charles II. which are of intereft to the hiftorian 
 are thofe iflued in Ireland, by the authority of 
 James II., after his abdication of the Englifh 
 crown. 
 
 The King began firft, in order to meet his 
 prefling neceflities, to ftrike bronze (or gun-metal) 
 fixpences. Subfequently he iflued millings, half- 
 crowns, and crowns in the fame metal. The 
 value of thefe pieces was of courfe a purely ficti- 
 tious one, the real worth of a crown being no 
 more than a penny, and the lofs to the nation 
 when the money was recalled by William III., 
 and paid for at its actual value, was very great, 
 It was found that the total iflue amounted nomi- 
 nally to £22,489, of which the actual value was 
 £642. 
 
 The filver coins of Anne, made from the 
 treafure feized in the Vigo Bay expedition, and 
 in confequence marked with the word vigo ; the 
 coinage of George I., marked with the letters 
 
140 - Queen Anne's Farthings. 
 
 ssc, becaufe ftruck from rllver furnifhed by the 
 South Sea Company ; and that of George II., with 
 the word lima, becaufe made from treafure which 
 had come from thence, are worthy of a paffing 
 notice. 
 
 The copper coinage of Queen Anne confifted 
 of a limited number of farthings ftruck in the 
 year 17 14. Several patterns for farthings were 
 likewife made in this and the preceding year. 
 They would fcarcely claim mention here, but that 
 through fome unexplained caufe a ridiculous notion 
 has gained currency that thefe pieces are of im- 
 menfe value. Their real value is from 1 os. to £ 1 , 
 if in fine condition. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EARLY ORIENTAL COINS. 
 
 E art of coinage was, as has been 
 already pointed out, of Oriental in- 
 vention. The firft coins feem to have 
 been iflued at about the fame time, 
 the feventh century B.C., by the Lydiansin the weft 
 of Afia, and by the Chinefe in the extreme eaft. 
 When the Perfians under Cyrus conquered Lydia Persia, 
 they adopted the ufeful art of coinage ; but chofe 
 a fimpler fyftem than the Lydian. If we exclude 
 money iflued by Greek cities under Perfian rule and 
 by Perfian fatraps on the occafion of fome military 
 expedition, there were in ufe in the length and 
 breadth of the Perfian Empire but two clafles of 
 coins — the gold darks and the filver Jtgli, or Darics and 
 fhekels. The daric bore on one fide as type a figure Slsh ' 
 of the King fhooting with the bow ; on the other 
 fide a mere punch-mark or incufe: it weighed 
 rather more than a fovereign, and was of almoft 
 pure gold. The fhekel was of nearly the fame 
 fize, and ftamped with the fame type ; but was 
 
142 Darks and Shekels. 
 
 only two-thirds as heavy ; in fact, almoft exactly 
 of the weight of a {hilling. Twenty fhekels 
 were equivalent to a daric. It is interefting to 
 find the equivalents of pounds and fhillings cir- 
 culating throughout Weftern Afia at a period fo 
 early. 
 
 Until the Perfian Empire fell, darics and figli 
 were probably the only officially recognifed cur- 
 rency between the Halys in Afia Minor and the 
 borders of China. Other coins were, however, 
 ftruck in fome places. The Greek cities of the 
 coaft were not allowed to iflue gold coin ; but the 
 Perfian rulers did not interfere with their autono- 
 mous ifliies of filver and copper money, which 
 bore types appropriate to the finking cities. And 
 fome of the fatraps of the Perfian King were 
 allowed, more efpecially on the occafion of mili- 
 tary expeditions, to iflue filver coins, the types of 
 which curioufly combine Perfian and Greek my- 
 thology, one of them, for inftance, prefenting on 
 one fide the figure of Hormuzd, on the other that 
 of Zeus. And there were certain ftates which 
 enjoyed, among other privileges of partial auto- 
 nomy, the right of ftriking coins. Such was the 
 Lycian league, confirming of moft of the cities of 
 Lycia, all of which imprefled on one fide of their 
 money a circular three-membered fymbol, which 
 moft writers confider to be of folar meaning. And 
 fuch were fome of the kingdoms of Cyprus 
 which were faved by the intervening fea from 
 complete fubferviency to the Perfian Empire, and 
 the coins of which bear Greek legends written in 
 
Phoenicia. 
 
 the curious Cyprian character, of cuneiform ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 It is a curious fact that coinage in Phoenicia, Phoenicia, 
 one of the moft commercial of ancient countries, 
 mould have been late in origin, and apparently 
 not very plentiful. There are, in fact, no coins 
 of earlier period than the third century which we 
 can with certainty attribute to the great cities of 
 Tyre and Sidon. Some modern writers, however, 
 confider that many of the coins generally clafTed 
 under Perfia — notably thofe bearing the types of 
 a chariot, a galley, and an owl refpectively — were 
 iflued by thofe cities in the fifth and fourth cen- 
 turies B.C. But it is certain, in any cafe, that the 
 Phoenicians were far behind the Greeks in the art 
 of moneying. 
 
 With the invafion of Perfia by Alexander the Successors 
 
 of Aiex- 
 Great came a great change ; and all the ancient ander. 
 
 landmarks of Afiatic government and order were 
 
 fwept away. During the life of Alexander the 
 
 Great the coins bearing his name and his types 
 
 circulated throughout Afia ; and after his death 
 
 the fame range of currency was attained by the 
 
 money of the early Seleucid Kings of Syria — 
 
 Seleucus I., Antiochus I., and Antiochus II., who 
 
 virtually fucceeded to the dominions of the Perfian 
 
 Kings, and tried in many refpects to carry on 
 
 their policy. Of thefe monarchs we poflefs a 
 
 fplendid feries of coins, beginning with Seleucus, 
 
 the general of Alexander, and going down to 
 
 Tigranes. Their features are thoroughly familiar 
 
 to us, and by the help of their portraits we can 
 
144. Beginning of Oriental Coinage. 
 
 judge more fatisfadtorily of their appearance in 
 hiftory as recorded by Juftin and Appian. At 
 firft their rule extended from the Aegean Sea to 
 the great defert of Gobi; and their coins were 
 iflued by numberlefs mints throughout Alia, and 
 copied by the barbarous tribes of the Chinefe and 
 Indian frontiers. 
 
 In the reign of Antiochus II., however, the 
 Syro-Greek kingdom began to fall to pieces ; and 
 with its decay Oriental coinage, as oppofed to 
 Greek, may properly be faid to commence. About 
 of^rieSli B - c - 2 5° tne Greek fatraps of the wealthy pro- 
 coinage. v inces of Baclria and India became independent ; 
 and the Parthian Arfaces raifed the ftandard of a 
 fuccefTful revolt on the fouthern mores of the 
 Cafpian. In the next century fmaller kingdoms 
 arofe in Arabia, Armenia, and Mefopotamia ; and 
 the Jewifh people wrefted their independence from 
 the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes. In the far 
 Eaft rude tribes of Sacae and Huns from the 
 borders of China fwept down on the eaftern pro- 
 vinces of the Perfian Empire, and founded dy- 
 nafties which feem, however, to have foon paffed 
 away. 
 
 I mall not fpeak of Alia Minor on the weft, 
 for that diftricl: was dominated by Greek and 
 Roman influences ; nor of China on the eaft ; 
 each of thefe regions is treated of elfewhere in 
 this volume. The vaft fpace between thefe two 
 extremes may be divided into three regions: 
 (i) Armenia, Syria, and the country to the weft 
 of the Tigris and the Cafpian ; (2) Central Afia ; 
 
Beginning of Oriental Coinage. 145 
 
 (3) India and Afghaniftan. We will fpeak in 
 turn of the coins of the two former regions, 
 during the whole period which elapfed between 
 the break-up of the Syro-Greek kingdom and the 
 conquering fpread of Iflam— that is to fay, from 
 the third century before, until the eighth century 
 after, the Chriftian era. India is referved for a 
 feparate chapter. 
 
 The earlieft coins which we pofTefs which belong 
 diftinctively to Central Alia are thofe recently Central 
 difcovered in Bokhara, bearing the name of Andra- 
 goras, who muft have been a revolted Greek fatrap 
 of Parthia or Media. 
 
 In the courfe of the fecond century the Par- Parthian*, 
 thians, under their great King Mithradates, occu- 
 pied all Mid-Afia, or rather gained a fort of 
 lordfhip over it, and defended it for centuries 
 from the attacks of the Greeks and Romans on 
 the one fide, and of the Huns on the other. The 
 Parthian fllver coins confift of two diftincl: clafTes — 
 regal and civic. The regal coins are of filver, of 
 the weight of an Attic drachm, 60-65 g rams ) and 
 bear during the whole of Parthian hiftory uniform 
 types — the head of the ruling King on one fide, 
 and on the other the firft King, Arfaces, feated, 
 holding a bow. The civic coins were ifTued by 
 the semi-Greek cities of Perfia and Mefopotamia. 
 They are four times as heavy, and prefent a greater 
 variety of type. Subfidiary copper pieces accom- 
 pany each feries. 
 
 As the Parthians were conftantly at war with 
 the Syro-Greek kingdom fo long as it lafled, it 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 Parthians. 
 
 may at firft furprife us to find that the legends 
 of the Parthian coins, except in the cafe of a few 
 of the lateft, are in Greek. The date of them 
 is indicated by the increafing complexity of thefe 
 legends as time goes on. All the fucceflbrs of 
 the firft Arfaces keep his name as their dynaftic 
 title, juft as all the Kings of Egypt are ftyled 
 Ptolemy, and the Roman Emperors Auguftus; 
 but they add to this dynaftic name a conftantly 
 increafing number of epithets. In fact, the number 
 of thefe epithets which are to be found on a coin 
 is ufually the readieft means of afligning its date. 
 The earlieft pieces bear only the legend 'Apeaicov 
 or j3a<7iAfwc 'Apaaicov ; but already the fecond King 
 Tiridates aflumes the title of Great King, /BamXevg 
 fizyaq ; his fucceflbrs add a variety of epithets, 
 
 Qtoirariop, STriQavriQ, EVBpyerrjg, and the like, until, 
 
 under Or odes the Great, we reach the formula 
 jSacFiAetoc jUEyaXov Apaaicov smpysTov Siica'iov £tt Kpavovg 
 QiXeWwoq, which remains ufual until the end of 
 the dynafty. The laft-mentioned title, Philhellen, 
 is interefting, and records the fad that, at all 
 events after the fall of the Syro-Greek kingdom, 
 the Parthian Kings were anxious to fecure to them- 
 felves the goodwill of the femi-Greek population 
 which dwelt in many of the large towns under 
 their rule. 
 
 The title of " Great King " was not in the 
 ftyle of the Parthian monarchs a mere parade or 
 an unmeaning phrafe. It fignified that he was 
 mafter of a number of under-kings or fatraps, 
 who ruled under his authority the various diftricls 
 
Parthians. 
 
 H7 
 
 of Central Afia, and in comparifon with whom he 
 might well be called great. Some of the rulers 
 adopt the alternative title, " King of Kings/' 
 which has much the fame meaning. The coins 
 fupply us with full and truftworthy information 
 as to the drefs and armour of thofe Parthian horfe- 
 men who more than once fpread the terror of their 
 name as far as Rome. 
 
 The great cities of Mefopotamia, fuch as 
 Charax and Seleucia on the Tigris, in all 
 probability ifTued the large coins already men- 
 tioned. The type of thefe is more varied. Before 
 
 the time of Orodes it is like that of the regal 
 money ; but after that time it ufually reprefents 
 the Parthian King feated, receiving a wreath either 
 from the goddefs Nike (Victory), or from Pallas, 
 or more often from a City perfonified in a female 
 deity who holds a cornucopiae. The head of a 
 perfonified City appears on the copper pieces 
 which go with the civic coins. Both filver and 
 copper bear a date, the year in which the coin was 
 ftruck according to the Seleucid era, which begins 
 in B.C. 312; fometimes even the month of that 
 year. We thus gain moft valuable means of 
 
148 
 
 Parthians. 
 
 checking the dates of the events of Parthian 
 hiftory, at all events of the acceffion and depo- 
 fition of the Kings. Once in the feries we have 
 a portrait of a woman, Mufa, an Italian girl pre- 
 fented by Auguftus to Phraates IV., who made 
 fo good a ufe of her talents that lhe perfuaded 
 the King to declare her fon Phraataces his heir, 
 and reigned in conjunction with that fon until he 
 loft his life in a revolt. She wears a jewelled 
 head-drefs, and is clad in Oriental fplendour. 
 
 The diftrict of Perfia proper feems to have 
 enjoyed partial independence in Parthian times; 
 and we may feel juftified in afligning to this dif- 
 tricl: a long feries of fmall filver coins which are 
 ufually called fub-Parthian ; bearing on one iide 
 the head of a king, on the other ufually a fire- 
 altar, and infcriptions in Pehlvi characters, which 
 have as yet been very imperfectly read. 
 
 About a.d. 220 the princes of Perfia revolted 
 againft their Parthian mafters, and fucceeded in 
 wrefting from them the fupremacy of Afia. A 
 great Perfian dynafty then arofe, beginning with 
 Artaxerxes or Ardelhir the SafTanian, and ruled 
 the Eaft until the rife of Mohammadanifm. The 
 coins of the SafTanian Kings prefent a great con- 
 tract to thofe of the Parthians. Their execution 
 is far neater and more mafterly, and they mow 
 in all refpects a reaction of the more manly tribes 
 of Southern Afia alike againft the debafed Hel- 
 lenifm which had invaded the cities of Weftern 
 Perfia, and againft the barbarous Parthian hordes, 
 who feem to have pafted out of hiftory with their 
 
Saffanians. 
 
 149 
 
 overthrow, leaving fcarcely a trace on the art, the 
 religion, or the cuftoms of Afia. 
 
 The great bulk of the SafTanian iffues is in 
 filver, and confifts of flat, well-wrought pieces, of 
 the weight of an Attic drachm, 67 grains. There 
 are alfo gold coins weighing 110-115 grains, 
 rather heavier than the contemporary folidi of 
 Rome, and a few copper pieces. Gold and filver 
 coins are of fimilar legends and devices, and 
 throughout the whole of Perfian rule preferve 
 an almoft unchanged character. On the obverfe 
 is univerfally the head of the King. The various 
 monarchs have different ftyles of crown and 
 coiffure, fometimes of a very extravagant cha- 
 racter, the hair being rolled into huge balls and 
 
 ARTAXERXES I. 
 
 tufts. On his earlier! coins, Artaxerxes* head is 
 clofely copied from that of Mithradates L, the 
 greater! of the Parthian monarchs, whom the 
 Perfian King feems thus to claim as prototype 
 and model. Around the King's head on all the 
 Perfian coins is his name and his titles in Pehlvi 
 letters. Artaxerxes is termed the worfhipper of 
 Ormazd, the divine King of Kings of Iran. Later 
 monarchs vary the formula ; on the money of 
 fome of the later!, the mint where the coin was 
 
Armenia. 
 
 iffued and the year of the reign are written in 
 Pehlvi characters in the field of the reverfe. The 
 reverfe type of all SafTanian coins is the fame, the 
 fire-altar, the fymbol of the worfhip of Ormazd, 
 ufually guarded by foldiers, or approached by the 
 King in humble adoration. 
 
 Between Armenia on the north and Arabia on 
 the fouth, coins were ifiued during Parthian times 
 by a number of fmall ftates which maintained a 
 precarious autonomy againft the Romans on the 
 one hand, and the Parthians on the other. Moft 
 of them difappear before the revived force of the 
 empire of the SafTanians. Armenia was, until the 
 time of the Parthian Mithradates (b.c. 160), the 
 feat of feveral fmall dynafties. We hear of 
 Arfames, a king of Arfamofata, who received 
 the Syrian prince Antiochus Hierax when he fled 
 from his brother Seleucus ; and of one Xerxes, 
 who ruled in the fame diftricl, and refitted the 
 arms of Antiochus IV. Both of thefe rulers 
 have left us coins of Greek fafhion, but bearing 
 on the obverfe a head of the King in peaked 
 Armenian tiara. But Mithradates, if we may 
 truft the hiftory of Mofes of Khoren, overran 
 Armenia, and fet on the throne his brother Vag- 
 harfhag or Valarfaces, who was the firft. of a line 
 of Arfacid Kings of Armenia, under whom the 
 country reached a higher pitch of profperity than 
 ever before or fince. We pofTefs coins of feveral 
 of thefe Kings — of Tigranes, who became King of 
 Syria and fon-in-law of Mithradates of Pontus, 
 and whofe numerous filver coins flruck at Antioch 
 
Nabathea. 
 
 bear as type the Genius or Fortune of that city 
 feated on a rock ; of Artaxias, who was crowned 
 by Germanicus ; and of Artavafdes, who was for 
 a brief period maintained by the arms of Auguftus. 
 We alfo have a long feries of coins in copper 
 iffued by the Kings of Ofroene or EdefTa, whofe 
 dynaftic names were Abgarus and Mannus, and 
 who flourifhed during the firft three centuries of 
 the Chriftian era, living in independence by no 
 means complete, for the one fide of their coin 
 is generally occupied by the effigy of a Roman 
 emperor. 
 
 The Arab tribes to the eaft of Paleftine at Nabathea. 
 fome periods enjoyed independence under kings 
 of their own. We have a feries of coins of the 
 firft century b.c. ftruck by the Nabathean Kings 
 Malchus and Aretas, partly at Antioch, partly 
 at Petra. The infcriptions and types of thefe 
 coins are in earlier times Greek, and one of the 
 Kings who bore the name Aretas calls himfelf 
 Philhellen; but later the legends are written in 
 local alphabet and dialect, and the portraits afiume 
 more of a native afpecl. The Ihort-lived Palmy- Palmyra, 
 rene Empire, founded by Odenathus and Zenobia, 
 and put down by Aurelian, has alfo left numis- 
 matic traces of its exiftence in money quite 
 identical in fabric, weight, and types, with the 
 contemporary coins iflued by Roman emperors 
 at Alexandria. Some of the effigies of Zenobia 
 on thefe coins may, however, be confidered fairly 
 good portraits for the time. 
 
 Further fouth, in Arabia, we find at leaft two Arabia. 
 
l 5 2 
 
 Arabia. 
 
 tribes who iflued abundance of coin before the 
 birth of Mohammad. The Himyarites circulated 
 great quantities of imitations of the Athenian 
 coins of various periods, and at a later age of 
 the money of Auguftus. Types of their own 
 they feem not to have ufed, but they imprefsed on 
 their imitations of civilized coins an infcription 
 which identifies them as Himyarite. The people 
 of Characene, a fmall diftrict on the Perftan Gulf, 
 began in the fecond century b.c. a feries of tetra- 
 drachms of Greek ftyle, the general appearance 
 and types of which are copied from the coins of 
 contemporary Greek Kings of Syria and Bactria. 
 The names of a feries of thefe monarchs, Tiraeus, 
 Attambelus, and fo forth, together with their 
 order of fuccefTion, are preferved to us by 
 coins. 
 
 One of the moft curious facts noticeable in the 
 coins of Arabia is the frequency with which the heads 
 of queens occupy the obverfes, in conjunction with 
 thofe of their hufbands and fons. This peculiarity 
 illuftrates the hiftorical fact, known from other 
 fources, that before the days of Mohammad 
 women not unfrequently ruled among the Arabian 
 tribes, either alone or conjointly with fome male 
 relative. The abundance of the known money 
 of this country, and the purity of the metal of 
 which it is compofed, mow that while the Ptolemies 
 ruled in Egypt, a brifk trade went on between 
 Arabia and the countries to the eaft and weft of 
 it. But for art the Arabs feem never to have had 
 a tafte. They merely copied the coins which 
 
*53 
 
 pafTed current moft freely in their neighbour- 
 hood. 
 
 Moft people will take a greater intereft in the Judaea, 
 coins of Judaea, although none of thefe are very 
 ancient, nor are they artiftically pleafing. It would 
 feem that, until the middle of the fecond century 
 b.c, the Jews either weighed out gold and filver 
 for the price of goods, or elfe ufed the money 
 ufually current in Syria, that of Perfia, Phoenicia, 
 Athens, and the Seleucidae. Simon the Maccabee 
 
 was the firft to iflue the Jewifli fhekel as a coin, 
 and we learn from the Book of Maccabees that 
 the privilege of ftriking was expreflly granted 
 him by King Antiochus VII. of Syria. We pof- 
 fefs fhekels of years 1-5 of the deliverance of 
 Zion ; the types are a chalice and a triple flower. 
 
 The kings who fucceeded Simon, down to 
 Antigonus, confined themfelves to the iflue of 
 copper money, with Hebrew legends and with types 
 
154 Judaea. 
 
 calculated not to mock the fufceptible feelings 
 of their people, to whom the reprefentation of 
 a living thing was abominable — fuch types as a 
 lily, a palm, a ftar, or an anchor. When the 
 Herodian family came in, feveral violations of 
 this rule appear. For example, we find objects 
 of heathen cultus, fuch as a tripod and a caduceus; 
 and money was even ftruck in Judaea bearing the 
 effigies of men, fometimes of the reigning Roman 
 Emperor, sometimes even of the Jewilh King. 
 Both the Agrippas are guilty of this violation of 
 principle. The Roman Procurators of Judaea 
 alfo iflued coin with Greek legends, and carefully 
 dated, fo that we can diftinguifh the money iflued 
 during the eventful years of the rife of Chriftianity 
 at Jerufalem. 
 
 Both of the defperate but unfuccefsful revolts 
 
 SIMON BAR COCHAB. 
 
 of the Jews againft their Roman matters — that in 
 the reign of Vefpafian under Simon and Eleazar, 
 and that in the reign of Hadrian under Bar 
 Cochab — have left a deep impreffion on the Jewifh 
 coin. In both periods the iflue of fhekels was 
 refumed, and Roman denarii were freely reftruck 
 by the revolted leaders with their own types and 
 
yudaea. 155 
 
 names. With thefe coins the Jewifh money comes 
 to an end. Jerusalem became a Roman colony 
 under the name of Aelia Capitolina, and all 
 money ifTued in that region bears witnefs in 
 its types only to the defeat and flavery of the 
 Hebrews. 
 
ti 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MOHAMMADAN COINS. 
 
 N the ftudy of Greek coins we are un- 
 ceafingly fafcinated by their artiftic 
 excellence and the lights they throw 
 on the mythology of the moft inte- 
 refting people of antiquity. Roman and mediaeval 
 coins have their importance in mowing us the 
 fource of our monetary fyftem, and polfefs an 
 added charm in the many hiftorical afibciations 
 they awake, though they feldom increafe our 
 actual knowledge of hiftory. Englilh coins we 
 ftudy becaufe we are Englilhmen, and like to 
 know what our anceftors bartered their fouls for. 
 None of thefe attractions belongs to Mohammadan 
 coins. Art we mould fcarcely look for, fince we 
 all know that the Blefled Prophet declared that 
 " every painter is in hell-fire," and ftraitly forbade 
 the making of " ftatues " (by which he probably 
 meant idols) and images of living things, on pain 
 of the artift's being compelled to put a foul into 
 his creation on the Day of Judgment. Hence 
 
Calligraphy. 
 
 J 57 
 
 true believers have always been very cautious of 
 reprefenting human or even animal forms as an 
 aid to decoration, and we mail find that it is only 
 when barbarous Tartars or heretical Perfians enter 
 the field that figures of living things appear in 
 the art of Mohammadan countries, and then very 
 rarely upon their coins. The Eaftern draughts- 
 man, being debarred from the moft fruitful of 
 artiftic materials, took refuge in the elaboration of 
 thofe beautiful arabefque defigns and geometrical 
 patterns which are characteriftic of fo-called Ara- 
 bian work, and even turned the natural grace of 
 the Arabic writing to account as an element in 
 decoration. Thus, on coins, as in mofques, we 
 find the Kufic character ufed as a thing of beauty, 
 and difpofed to the beft advantage, where a Euro- 
 pean artift would have relegated the letters to an Cam- 
 obfcure corner, and devoted all his fpace to the gmph 
 head or other figure that occupied the face of the 
 coin. It was a matter of necefiity rather than of 
 choice, but it had a good effect in developing the 
 graceful and elfewhere little cultivated art of calli- 
 graphy. 
 
 Nor muft we expect any very interefting metro- 
 logical data to be derived from Mohammadan 
 coins. Their metrology, fo far as it is known, 
 is borrowed — like moft other fo-called Arabian 
 things, whether philofophical, artiftic, literary, or 
 even religious — from the more cultivated nations 
 the Muflims conquered, and the fcience ftill refts in 
 deep obfcurity, chiefly becaufe no one, except my 
 
158 Hijiorical AJfociations . 
 
 indefatigable friend M. Sauvaire, 1 has had the 
 patience to work fo dreary a vein. Hiftorical 
 aflbciations it were vain to call up at the fight of 
 a Muflim coin, fince the great majority of even 
 well-educated and reading folk are profoundly 
 ignorant of everything oriental, except what is 
 Biblical or Japanefe. There are, perhaps, three 
 or four Mohammadan celebrities known by name 
 to a fair proportion of ordinary readers. " The 
 good Haroun Al-Rafchid " owes his popularity 
 to the Arabian Nights and Lord Tennyson, and 
 coins bearing his name, together with that of the 
 ill-fated Vizir Jaafar, of which there are many 
 examples in the Britim Mufeum and every other 
 large collection, might touch a chord of remem- 
 Associa* 1 Drance \ while a piece iflued by the famous Saladin, 
 tions. though in itfelf uninterefting, carries upon its 
 furface a long train of Crufading aflbciations for 
 the historical ftudent. The currency of the great 
 fighting Sultans of Turkey, the Amuraths and 
 Mahomets, the Selims and Solimans — to adopt 
 the barbarous kakography of Weftern writers — 
 has its memories, and fo have the large gold 
 pieces, with their uncompromiflng declaration of 
 faith, iflued by " Bobadil" and the other heroes 
 of the dying kingdom of the Moors in Spain. 
 To a very few the folitary piece of gold ftruck 
 Coin of a by the Mamluk Queen, Shejer ed-Durr (which, 
 Qu™n 6k being interpreted, means Tree of Pearls), may 
 
 1 Materiaux pour fervir a FHiftoire de la Numifmatique et de la 
 Metrologie Musalmanes ; and feveral profound papers in the 
 Journal of the Royal Afiatic Society, 
 
Coin of a Mamluk <$ueen. 159 
 
 recall the fact that it was this apparently fafci- 
 nating but not quite irreproachable lady who 
 firft made the pilgrimage to Mekka in the palan- 
 quin or mahmal, which has ever fince been a 
 notable feature of the departure of the pilgrims 
 from Cairo, and which, being inextricably con- 
 fufed with the Holy Carpet, feverely exercifed the 
 Britifh confcience during the triumphal ceremonies 
 that followed hard upon the battle of Tell-el- 
 Kebir. 
 
 The coin in queftion is a good example of the Geneaiogi- 
 
 cal data. 
 
 rich genealogical material to be extracted from an 
 Arabic half-guinea. On one fide, in the margin, 
 is the profeffion of faith, teftifying that " there is 
 no God but God, and that Mohammad is His 
 Prophet," — a formula which appears on the 
 majority of Mohammadan coins, often accom- 
 panied by other expreffions of religious orthodoxy, 
 and by fentences from the Koran. This very 
 marginal infcription goes on to tell, in the words 
 of the Koran, how God " fent Mohammad with 
 the guidance and religion of truth, fo that he 
 might make it triumph over all other creeds." 
 Encircled by thefe pious words, the field mows a 
 long firing of titles, all belonging to Queen Shejer 
 ed-Durr, from which a fort of outline of her life 
 may be constructed. . In the firft place me is called 
 El-Mufta'fimiyeh, which means that fhe was once 
 a flave-girl of the 'Abbafy Khalif El-Mufta'fim. 
 Her next title is Es-Salihiyeh, fhowing that fhe 
 was transferred from the Khalif 's harim to that of 
 Es-Salih, the grand-nephew of Saladin, who had 
 
160 Crufade of St. Louis. 
 
 fucceeded to the kingfhip of Egypt after the 
 deaths of his grand-uncle, grandfather (the fcarcely 
 lefs famous "Saphadin" El-Adil), and father. 
 Further, this coin gives her the title of " Queen 
 of the Muflims," and " Mother of El-Manfur 
 Khalil," a fon who, we know from the hiftorians, 
 died in infancy. On the other fide are the name 
 and titles of the reigning 'Abbafy Khalif El- 
 Mufta'fim, the Queen's former hufband, round 
 which is arranged a marginal infcription which 
 records how, " in the name of God, the com- 
 panionate, the merciful," the coin was ftruck at 
 Cairo in the year of the Hijreh 648, i.e., a.d. 
 1250. 
 
 This year was a very critical one for the Mo- 
 hammadan fupremacy in Egypt. In 1249 Es- 
 Salih had died, and the French army of the laft 
 Crufade, under St. Louis, was in occupation of 
 Damietta, and already advancing upon the capital. 
 In this pofition of affairs, the Slave-queen under- 
 took the government. She concealed the death 
 of her hufband, and fubdued the panic which the 
 Frank invalion was exciting. Then the tide of 
 fortune changed ; the Bahry Mamluks, under the 
 command of Beybars of the lion-creft, won a com- 
 plete victory over the French at Manfurah ; St. 
 Louis and his army were made prifoners of war ; 
 and, on the death of the heir to the throne, Shejer 
 ed-Durr was proclaimed Queen of Egypt. For 
 two months and a half me reigned alone, and then, 
 on the remonftrance of the Khalif, firft of her 
 three hufbands, at the impropriety of a woman 
 
Crufade of St. Louis. 1 6 1 
 
 exercifing royal power, she aflbciated the Emir 
 Eybek and another nominal colleague with her in 
 the fovereignty. But from the firft moment me 
 took the reins of government into her hands till 
 the day of her death, me was fovereign miftrefs of 
 Egypt, let who would enjoy the name of Sultan, 
 She made Eybek Sultan, and married him ; but 
 me retained the abfolute authority fhe had held 
 before, and when her colleague mowed fymptoms 
 of independence, and feemed inclined to enlarge 
 the circle of his affections, me had him murdered 
 in his bath, under her own eyes. Three days 
 afterwards " Tree of Pearls" herfelf was beaten to 
 death with wooden bath-clogs by the flaves of a 
 divorced wife of the murdered man. 
 
 The unique coin defcribed above muft have 
 been iffued during thefe two {lining months of 
 female autocracy, of which it is the only numif- 
 matic evidence we poffefs, in corroboration of the 
 ftatements of the hiftorians, which it confirms in 
 the moft minute particulars, in every detail of the 
 long fixing of titles attached to the Queen's name ; 
 and it derives a peculiar intereft from having been 
 ftruck at the very moment when St. Louis received 
 his final difcomfiture at the hands of the infidels, 
 and by the very Queen whofe treafury was en- 
 riched by a million gold befants, which formed 
 the ranfom of the King of France. 
 
 In the wealth of information afforded by this wealth of 
 
 t Hi stor i ca * 
 
 coin we fee the real value of Mohammadan numif- informa- 
 matics. The coins of the Muflim Eaft do not fo 
 much recall hiflory as make it. The ftudent is 
 
 M 
 
1 62 Wealth of Information. 
 
 conftantly meeting with a perfectly unknown King 
 or even dynafty, which fills up a gap in the annals 
 of the Eaft. A Mohammadan coin generally 
 gives not only the date and place of iflue, and 
 the name of the ruler who caufed it to be ftruck, 
 but frequently the names of his father and grand- 
 father, his heir-apparent, his liege-lord, and other 
 valuable genealogical data and aids to the due 
 underftanding of the inter-relations of different 
 dynafties ; while the religious formulae employed 
 will enable us to tell the feci: to which the ruler 
 who iflued the coin belonged, at leaft fo far as 
 the broad diftinctions of Iflam are concerned. If 
 the complete feries of coins iflued by every Muflim 
 ftate were preferved, we mould be able to tabulate 
 with the utmoft nicety the entire line of Kings 
 and their principal vaffals that have ruled in every 
 part of the Mohammadan Empire fince the eighth 
 century, and to draw with tolerable accuracy the 
 boundaries of their territories at every period. 
 Minting was ever one of the moft cherimed rights 
 of fovereignty : the privileges of " Khutbeh and 
 Sikkeh," that is, of being prayed for in the Friday 
 prayers in the Mofque and of infcribing his name 
 upon the currency, were the firft things the new 
 King thought about on afcending the throne. We 
 may be confident that the right was exercifed at the 
 earlieft poflible opportunity, and that a prince who 
 occupied the kingly office for but a few weeks was 
 fure to celebrate his royalty on a coin. Shejer ed-Durr 
 is a cafe in point, for the coin above defer ibed muft 
 have been ftruck in her brief reign of two months. 
 
Numifmatic Evidence. 
 
 163 
 
 It is this monetary vanity of Eaftern princes Value of 
 that makes their coinage fo valuable to the matic Evi. 
 hiftorian, and indeed compels him to regard 
 numifmatic evidence as the fureft testimony he 
 can obtain. Of courfe it may be urged, that the 
 fads thus derived from a ftudy of coins are not 
 worth having ; they may be abfolutely true, but 
 they relate to perfons and countries concerning 
 which nobody feels any poflible intereft, and 
 even of thefe they tell only fuch meagre items 
 as dates and chief towns, the very things we 
 are now carefully expunging from our fchool- 
 books! It is eafy to reply that, like every 
 currency, that of the Mohammadan Eaft really 
 fupplies important evidence concerning the eco- 
 nomic ftate of the country by its quality and rate 
 of exchange. But we join iflue on the main 
 queftion, and venture to aflert that no fcrap of 
 pofitive hiftorical facl is really ufelefs, or may not 
 at fome time be turned to important ends. The 
 Mohammadan coinage, more than any other, 
 abounds in hiftorical data, and when the as yet 
 unwritten hiftory of the Eaft during the Middle 
 Ages comes to be told, the author will find no 
 furer check upon the native annalifts than the 
 coins. 
 
 If the hiftory of the Mohammadan Eaft were 
 comprifed in the annals of a few great dynafties, 
 the value of the coins would not be fo confiderable, 
 for we mould only learn perhaps fome frefh dates 
 or confirmation of dates already known, and the 
 mints would only be the capitals and large towns 
 
164 Origin of the Coinage. 
 
 of well-known provinces. But Mohammadan 
 hiftory is made up of the ftruggles for fupremacy 
 of hundreds of petty houfes, and thousands of 
 petty dynafts, of whofe very exiftence we should 
 often be wholly ignorant but for their coins. 
 Thefe petty dynafts ftruck their money at towns 
 of which next to nothing is often known, and 
 thus the coinage is frequently our only means of 
 eftablifhing the pofition of the fmaller towns of 
 the mediaeval Eaft. Sometimes thefe fmall towns 
 preferve the names of cities famous in antiquity, 
 but whofe fite, fave for this numifmatic evidence, 
 
 GOLD COIN OF 'ABD-EL-MELTK, KHALIF OF DAMASCUS, A.D. 696. 
 
 was uncertain. Thus geographically as well as 
 hiftorically Mohammadan coins have a high value. 
 Origin It took the Arabs half a century to difcover the 
 Coinage, need of a feparate coinage of their own. At firft 
 they were content to borrow their gold and copper 
 currency from the Byzantine Empire, which they 
 had driven out of Syria, and their filver coins from 
 the Saftanian Kings of Perfia, whom they had 
 overthrown at the battles of Kadifia and Nehavend. 
 The Byzantine gold ferved them till the feventy- 
 fixth year of the Flight, when a new, but theologi- 
 cally unfound and confequently evanefcent, type was 
 invented, bearing the effigy of the reigning Khalif 
 inftead of that of Heraclius, and Arabic inftead of 
 
9 Abd-El-Melik. 
 
 Greek infcriptions. So, too, the SafTanian filver 
 pieces were left unaltered, fave for the addition 
 of a governor's name in Pehlvi letters. The 
 Khalif 'Aly or one of his lieutenants feems to 
 have attempted to inaugurate a purely Muflim 
 coinage, exactly refembling that which was after- 
 wards adopted ; but only one example of this 
 iflue is known to exift, in the Paris collection, 
 together with three other filver coins ftruck at 
 Damafcus and Merv between a.h. 60 and 70, of 
 a precifely fimilar type. Thefe four coins are 
 clearly early and ephemeral attempts at the intro- 
 
 REFORMED GOLD COIN OF 'ABD-EL-MELIK, A.D. 696. 
 
 duction of a diftinctive Mohammadan coinage, and 
 their recent difcovery in no way upfets the received 
 Muflim tradition that it was the Khalif 'Abd-El- 'Am^ei 
 Melik who, in the year of the Flight 76 (or, on 
 the evidence of the coins themfelves, 77), in- 
 augurated the regular Muflim coinage, which was 
 thenceforward iflued from all the mints of the 
 empire fo long as the dynafly endured, and which 
 gave its general character to the whole currency 
 of the kingdoms of Iflam. The copper coinage 
 founded on the Byzantine pafled through more 
 and earlier phafes than the gold and filver, but it 
 always held fo infignificant a place in the Muflim 
 
1 66 Religious Infcriptions. 
 
 currency that we can afford to difregard it in the 
 prefent brief outline. 
 ?nSip- US Specimens of 'Abd-El-Melik's reformed coinage 
 tions. are here engraved. The gold and filver both 
 bear the fame formulae of faith : on the obverfe, 
 in the area, " There is no god but God alone, 
 He hath no partner ;" around which is 
 arranged a marginal infcription, " Mohammad is 
 the apoftle of God, who fent him with the 
 guidance and religion of truth, that he might 
 
 SILVER COIN OF THE KHALIFATS. 
 
 Struck in Andalusia, A. D. 734. 
 
 make it triumph over all other religions in fpite 
 of the idolaters," the gold stopping at " other 
 religions." This infcription occurs on the reverfe 
 of the filver inftead of the obverfe, while the date 
 infcription which is found on the reverfe of the 
 gold, appears on the obverfe of the filver. The 
 reverfe area declares that " God is One, God is 
 the Eternal : He begetteth not, nor is begotten ;" 
 here the gold ends, but the filver continues, " and 
 there is none like unto Him." The margin of 
 the gold runs, " In the name of God : this Dinar 
 was ftruck in the year feven and feventy ;" the 
 filver fubftituting "Dirhem" for Dinar, and in- 
 ferring the place of iflue immediately after the 
 
Weight and Finenefs. 167 
 
 word Dirhem, e.g., "El-Andalus [i.e. Andalufia] 
 in the year 116." The mint is not given on 
 the early gold coins, probably because they were 
 uniformly ftruck at the Khalifs capital, Damafcus. 
 The contemporary copper coinage generally offers 
 portions of the fame formulae, with often the 
 addition of the name of the governor of the 
 province in which the coin was iflued. 5 
 
 Thefe original dinars (a name formed from the ^ ight 
 Roman denarius) and dirhems (drachma) of the Fineness. 
 Khalifs of Damafcus formed the model of all 
 Muflim coinages for many centuries; and their 
 refpe&ive weights — 65 and 43 grains — ferved as 
 the ftandard of all fubfequent iflues up to com- 
 paratively recent times. The finenefs was about 
 '979 g 0 ^ i n tne dinars, and '960 to -970 filver in 
 the dirhems. The Mohammadan coinage was 
 generally very pure. The 'Abbafy dinars retained 
 the finenefs of '979 for many centuries, and the 
 fame proportion of gold was obferved in the ifTues 
 of the Fatimy Khalifs, the Almohades, and fome- 
 times of the Almoravides, but the laft usually 
 employed a lower titre. At firft ten dirhems 
 went to the dinar, but the relation varied from 
 age to age. 
 
 The dynafty of Umawy or Omayyda Khalifs, £j?™^ e 
 to which 'Abd-El-Melik belonged, continued to Khali fate, 
 iflue their dinars and dirhems without any change 
 until their overthrow at the hands of the 'Abbafis 
 in the year of the Flight 132, and even then one 
 of the family fled to Spain, and there continued 
 both the Umawy line and coinage in the Khalifate 
 
1 68 Coinage of the Khalifat e. 
 
 of Cordova, which lafted three centuries. The 
 'Abbafy Khaiifs, on fucceeding to the eaftern 
 dominions of the Umawis, retained in all effential 
 refpecls the coinage of their predeceflbrs, fubfti- 
 tuting, however, for the formula of the reverfe 
 area, the words, " Mohammad is the apoftle of 
 God," thus repeating the beginning of the marginal 
 infcription. They alfo inferted the name of the 
 mint-city on the gold, as well as on the filver. 
 Soon, moreover, the ftricl puritanifm of the early 
 Khaiifs, which did not permit them to place their 
 own names on the currency, gave way to the 
 natural vanity of the ruler, and the names and 
 titles of the 'Abbafy Khaiifs were regularly in- 
 ferted beneath the reverfe area infcription, often 
 accompanied by the names of their heir-apparent 
 and grand-vizir. Thus, for forne 250 years the 
 univerfal coinage of the Muflim Empire was of 
 one fimple and uniform type. 
 Dynastic g u t with the fudden and general upfpringing of 
 
 Coinage. m o r r o t> 
 
 fmall independent, or only nominally dependent, 
 dynafties in the third century of the Hijreh, the 
 ninth of our era, Muflim coins acquire their 
 higheft value. The hiftory of the Khaiifs has 
 been carefully recorded, and their coins, though 
 they confirm and fometimes give additional pre- 
 cifion to the ftatements of the hiftorians, do not 
 greatly enlarge our knowledge. But when the 
 Samanis in Transoxiana and Khorafan, the Saffaris 
 in Seiftan, the Buweyhis in various provinces of 
 Perfia, the Hamdanis in Syria (all adopting a pre- 
 dominantly filver coinage), and the Beny Tulun 
 
Dynajiic Coinage. 169 
 
 and Ikhfhidis in Egypt (who coined almoft exclu- 
 fively gold), and the Idrifis (filver) and Beny-1- 
 Aghlab (chiefly gold) in North Africa, began to 
 ftrike coins after the model of thofe of the Khali- 
 fate, but abounding in names of local dynafts, the 
 hiftorical value of the coinage rifes. Thefe dynaftic 
 coins always retain the name of the reigning Khalif 
 in the place of honour, and this conjunction of names 
 of Khalif and dynaft will often fupply the required 
 chronological data, in the abfence or the oblitera- 
 tion of a definite year. 
 
 With the advent of the Seljuk Turks, who 
 fubdued the greater part of Perfia, Syria, and 
 Afia Minor, in the fifth century of the Hijreh, 
 the coins acquire a fpecial importance in deciding 
 the difficult queftion of the territorial divifions 
 of the various Seljuk lines ; and the numerous 
 dynafties of Atabegs or generals of the Seljuk 
 armies, which fprang up as foon as the central 
 power grew weak, poffefs a numifmatic intereft 
 in their general adoption of Byzantine types on 
 their large copper pieces. On coins of the 
 Urtukis, for example, a petty dynafty of fome 
 xrufading fame that ruled a few fortrefses in Mefo- 
 potamia, we meet with not only the figures of fi^SS,' 
 Byzantine Emperors, but thofe of Chrift and the 
 Virgin, with mangled infcriptions of Chriftian 
 import. Figures of a fimilar character alfo appear 
 on the coinage of the Ayyubis (Saladin's Kurdifh 
 houfe), and that of the Beny Zengy of Mofil and 
 Syria, together with the earlieft known reprefenta- 
 tion of the two-headed eagle, which has fince ob- 
 
170 Christian Figures. 
 
 tained high favour in Europe. But this divergence 
 from the eftablifhed theory of Iflam was only a 
 temporary and exceptional phafe, due to the irrup- 
 tion of foreign barbarians. The contemporary 
 dynafties of Africa — the Fatimy Khalifs of Egypt, 
 
 MARAVKDI . GOLD COIN OF ALMOKAVIDES. 
 
 Struck at Cordova, a.d. 1103. 
 
 Maravedi 
 and 
 
 Millares. 
 
 Mongol 
 Coinage. 
 
 "MILLARES :" SILVER COIN OF ALMOHADES, MOROCCO. 
 
 Thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 
 
 and the Almoravides and other Berber dynafties 
 of North Africa and Spain — adhered ftriclly to the 
 orthodox tradition which forbade the reprefenta- 
 tion of living things, and this was all the more 
 noteworthy inafmuch as moft of thefe African 
 dynafties belonged to heretical fects. Specimens 
 of thefe Weftern coinages are fhown in the en- 
 gravings, in which the "maravedi" and "millares" 
 of mediaeval chronicles may be recognifed. The 
 fquare fhape is peculiar to North-Weft Africa and 
 Spain. 
 
 In the feventh century of the Flight — our thir- 
 teenth — the Muflim world was almoft wholly in 
 
Mongol Coinage. 171 
 
 the pofTeflion of foreigners. The Mongols had 
 overrun the Eaftern provinces, which had not yet 
 recovered from the inroad of the Turks, and hence- 
 forward the monotonous (chiefly filver) currency, 
 and irregular ftandards, of the various Mongol 
 houfes, fuch as the Ilkhans of Perfia, the Jagatay 
 family in Bokhara, the different branches of the 
 
 SILVER COIN OF HOSEYN, SHAH OF PERSIA. 
 
 Struck at Isfahan, a.d. 1709. 
 
 Houfe of Timur (Tamerlane), the Khans of 
 Kipchak, of the Krim, etc., weary the ftudent ; 
 till the fine iflues of the Shahs of Perfia and the 
 Kings and Emperors of Dehli reftore fomething 
 like order and beauty to the chaos that, numif- 
 
172 Mamluks and Berbers. 
 
 matically as well as hiftorically — the two generally 
 go together — fucceeded the terrible fwoop of 
 Chinguiz Khan. Even here, however, there are 
 points of intereft ; and the long feries of coins of 
 the Khanates of the Cafpian throw a valuable light 
 upon the early hiftory of the Rufsian States under 
 the Mohammadan fupremacy. 
 Mamluks Meanwhile the Mamluks, in their two lines — 
 
 of Egypt. . . 
 
 Turkifh and Circaflian — held fway over the pro- 
 vinces of Egypt and Syria, and left many a noble 
 monument of art and culture behind them. Their 
 (predominantly gold) coinage, however, in fpite of 
 the reprefentation of Beybar's lion, and fome forms 
 of ornament which are interesting to compare with 
 the contemporary architecture, is poor and debafed. 
 Berber Several Berber dynafties had eftabliShed themfelves 
 Dynasties. £ nce e i eV enth century in the Barbary States, 
 and continued for half a millennium to iflue 
 their large gold pieces, refembling the coin en- 
 graved opposite. One of thefe, the line of Sherifs 
 of Morocco, endures to the prefent day, but the 
 Ottoman Turks extinguished the others in the 
 fixteenth century. This clan of Turks rofe into 
 power about the fame time as the Mongols and 
 Mamluks. From one of ten petty dynafties that 
 fattened upon the decay of the Seljuk kingdom of 
 Anatolia, they became by the end of the fourteenth 
 century rulers of all Afia Minor and a flice of 
 Europe, and the middle of the Sixteenth faw 
 them pofteffed of an empire that Stretched from 
 Hungary to the Cafpian, and from Baghdad 
 to Algiers. The Ottoman currency at firft con- 
 
Ottoman Turks. 173 
 
 fifted of fmall filver and copper pieces, bearing no 
 very obvious relation, either in weight or ftyle, to TurkT 
 the old Seljuk or the older Khalif s coinage, and 
 for a long time they were content to ufe foreign 
 gold. Mohammad II., the conqueror of Conftanti- 
 nople, was the rirfb to ftrike gold coins, upon the 
 model of the Venetian fequins, but of courfe with 
 Arabic infcriptions. Various gold fequins or 
 " altuns," fmall filver "akchehs," and copper 
 "manghirs" conflituted the Turkifh currency up 
 to the beginning of our feventeenth century. A 
 double ftandard of fequins and a perfectly new 
 
 gold coin of almohades, morocco. Fourteenth Century. 
 
 filver coinage, bafed upon the Dutch dollar, with 
 numerous fubdivifions and multiples, was then 
 introduced, and was ever after the fubject of count- 
 lefs modifications and degradations, until, after 
 an unfuccefsful attempt at reform by the great 
 Mahmud II., the modern Turkifh feries, approxi- 
 mating the monetary fyftems of Europe, was in- 
 augurated by Sultan 'Abd-El-Mejid, and is hence 
 known as the Mejidiyeh. A fimilar feries, bearing 
 the Sultan's but not the Viceroy's names, was and 
 is in ufe in Egypt, and a third feries, on a different 
 bafis, in Tunis. The Turkifh coinage as a whole 
 
*74 
 
 Value of Re fait s. 
 
 is important in its relations with the Mediterranean 
 currencies, and it has a certain bearing upon the 
 hiftory of trade in the Middle Ages. It has alfo 
 a value in determining the limits of the Turkifh 
 Empire at different periods, as the number of 
 mints is very confiderable. 
 
 The true value of Mohammadan coins lies, as 
 has been faid, in their hiftorical data. What is 
 really wanted is a Corpus of Mohammadan Numif- 
 matics, which mould prefent, in well-arranged 
 tables and indexes, the refults of the coin-evidence 
 of all the collections of Europe, and mould place 
 them at the fervice of hiftorical ftudents without 
 compelling them to learn a difficult language and 
 a ftill more difficult palaeography. There is little 
 that is interefting in Mohammadan coins apart 
 from their aid to hiftory, and if their actual con- 
 tributions to hiftorical knowledge were once fum- 
 marized and tabulated, few but inveterate collectors 
 would want to ftudy them. I write after finifhing 
 the eighth volume of my Catalogue of Oriental 
 Coins in the Britifh Mufeum, which has been going 
 on for the laft ten years, 1 and defcribes over fix 
 thoufand coins iflued by a hundred feparate 
 dynafties, fome of which confift of thirty or 
 forty Kings; and I have no hefitation in faying 
 that Oriental numifmatics is a fcience which is 
 interefting mainly in its refults. Thofe refults, 
 however, are of the very firft importance to the 
 hiftorian. 
 
 1 This was written in 1883. Two more volumes have 
 lince been publilhed, befides the Catalogue of Indian Coins 
 and of Arabic Glafs Weights. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COINS OF INDIA. 
 
 HE moft ancient coins of India, of 
 which thoufands of fpecimens have 
 been found throughout the length 
 and breadth of the peninfula, from 
 the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and from Kabul 
 to the mouths of the Ganges, reprefent a very 
 primitive ftage in the development of a coinage. 
 They are little more than fquare or oblong weights Punch- 
 of filver and copper. They bear nothing which coins, 
 can be called a " type," and the fymbols, with 
 which many fpecimens are completely covered, 
 are probably merely the money-changers' marks 
 ftamped on to the coins from time to time as 
 they paffed in circulation from one diftricl: to 
 another. Thefe punch-marked fymbols, as origin- 
 ally ufed, may, therefore, be compared to the 
 fhroff-marks fo often feen on the rupees of modern 
 native Indian mints. In a few inftances only do 
 they feem to have been employed to denote cities 
 or ftates ; and, in fome of thefe cafes, we again 
 find the fame fymbols appearing in relief on the 
 
176 
 
 Punch-marked Coins. 
 
 coins of a later period, after the method of ftriking 
 from dies had been introduced. It is impoffible 
 to determine the precife date of the earlieft punch- 
 marked coins. They were certainly current in the 
 fourth century b.c, before the invafion of Alex- 
 ander the Great, and they may poflibly be even 
 two centuries older, 
 cast Another early form of currency of purely Indian 
 
 origin is feen in the caft coins of copper which are 
 found on the fites of certain ancient cities, notably 
 Taxila, Mathura, and Ujain. Some of thefe bear 
 infcriptions in characters at leaft as old as thofe of 
 the rock-infcriptions of Acoka (250 B.C.). 
 
 The data for determining the age of the earlieft 
 Indian currencies are derived chiefly from the early 
 Sanlkrit and Pali literatures, and, as the- dates of 
 many of thefe works are themfelves open to dif- 
 cuflion, we are altogether upon uncertain ground. 
 The Greek fettlements in the Kabul valley and 
 the Panjab at the beginning of the fecond century 
 B.C. give us more exact evidence, and from this 
 time onwards the field of Indian numifmatics can 
 be mapped out with a fair degree of precifion. 
 
 After the revolt of the province of Bactria from 
 the Seleucid empire (c. 246 b.c), the Greeks 
 remained in Bactria for nearly half a century. 
 
 Kin^of ^ t ^ ie enc * °^ t ^ lat: P er ^°d ^e (Jaka Scythians 
 India. poured into Bactria, and the Greek power, driven 
 acrofs the Paropamifus, invaded and conquered 
 the ancient kingdom of Gandhara, which included 
 the modern Afghanistan and the Panjab. Here 
 it remained until it yielded to the attacks of the 
 
Greek Kings. 
 
 177 
 
 Kufhans (c. 25 B.C.). This period of Greek rule 
 in Gandhara is, from a numifmatic point of view, 
 full of the deepeft intereft ; for we have here, in 
 the coins, the outlines of a hiftory which has other- 
 wife been loft. 
 
 The coinage of the Greek kings of Bactria had 
 remained in every refpect purely Greek. Their 
 coins are, in point of art and workmanfhip, 
 worthy of comparifon with other Greek coins 
 of the period ; they are all ftruck in accordance 
 with the Attic ftandard, and they all bear Greek 
 infcriptions. The civilization of the native popu- 
 lation of Bactria was not fufficiently advanced to 
 influence them in any way. But when this Greek 
 power was transferred to India, its furrounding 
 circumftances were completely changed. It now 
 came into contact with an ancient and highly- 
 organized civilization, and its coins bear the traces 
 of a conflict between the Greek and Indian fyftems. 
 There can be no doubt that the univerfal adoption 
 of types on Indian coins dates from this period ; 
 but the freedom and ftrength of the Greek art 
 were foon loft, and gave place to Oriental monotony 
 and conventionality. The coins became bilingual, 
 retaining a Greek infcription on the obverfe, and 
 adding on the reverfe a tranflation in Prakrit, the 
 popular fpoken form of Sanfkrit. The Attic 
 monetary ftandard was, within a few years, fuper- 
 feded by one which had been adopted in the 
 Panjab as a refult of the Perfian conqueft in the 
 fixth century B.C., and the indigenous fquare form 
 continued to be ufed fide by fide with the round 
 
 N 
 
i 7 8 
 
 The Kufhans. 
 
 form introduced by the Greeks. The coin mown 
 in the illuftration is a didrachm of Hippoftratus, 
 a Greek prince who reigned c. 50 B.C. 
 
 The political hiftory of Afghaniftan and the 
 Panjab during the period of Greek fupremacy is 
 exceedingly complicated. The coins teach us that, 
 within a century and three-quarters, there ruled 
 over various portions of this diftrict about thirty 
 Greek princes, at leaft three diftinct dynafties of 
 Scythian invaders from the north, and a confider- 
 able number of native monarchs. Much has 
 already been done to determine more precife-ly 
 
 GOIN OF HIPPOSTRATUS. 
 
 the date and province of all thefe different rulers, 
 and it may be confidently hoped that the fcience 
 of numifmatics will fome day complete its triumph 
 by filling in many of the details of this chapter 
 of Indian hiftory. 
 
 In the laft quarter of the fir ft century B.C. the 
 fupremacy over Northern India -pafTed into the 
 hands of the Kufhans, the moft powerful of the 
 numerous Scythian tribes who had hitherto in- 
 vaded India. Some of their coins mow a very 
 decided Roman influence, the refult of the ex- 
 tenfive commerce which was carried on at this 
 
Empire of the Guptas. 179 
 
 period between Rome and India. On the coins 
 of one of the earlier Kufhan kings the head of 
 Auguftus is deliberately imitated ; and the gold 
 coinage of all the Kufhan kings after about 
 78 a.d. is ftruck to the ftandard of the Roman 
 aureus^ and was probably actually made of the 
 Roman gold which, as Pliny has told us, was 
 attracted in fuch large quantities to India. The 
 coins of the fourth and fifth members of this 
 dynafty, Kanifhka and Huvilhka, mow a very 
 curious fpecies of religious eclecticifm. On their 
 reverfes we find divinities of Greece, Perfian, 
 deities of the Avefta, Brahmanical deities of the 
 Vedas, and even the figure of Buddha himfelf. 
 
 As contemporary with the Kufhans may be Satraps, 
 mentioned the coinages of the Satraps of Surafhtra 
 and Malwa, and the Satraps of Mathura, in 
 Northern India, and the Andhra dynafty, in 
 Southern India. The firft of thefe, imitated from 
 the hemidrachms of the later Greek princes, is 
 particularly interefting and important, as the coins 
 bear dates, as well as infcriptions giving the name 
 both of the reigning Satrap and of his father. 
 The coinage of the Andhras affords an inftance of 
 the ufe of lead as a currency. 
 
 The Kufhans were fucceeded by the Guptas, a Gupta 
 purely Hindu dynafty. The founder of this line D y nasty * 
 reigned c. 260 a.d. ; but it was probably not until 
 319 a.d., the initial year of the Gupta era, that 
 this dynafty became the imperial power of Northern 
 India. At its fulleft extent, in the reign of Chandra 
 Gupta Vikramaditya, c. 410 a.d., the Gupta empire 
 
i8o 
 
 Guptas, 
 
 embraced the whole of Northern India. In the 
 west it had conquered the territory of the Satraps 
 of Surafhtra, and continued the iflue of a dated 
 filver coinage directly imitated from that of the 
 dethroned Satraps. The coinage in ufe through- 
 out the remainder of this large empire was of gold 
 and copper. The types are to fome extent borrowed 
 from the Kufhans, but there is ftill much that is 
 original, and the Gupta gold coins are by far the 
 beft examples of native art. The coin-legends, 
 couched in pure claflical Sanfkrit, fet forth at great 
 length the power and majefty of the fovereign ; 
 but unfortunately, unlike the coin-legends of the 
 Satraps of Surafhtra, they convey little of what 
 can be called hiftorical information. Facts are, 
 however, fupplied by the numerous dated infcrip- 
 tions engraved on ftone or bronze by the different 
 kings of this dynafty. Under the rule of the 
 Guptas literature flourished, and fome of the molt 
 beautiful of the claflical Sanfkrit dramas and 
 romances date from this period. 
 
 The Gupta empire was broken up, though not 
 completely deftroyed, about the beginning of the 
 fixth century, by the attacks of the White Huns, 
 another horde of invading Scythians. Thefe bar- 
 barians, who had (c. 480 a.d.) inflicted a defeat 
 on the Saflanians, brought into India a currency 
 which confifts to a great extent of SafTanian Silver 
 coins reftruck. The White Huns were decifively 
 defeated at the battle of Kurur (544 a.d.) by the 
 combined armies of the princes of Upper India, 
 under the great Harlha Vardhana, of Ujain, at 
 
Hindu States. 
 
 181 
 
 whofe court lived the poet Kalidafa, and other 
 writers whofe names are famous in the hiftory of 
 Sanfkrit literature. 
 
 After the invafion of the White Huns we find Mediaeval 
 
 Hindu 
 
 no imperial power fuch as that of the Kufhans states, 
 or the Guptas until the Mohammadan con- 
 quer!:. India was divided into a number of inde- 
 pendent ftates, whofe coinages, when ftudied in 
 connection with the ftone infcriptions of this 
 period, afford a wealth of hiftorical material. 
 From the point of view of art, thefe coins, almoft 
 without exception, are unworthy of notice. They 
 are curious rather as examples of Eaftern con- 
 fervatifm. In fome inftances thefe native ftates 
 retained on their coins the types of the Kufhan 
 kings of the firft century, until the Mohammadan 
 conquefts of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth 
 centuries brought in a coinage of a different kind. 
 An extreme example of this confervatifm is offered 
 by the kingdom of Kafhmir, where the coin-types 
 remained unchanged from about 78 a.d. to 
 1339 A.D. 
 
 The hiftory of Southern India is lefs influenced southern 
 by foreign invafions, and the coinage, to a great 
 extent, purfues an independent development. The 
 Andhras, who were continually in conflict: with 
 northern ftates, ftruck infcribed coins of a northern 
 ftyle ; but in general the early coins of the fouth are 
 derived from the primitive punch-marked currency. 
 On the gold coins, for inftance, of the Kadamba 
 dynafty, which arofe in the fifth or fixth century, 
 we can trace the gradual growth of a collection 
 
1 82 - Southern India and Ceylon. 
 
 of independent punch -marks into one definite 
 type. Other fpecies of coinage which are peculiar 
 to the fouth are the thin gold repoujfe coins of 
 the early Chalukya dynafty (c. 610 a.d.), and the 
 cup-fhaped gold coins of Partabgarh of a fome- 
 what later date. 
 
 The hiftory of the fouth confifts of an almoft 
 perpetual ftruggle for fupremacy between a 
 number of ftates contained within its own limits. 
 One of the moft powerful of thefe ftates — that 
 of the Cholas — in the middle of the eleventh 
 century, extended its fway as far as Ceylon, and 
 introduced its coinage into the ifland. The type 
 thus introduced was faithfully copied on the coins 
 of a Singalefe dynafty — the Rajas of Kandy — 
 which came into power a hundred years later. 
 The Rajas of Kandy continued to ftrike coins of 
 the Chola pattern until the end of the thirteenth 
 century. 
 
 The wonderfully confervative character of the 
 fouthern coinage is ftrikingly mown by the fact 
 that even the Mogul conqueft, which extended at 
 one period to nearly every part of India, failed 
 to introduce a coinage of the Mohammadan type 
 into fome of the Southern ftates ; and in fome of 
 thefe ftates (as, for inftance, Travancore) that 
 character has remained unchanged even to the 
 prefent day. 
 
 The Mohammadan coinage of India porTefTes 
 the fame merits and defects that have already been 
 affigned to Mohammadan coins in general. We 
 muft not, as a rule, expect to fee the triumphs of 
 
Mohammadan Coinage. 183 
 
 the engraver's art upon the face of the Indian 
 currency. Infcriptions, and nothing but infcrip- 
 tions, form the chief intereft of the Indian coins 
 of the Muflim period ; and to thefe infcriptions 
 belongs the principal value of the ftudy of fuch 
 pieces. There is alfo the intereft attaching to 
 metrological peculiarities, which cannot be touched 
 upon here, but of which the curious reader may 
 obtain a thorough knowledge by an infpection of 
 the works of Prinfep and Edward Thomas. The 
 value of the illuftration that thefe infcriptions 
 afford, as applied to mediasval Indian annals, 
 is enhanced, fays Thomas, " by the exaggerated 
 importance attached by the Muilims themfelves to 
 that department of the conventional regal functions, 
 involved in the right to coin. Among thefe peoples, 
 the recitation of the public prayer in the name of 
 the afpirant to the throne, affociated with the ifiue 
 of money bearing his fuperfcription, was un- 
 hefitatingly received as the overt act of acceffion. 
 Unqueftionably, in the ftate of civilization here 
 obtaining, the production and facile difperfion of a 
 new royal device was Angularly well adapted to 
 make manifeft to the comprehenfion of all claffes 
 the immediate change in the fupreme ruling power. 
 In places where men did not print, thefe ftamped 
 moneys, obtruding into every bazaar, conftituted 
 the moft effective manifeftoes and proclamations 
 human ingenuity could have devifed: readily 
 multiplied, they were individually the eafieft and 
 moft naturally tranfported of all official documents ; 
 the verieft fakir in his femi-nude coftume might 
 
184 Mohammadan Coinage. 
 
 carry the oftenfible proof of a new dynafty into 
 regions where even the name of the kingdom 
 itfelf was unknown. In fhort, there was but little 
 limit to the range of thefe Eaftern heralds ; the 
 numifmatic Garter King-at-Arms was recognised 
 wherever Afiatic nations accepted the gold, and 
 interpreters could be found to defignate the Caefar 
 whofe £ epigraph ' figured on its furface. So alfo on 
 the occafion of a new conqueft: the reigning 
 Sultan's titles were oftentatioufly paraded on the 
 local money, ordinarily in the language and 
 alphabet of the indigenous races, to fecure the 
 more effective announcement that they themfelves 
 had parTed under the fway of an alien fuzerain. 
 Equally, on the other hand, does any modification 
 of, or departure from, the rule of a comprehenfive 
 ifTue of coin imply an imperfection relative or 
 pofitive in the acquisition of fupreme power." 1 
 
 The firft important fact to be noted about the 
 Mohammadan coinage of India is that while the 
 gold and filver were generally more or lefs adapta- 
 tions, affimilated to ancient Indian ftandards, of 
 the dinar and dirhem which prevailed over the 
 whole empire of Iflam, the copper currency re- 
 tained as a rule its Indian character, and preferved 
 thofe local characteristics which it porTerTed before 
 the invafion of the Muflims. In other words, 
 the coins moft in requeft were left in the form 
 which was beft underftood by the people who 
 ufed them, while the lefs frequent gold and 
 filver, the Court currency, received the imprefs 
 1 Chronicles of the Patban Kings of Deb/i, p. 2. 
 
Copper Currency. 185 
 
 of the ruling religion. So we find the con- 
 quering Mahmud of Ghazni, the firft Muflim to 
 fnatch any part of India, ifluing copper coins 
 with Hindu characters fuch as the people of the 
 Panjab would underftand, and with the image of 
 the Bull Nandi, facred to Hindus, but repugnant 
 to Mohammadans, while his filver coins retain all 
 the puritanical plainnefs that belongs to orthodox 
 Mam. Mahmud's fucceflbrs, the dynafty of Ghaz- 
 nawis or " Ghaznevides," who eftablifhed them- 
 felves at Lahore, continued to mingle this native 
 coinage with their imported formulas of faith. 
 The fucceeding dynafties adopted the fame prin- 
 ciple, and admitted the Bull and the Chohan 
 or Cabul horfeman to a place befide the pro- 
 feftion of faith in one God; and we may ftate 
 as a general fact that the common copper, or 
 more frequently billon, currency of India, under 
 Mohammadan rule, remained Indian and local, 
 and retained the old fymbols and characters of 
 Hinduftan. 
 
 The moft important Mohammadan dynafties of 
 India were the fo-called Patans of Dehli, with the 
 fubordinate but often independent line at Bengal, 
 who reigned over most of Northern India from the 
 end of the twelfth to the middle of the fixteenth 
 century of our era ; and the Moguls, who were 
 the fucceflbrs of the famous Timur or Tamerlane, 
 and following the Patans extended their fway 
 over a ftill wider area, from the middle of the 
 fixteenth century to the well-remembered days 
 when England fet an Emprefs in the place of the 
 
i86 
 
 Patau Kings of Dehli. 
 
 great Mogul. Thefe two great houfes really fill 
 up the chronology of Mohammadan numifmatics 
 in Hinduftan, but by no means exhauft the 
 geography. The number of fmaller dynafties, 
 native or Muflim, who flruck coins either in 
 their own characters, or, more rarely, the Arabic 
 ftyle, is legion. Among the more important of 
 thefe may be mentioned the Bahmany Kings, who 
 ruled the greater part of the Deccan, from Kul- 
 barga, (which they re-chriflened Ahfanabad, or the 
 " Moft Beautiful City,") from the fourteenth to 
 the fixteenth century ; the Kings of Jaunpur, 
 Mewar, Malwah, and Gujarat, who fprung into 
 independence on the weakening cf the central 
 power in the fourteenth century, and generally 
 lafted till the great annexations of the Mogul 
 Emperors Babar and Akbar in the fixteenth. 
 
 The Patans and Moguls, however, may be 
 fele&ed as the Mohammadan coins of India par 
 excellence. The Patans introduced a gold and 
 filver coinage of fingular purity and equal weight 
 in either metal (about 174 grains), with often 
 identical infcriptions, called the Tankah, which 
 the Moguls afterwards converted into the gold 
 mohr and filver rupee, which are fo familiar to 
 readers of Indian hiftory. The infcriptions of 
 the Patans are in Arabic, as a rule of flight 
 pretenfions to calligraphic excellence, but clear 
 and folid, and prefenting the ufual ftatiftics of 
 the name of fovereign, of mint, and date, with 
 fometimes a reference to the faineant 'Abbafy 
 Khalifs who had been fet up in Egypt by the 
 
Patau Kings of Dek/L 
 
 Mamluks on the deftruction of the Khalifate 
 at Baghdad by Hulagu Khan. Beyond fome 
 curious pofthumous ifTues and this homage 
 to a decrepit Khalifate, there is little that is 
 particularly interesting to any but metrologies 
 and profefTed numifmatifts in the Patan coinage. 
 One fovereign, however, pofTeffed a genius for 
 innovation, and his coinage prefents not a few 
 features of intereft. This was Mohammad ibn Moham- 
 Taghlak (a.d. 1324-51), a prince wTiofe character Taghiak. 
 abounds in aftonifhing contrafts. " Generous to 
 profufion, an accomplished fcholar, abftinent, a 
 firm defender of his faith, and the moft experi- 
 enced general of his day," he was yet poflefied by 
 a ferocious fpirit that knew no mercy or regard 
 for human life, and curfed with " a perverfion of 
 intellect which induced him to allow defpotifm 
 to run into infane fury at any fign of oppofition 
 to his will." 1 It was his fate at firft to gather 
 the empire together more firmly and with wider 
 boundaries than ever ; and then, by the eccen- 
 tricity or madnefs of his rule, to fow the feeds 
 of that general difintegration which barely waited 
 for his death before it difplayed its independence 
 in every part of the empire. Among the figns 
 of Mohammad ibn Taghlak's eccentricity is his 
 coinage. It teftifies to his tafte, inafmuch as it is 
 infinitely better engraved than any of the iflues 
 of his predeceflbrs ; and it bears witnefs to his 
 paflion for novelty, fince it affords illuftrations 
 of feveral monetary reforms, all of which collapfed 
 1 E. Thomas : Chronicles, p. 202. 
 
1 8 8 Mohammad ibn Taghlak. 
 
 almoft as foon as they were instituted. Firft Mo- 
 hammad ibn Taghlak refolved to alter the ftandard 
 Tankah, which had hitherto been of the uniform 
 weight of 174 grs. for both gold and filver, and 
 to raife the gold to 200 grs., and lower the filver 
 to 140 ; but he failed to make his new ftandards 
 acceptable to his fubjects, and in three or four 
 years the old Tankah had to be reftored. His 
 next attempt was a much bolder flight. He had 
 apparently heard of the fiduciary paper currency 
 which Khubilay Khan had fuccefsfully introduced 
 into the Celeftial Empire, and which had been 
 imitated, with very different refults, in Perfia, and 
 he refolved to try the effects of a forced currency 
 in his own dominions. No fraud was apparently 
 contemplated, for the Dehli treafury was over- 
 flowing, and when the experiment failed, the 
 forced pieces were bought in at the mint at the 
 nominal value, without any fcrutiny for clipping 
 or counterfeiting. This forced currency was of 
 brafs and copper, and was engraved with words 
 meant to compel their acceptance, such as " He 
 who obeys the Sultan, verily he obeys God," and 
 an infcription fhating it to be the equivalent of the 
 filver Tankah ; but no threats, even of fo abfolute 
 a defpot as the Patan King, could commend thefe 
 pieces to the people, and in lefs than three years 
 they were abandoned. 
 
 The Mogul coins have infcriptions mainly in 
 Perfian, and are alfo remarkable not only for occa- 
 fional eccentricity or fhape, fuch as the ornate 
 oblongs which Akbar iilued, but for the repre- 
 
Moguls of Dehli. 189 
 
 fentation of figures. The zodiacal rupees and 
 mohrs of Jehangir are well known, with the ligns 
 of the Zodiac engraved in bold relief ; but the 
 same Emperor even went fo far as to engrave a 
 portrait of himfelf in the act of railing the for- 
 bidden winecup to his lips. As a rule, however, 
 the Mogul coinage contents itfelf with the ufual 
 notices of names, titles, mints, and dates, and 
 felicitous references to the monarchs' happy and 
 
 GOLD MOHR OF JEHANGiR. 
 
 aufpicious reigns. Such was the infcription of j^J e £ 
 the Sikkeh rupee which (on a principle of fre- 
 quent application at Dehli, when a king of doubtful 
 authority fought to fupport himfelf upon the 
 monetary credit of fome predeceflbr) was retained 
 by the Eaft India Company till 1835, long after 
 the Sovereign to whom it applied had gone to 
 his Paradife : " Defender of the Mohammadan re- 
 ligion, mirror of the grace of God, the Emperor 
 Shah 'Alam ftruck this coin to be current through- 
 out the feven climes. Struck at Murfhidabad in 
 the year 19 of his fortunate reign." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CHINA AND JAPAN. 
 
 HE coinages of Eaftern Afia are often 
 the moft valuable records we poffefs 
 of the various nations' progrefs in 
 wealth and civilization. Much of 
 ancient hiftory is gathered from them, and they 
 are fometimes the only clue to events for which 
 historians would otherwife have to draw largely 
 on their imaginations. In them we find hiftorical 
 proofs and materials — records which illuftrate the 
 political events in the life of great empires — data 
 illuftrating fchemes for fupplying the deficiency of 
 metals, or avoiding the neceffity of a more exten- 
 five metallic currency. We fee in China, for 
 inftance, the continued ftruggle of the primitive 
 fyftem of barter with the fyftem of fiduciary money 
 required by the enlargement of the population and 
 the development of exchange ; and we fee, alfo, 
 in the application of economical principles very 
 different from thofe of Europe, the various 
 attempts made by the Government to detain the 
 
China. 
 
 191 
 
 people in a mediocrity of material life (not the 
 aurea mediocritas of the poet), where an abfence 
 of wants and defires keeps them within the range 
 of their ideal of happinefs. 
 
 Thefe conliderations, interefting to the econo- 
 mift and hiftorian, are not the only elements of 
 value in the ftudy of the coinage, belides the 
 bare ftatements of facts and dates which form 
 the Ikeleton of hiftory. The illuftrations and 
 ornamentations of the medals, charms, and tokens 
 exemplify the fuperftitions, the habits and cuftoms 
 of the people, and make fome amends for the 
 chief defect of the coinage of the Far Eaft, the 
 lack of artiftic excellence. 
 
 The civilized clans who bore the generic name 
 of Bak or " flourifhing," and travelling eaftwards 
 brought to China all the elements of a culture 
 indirectly derived from the old focus of Babylonia, 
 had not been taught in their previous home, weft 
 of the Hindu-kufh, any other currency than that 
 of weighing metals. Their earlieft traditions do 
 not point to any other ; the development of barter 
 and the ufe of cowries arofe from neceffity, and 
 intercourfe with the indigenous tribes of their new 
 country. The fucceffion of the words employed 
 to denote the various fubftitutes of the as yet un- 
 difcovered money is in itfelf fuggeftive of what 
 took place in former times. The expreflion ufed 
 by later hiitorians when fpeaking of the early 
 pfeudo-money is pit, a character meaning "wealth, 
 riches." W e muft underftand from the traditions 
 that in the time of the Great Hot Bak-ket (Ur- 
 
192 Shell Currency. 
 
 Bagafh of Babylonian tradition), money was 
 metals and that afterwards, from the time of Nak 
 Khunte (Nai Hwang-ti, ? b.c. 2250) and his 
 Chinefe fucceffors, it became any exchangeable 
 merchandife. For the people of Shang and of 
 Ts'i, pieces of filk or hempen-cloth were money ; 
 later on, in the feudal ftates of Ts'i and that of 
 Kiu, knives (tao) were ufed as currency. During 
 the three dynafties of Yao, Hia, and Shang 
 (b.c. 2 100-1080), gold, filver, and copper were 
 employed, befides cloth, tortoife-fhell, and cowries. 
 
 The ufe of fhells as a medium of exchange by 
 the ancient Chinefe is a matter of peculiar intereft 
 in its antiquity, and its connection with the once 
 widely extended cowry-mell currency. We find 
 it mentioned at its very outfet among the newly 
 arrived Chinefe, in their earlieft book, the Th- 
 King, where, as an equivalent of " riches," we 
 read " 100,000 dead mell-fifhes." The tortoife- 
 fhell currency is alfo mentioned in the fame canon- 
 ical book. Shell-currency began under the Hia 
 dynafty (2000-1550 b.c), when they had relations 
 with the aborigines of the fouth and fouth-eaft of 
 their newly conquered dominion. To what extent 
 it was carried previoufly to their time we know 
 not, but we have literary evidence that, with the 
 fuperior culture which they had brought with 
 them, they foon gave to fhell- currency a develop- 
 ment correfponding to their higher wealth and 
 requirements. 
 
 Traces of the ufe of fhells as a medium of ex- 
 change have remained cryftallized in the written 
 
Cowries. 
 
 *93 
 
 and fpoken languages ; the ideogram pei " fhell " 
 has the meaning of wealth and riches, and has 
 been added as a fllent determinative to many 
 characters of the fame clafs of meaning: goods, 
 property, felling, prices, cheap, dear, ftores, etc.; 
 but it is worth noticing that the ufe of pei in this 
 fecondary meaning does not appear in the earlieft 
 characters of the language. In the wonderful 
 Geographical Survey which goes by the name of 
 Yii the Great, and might be as old as the 
 fixteenth century b.c, the people of the iflands 
 along the coafts of Yang-tchou had to bring 
 cowries as tribute. Yang-tchou was the fouth- 
 eaft divifion of the Chinefe dominion, or rather 
 of the regions upon which they eventually ex- 
 tended their fuzerainty ; its fouthern borders were 
 ill-defined, but it included the modern provinces 
 of Tcheh-Kiang, Fuh-Kien, etc. It was from the 
 iflands of that part of China that the cowries 
 exhibited at the International Fifheries Exhibition 
 of South Kenfington, 1883, were fent. 
 
 Cowries were not the only fhells ufed ; that of 
 the tortoife of various fpecies and fizes was ufed 
 for the greater values, which would have required 
 too many cowries ; and a furvival of the old \ 
 cuftom has remained in the language, where the 
 expreflion kuei-hwo, or tortoife-fhell money, is 
 ufed elegantly to denote a coin. Several forts 
 of Cypraea were employed, one of which, the 
 " purple fhell," two or three inches long, was 
 formerly found on the fhores of the prefecture of 
 Teng-tchou, north of the Shantung peninfula. 
 
 o 
 
i 9 4 
 
 Cowries. 
 
 The celebrated claflic of the Mountains and 
 Seas [Shan Hat King), of which the firft. thirteen 
 books have reached their bulk by an innumerable 
 feries of incorporated additions fince the time of 
 the Shang dynafty, twelfth century, down to the 
 fourth century B.C., indicates the ftreams and 
 waters where the precious and variegated fhells 
 could be found ; i.e., mainly in the fouth-eaft 
 and weft. And the Pen-tfao claffic, for which an 
 earlier origin is claimed, ftates that the cowries 
 (pei-tze or pei-tcFi) live in the Eaftern Sea ; that is, 
 fouth-eaft of the Shantung peninfula. 
 
 All thefe fhells, excepting the fmall ones, were 
 current in pairs, and it is this practice which is 
 alluded to in the following third ftanza of an ode 
 of the Book of Poetry, commonly attributed to 
 the tenth century B.C.: 
 
 " Luxuriantly grows the after-southernwood, 
 In the midft of that great height, 
 We fee our noble lord 
 
 And he gives us a hundred pairs of Cypraea fhells.** 
 
 Mao She, the well-known editor of the Book of 
 Poetry in the fecond century B.C., commenting 
 upon the fhell-currency, fpeaks of tze-pei, or 
 purple Cypraea, but only as ranking after the fea- 
 tortoife-fhell, meafuring i foot 6 inches, which in 
 his time could be obtained but in Kiu-tchin and 
 Kiao-tchi (Cochin-China and Annam), where they 
 were ufed to make pots, bafins, and other valuable 
 objects. We learn by this ftatement that the ufe 
 as currency of larger fhells than the Cypraea 
 moneta had not extended outfide China. But as 
 
Cowries. 
 
 l 9S 
 
 to China proper, the great fcholar we have juft 
 quoted could hardly fpeak from perfonal experience, 
 as the fhell-currency no more exifted officially in 
 his time. Big fhells were ftill appreciated and 
 fought for as an object of luxury, and remained 
 thus long afterwards. We find recorded in the 
 Han Annals, that the Emperor Wen, in 179 B.C., 
 having prefented the King of Southern Yueh with 
 a hundred robes, the latter, with other prefents, 
 returned five hundred of purple Cypraeae. The 
 fhell-currency was, however, fading away. It had 
 received a great blow a long while previoufly 
 from Hwei Wan, the Prince of Ts'in, who in 
 his fecond year, i.e. 335 B.C., recognifing the 
 difficulties of finding a proper fupply of fhells 
 and cowries, and the rapidly increafing demand 
 for a convenient currency, altogether fupprefTed 
 it. The inland pofition of Ts'ing, far away from 
 the fources of fupply, combined with the fact that 
 metallic coins of various fhapes and fizes had begun 
 to be recognifed as a more practicable medium of 
 exchange in the other ftates of the Chinefe agglo- 
 meration, were the two main reafons which led 
 this ancefior of the founder of the Chinefe Empire 
 to abolifh the cumbrous fyftem of fhell-currency 
 and to adopt the more perfect fyftem of metallic 
 coins, already put in practice by private perfons in 
 feveral of the neighbouring ftates. He iflued then 
 the round copper coin, with a central fquare hole, 
 and the legend pan-liang { — ^ ounce), indicating 
 its value, which was afterwards imitated by the 
 rulers of the Han dynafty, and is, in fact, the 
 
196 : End of the Shell Currency. 
 
 direct and uninterrupted anceftor of the Chinefe 
 coins of the prefent day. 
 
 A time-honoured fyftem like the fhell-currency, 
 however, could not difappear without ftruggling 
 a while in out-of-the-way places, and, among a 
 people of routine like the Chinefe, could not lack 
 fupporters. It is to this confervative tendency 
 that the country was indebted for an attempt to 
 revive the old-fafhioned currency. Wang Mang, 
 the ufurper who ruled in China (a.d. 9-23) be- 
 tween the two great Han dynafties, wanted, in- 
 deed, to refcind all the innovations introduced in 
 the country by the eclipfed dynafty. Accordingly 
 he enacted new ftatutes — one of which re-eftab- 
 lifhed a mell-currency confiding of five categories, 
 the higher one of tortoife-fhells being divided 
 in ten clafles. How far thefe differed from 
 the old fyftem we are unable to fay for want of 
 proper information ; ftill, it is not unlikely that 
 the difcrepancies were fmall. But the intelligent 
 part of the people, and the traders, objected 
 to the revival of the antiquated fyftem; and, in 
 a.d. 14, Wang Mang had to cancel his former 
 decrees. After his time we hear no more of the 
 cowry-currency in China proper ; but we trace its 
 influence in the ifiue of fmall copper coins, fhaped, 
 indeed, as a fmall Cypraea, roughly imitated by 
 their ovoidal or pear-like form, and commonly 
 called metallic cowries and Ant-coins, or Ant- 
 nofe coins. Some have been found of three 
 different fizes, with the refpeclive legends, Liang 
 (for 1 oz.), pan-liang (or oz.), and Koh luh 
 
Mines. 
 
 197 
 
 tc hu, " each fix tchus," written in a rather out- 
 of-the-way manner ; moft probably, by hiftorical 
 evidence, iffued in the fixth century before the 
 Chriftian era, in Tfu, the fouthernmoft ftate of the 
 Chinefe confederation. 
 
 The working of mines in China has rarely Mines, 
 been left open to private enterprife; the authori- 
 ties feem to have been afraid to leave the people 
 free to acquire riches in that way ; and as a rule 
 they kept it for themfelves, and exercifed much 
 care and moderation in its ufe. Strict regulations 
 have always forbidden the extraction of metals 
 beyond limited quantities. Recourfe to the mines 
 could take place in primitive times only in cafes of 
 inundation or other great need. We find in the 
 fragments of a ftill exifting work on government 
 and legiflation, by an able financier, Kwan-tze, who 
 was a prime minifter of the feudal state of Tai, in 
 685 B.C., an allufion to the effect of fuch floods: 
 "When," he fays, "from eaft, weft, north, and 
 fouth, all over a furface of 7,000 or 8,000 li, all 
 intercourfe with thefe parts was cut off by the in- 
 undation, and in confequence of the length of the 
 way, and the difficulties of reaching them, neither 
 boat nor cart could penetrate thither ; the people 
 therefore relied on, and . employed according to 
 their meafures, pearls and gems as the highest 
 commodities, then gold, and, as the third anH 
 lower clafs, knives and cloth." 
 
 Metals in lumps were confidered, fince the be- 
 ginning of the Shang dynafty, as a fource of pro- 
 fperity; they were called tfiuen, "fpring or 
 
198 . Tchou Dynajiy. 
 
 fource," and the name lafted till its fubftitution by 
 a quan-homonym tfien^ in allufion to the fmall 
 copper implements of hufbandry ufed later as cur- 
 rency. It is from the fame time that the habit 
 of hoarding bullion originated. We read that 
 when the Shang dynafty was overthrown by Wu 
 Wang, the founder of the Tchou dynafty, all 
 the wealth accumulated by the laft King, the 
 fcapegoat of the abufes and miftakes of his whole 
 lineage, in the fplendid palace called the Deer 
 Gallery, was facked and diftributed to the people. 
 
 With the acceflion of the Tchou dynafty (1122 
 B.C.), a new era opened in the hiftory of Chinefe 
 money. Regulations were eftabliftied to fix the 
 relative value of all the exchangeable commodities. 
 The honour of this inftitution is attributed to the 
 great Duke of Ts'i, who in 1103 b.c. eftablifhed 
 the rules of circulating money for the nine ad- 
 miniftrative boards of finance, which had been 
 organized previoufly by another famous admini- 
 ftrator, the Duke of Tchou. From commen- 
 taries of ancient date we underftand that the 
 gold circulated in the fhape of little cubes of one 
 fquare inch weighing a kin; the copper in round 
 tongue-like plates was weighed by drachms (tchu) ; 
 the ftlk cloth, 2 feet 2 inches wide, in rolls of 
 40 feet length formed a piece. The great man 
 who had fo fuccefsfully introduced order and 
 principles in matters which feem to have been 
 hitherto left to the caprice of individuals or to 
 local and momentary neceffity (and who, by-the- 
 way, was not a Chinefe, but a native of the 
 
Ring Weights. 199 
 
 aboriginal tribes of the Eaft), retired to the 
 Dukedom of Ts'i, where he ifTued the fame regula- 
 tions as in the Middle Kingdom. We have an 
 infight into the working of the new organization 
 fome hundred and fifty years afterwards, from a 
 chapter of the Shu King. At the end of the 
 reign of King Muh of Tchou, i.e. previous to 
 947 b.c, enactments were made for the mulcts 
 and fines ; to redeem the penalties fuch as 
 branding, mutilation or death, the culprit was 
 allowed to pay 100, ^200, 500 or 1,000 hwan. 
 The hwan was a ring of copper weighing 6 oz., 
 and this fo far correfponds to the round fhape 
 enumerated in the Record of Inititutes of the great 
 DukeofTs'i. 
 
 The Duke Hwan of Ts'i (the fourteenth fuc- 
 ceflbr of the former), who ruled from 685 to 
 644 b.c, and whofe prime minifter was the worthy 
 financier Kwan-tze, of whom we have fpoken above, 
 in order to make known and accefiible to the public 
 the various weights, commiflioned the Left Matter 
 of the Horfes to caft fome metal from the mines 
 of the Tchwang mountain. The Duke Hwan 
 was the leader of the feudal princes of the 
 Chinefe agglomeration, and he fwayed the empire 
 under the nominal fuzerainty of King Hwey of 
 Tchou, and his regulations were therefore of a 
 more momentous character than thofe of any other 
 prince in his dominion. Of the fame Duke tradi- 
 tion fays that from the bullion caft at his own 
 command be ordered the Inner Great Officer 
 Wang yh to carry 2,000 tfien to the ftate of Tfu, 
 
200 Adze Currency. 
 
 in order to purchafe a living ftag. What was 
 the unit reprefented here by the expreflion tfien, 
 is not ftated. Should we truft the word itfelf, it 
 meant a fmall implement of hulbandry in metal, 
 which, being frequently ufed for its weight and 
 intrinfic value, became the current expreflion for 
 money in later times. 
 
 Indeed, the only obligation of weighing the 
 metal for currency had not prevented the ufe of 
 any object or implement for the purpofe of 
 exchange according to their verified weights ; the 
 choice of the tools of conftant and daily ufe 
 among a people exclufively occupied in agri- 
 cultural purfuits naturally commended itfelf. 
 Small adzes and billhooks above all were promi- 
 nent by their large number and eafy handling. 
 We can readily conceive how at firft the exchange 
 of fuch tools would be accepted with facility by 
 the people in their tranfactions ; they could be 
 either employed for their primeval object if 
 wanted, or exchanged with readinefs in cafe of 
 need. However, there was no limit to the felec- 
 tion of any particular form, while the employ of 
 metal in bare lumps was never difufed. All forts 
 of objects were made ufe of for exchange in 
 early times, and their endlefs variety may be 
 gathered from the following enumeration of 
 ftrangely fhaped moneys of old : " Thofe like a 
 bridge croffwife were commonly mufical-ftone 
 money ; thofe fhaped as a comb were commonly 
 padlock money ; thofe fhaped as a half-moon were 
 the half-moon money the author goes on to 
 
Relic of the Stone Age. 201 
 
 mention the fifh-fcale money and the fhell-money. 
 Specimens of thefe rare fhapes rarely appear in 
 numifmatic collections, and only in cafts, which are 
 always open to fome kind of fufpicion as to the 
 genuinenefs of the original ufed for moulding. 
 We do not know how far the regulations of the 
 great Duke Wang, and thofe of his later fucceffor, 
 Duke Hwan, limited the variety of lhapes; but 
 fmall implements of hufbandry were thofe which 
 were almoft exclufively^ ufed for a long period, 
 efpecially fmall adzes, chifels, fpades, or planes. 
 They are an interefting furvival of a peculiar tool 
 of the ftone age, hitherto found nowhere elfe than 
 in South-Eaftern Afia. While all the hitherto 
 found implements of this rude ftage of induftry 
 are limited to a few types which prefent only flight 
 variations in whatever country they are excavated, 
 the type we are fpeaking of is an exception. Its 
 name, " fhouldered-headed celt," is pretty well 
 defcriptive of its fhape, which is clofely imitated 
 in the bronze implements of China ufed for 
 currency. The only characteriftic of the ftone an- 
 tecedent, which has difappeared becaufe of the 
 thinnefs of the metal, confifts " in the edge being 
 ground down on one fide like a chifel, inftead of 
 on both fides like an axe, as is ufually the cafe." 
 The fhouldered-headed celts are generally found 
 in the Malayan peninfula, in the lower part of 
 Burmah, within the provinces of Pegu and Ten- 
 nafferim ; they have been found at Chutia Nagpur, 
 in Central India; and quite lately at Semrang 
 Sen (fouth-weft of Lake Tonle Sap), in Cambodia. 
 
202 .. Weights and Implements. 
 
 weights Thus we can trace, up to the adminiftration of 
 
 and Im- r 
 
 piements. Kwan-tze, a twofold development in the hiftory 
 of Chinefe moneys. Befides the weights properly 
 fo-called, whatever may have been the occalional 
 employ made of them, arofe the cuftom of cafting 
 fmall implements, which for convenience were ufed 
 in exchange, of a regular fhape and approximate 
 weight ; and gradually, as a natural fequence of 
 that fyftem, came the practice of having them in- 
 fcribed with the name of the place or city where 
 they were caft and put in circulation. 
 
 weights. ^ e fyft em °f ring-weights, which may, 
 perhaps, be traced to an Egyptian fource, was con- 
 tinued down to the foundation of the Chinefe 
 Empire, when it was {lightly modified into the 
 pattern ftill in ufe in the prefent day. When King 
 Hwei Wan of Ts'in, the future conqueror of the 
 whole of China, wanted to throw over the ftill fur- 
 viving ufe of cowry currency, in 335 B.C., he ordered 
 ring-weights to be caft, of which fpecimens are 
 found. Thofe hitherto known bear the infcription 
 of their weight, "weighing 1 oz. 12 drs.," or 
 " 1 oz. 14 drs.," or only "12 drs.," differences 
 which are fuggeftive of a larger number of varieties 
 at prefent unknown. 
 
 Relics of the other fhapes of metallic currency 
 are ftill in exiftence, though not in large numbers, 
 in the European collections. Of the tcb'ang, or 
 adze or fpade-pattern, we know by actual fpeci- 
 mens that fome were caft fpecially for the purpofe 
 of currency ; for they are too light to have been 
 intended for practical work Some do not bear 
 
Leaf Weights. 203 
 
 any infcription whatever, but ufually they are 
 infcribed with the name of the town where they 
 were caft; this cuftom was of courfe of later in- 
 troduction, when fome tool-fhaped objects were ^efghts. 
 caft in large numbers, without a view to their ufe 
 as implements, or in fmaller fize than was required 
 for induftrial purpofes. Thefe pfeudo-coins were 
 infcribed with the name of the place or city, and 
 they were commonly called flip-weights, or leaf- 
 weights, or helping-weights, flips or leaves. They 
 were not iflued by the governments, but by private 
 individuals. Specimens, with the indication of 2 
 Kins, 1 Kin, 7 a Kin, and of proportionated fizes 
 bear the names of the cities of An-yii, Yii, Shan- 
 yang, Liang, etc. Though a private bufinefs, the 
 central government feveral times attempted to 
 modify it. Thus King Tchwang of Tfu, who 
 ruled in his principality from 612 to 589 B.C., 
 vainly endeavoured to create a nominal currency 
 by reducing to the value of units the larger pieces 
 actually worth feveral units ; and a flmilar failure 
 attended in 523 b.c. the iflue by King, the ruler 
 of Tchou, of large pieces (hitherto unidentified), 
 intended to fuperfede altogether the fmall ones in 
 circulation, which the King fancied were too light. 
 
 During the ages following, which are known Period 0 
 as the Period of the Contending States, money £® d 9°*" 
 was multiplied at a great rate in the Chinefe states, 
 agglomeration. The confederation of the various 
 ftates, after having lafted feveral centuries, had 
 ceafed to exift, and each of the principalities 
 was fighting for fupremacy over the others ; and 
 
204 The Contending States. 
 
 in fome of the ftates the fight was in fact a 
 ftruggle for life. After fome two centuries of 
 incefifant wars, feven ftronger ftates furvived, only 
 to be finally fubdued and abforbed by the moft 
 powerful of them, the weftern ftate of Ts'in, the 
 ruler of which eftablifhed the Chinefe Empire in 
 the middle of the third century, and proclaimed 
 himfelf firft Emperor in 221 b.c. 
 
 For numifmatics, the ftate of Ts i during this 
 period of contention is far the moft important. 
 The moft widely known currency of Ts'i at that 
 time is the knife-money y which confifted in a 
 fort of billhooks, fome feven inches long, curved, 
 and the handle terminating in a ring. The fhape 
 was that of an implement of hufbandry in bronze, 
 of which a rude fpecimen is exhibited in ,the 
 Chinefe Gallery of the South Kenfington Mufeum. 
 The ftate of Ts'i was one of the moft powerful of 
 the Chinefe ftates: it rofe in 11 22 b.c, and was 
 one of the laft which refifted the ever-growing ftate 
 of Ts'in, as it was not fubdued before 224 b.c. 
 It covered what is now a large part of Northern 
 Shantung and Southern Tchih-li, and always 
 exercifed an important influence in the empire. 
 We remember that the financial Inftitutes of the 
 Tchou dynafty were eftablifhed by the firft Duke 
 of Ts'i. The population of this region has been 
 confpicuous for its intelligence and boldnefs. It 
 was there, on the coafts of the Gulf of Kiao-tchou 
 (S. Shantung), that foreign traders of the Eryth- 
 raean Sea firft eftablifhed the emporia of Lang-ga 
 and Tfih-moh from 680 to 375 B.C., and iftued 
 
Knife Money of Tsu 
 
 205 
 
 the firft infcribed money of China, foon imitated 
 in Ts'i. This interesting feature is revealed to us 
 by their knife-coinage, which gives proof of the 
 extent of their commercial relations. The legends 
 of the knife-coins bear pofitive teftimony to the 
 aflbciations which exifted between feveral towns 
 of the Ts'i ftate, with the colonifts, and also 
 with towns of other ftates. We do not know 
 by whom thefe ifliies wfcre really made, whether 
 they were caft by order either of the communities 
 in partnerfhip or otherwife, or of aflbciations of 
 
 KNIFE MONEY. 
 
 traders independent of the communal adminiftra- 
 tion. 
 
 The knife-currency did not outlive the fubmif- 
 fion of the ftates of Ts'i and Wei and their ab- 
 forption by that of Ts'in, which ftarted a new 
 currency. It ceafed to be recognifed as the ordinary 
 money, and took refuge in out-of-the-way places 
 outfide the borders of China. Though we have 
 no intermediary proof of its continued exiftence, 
 for lack of information we cannot help connect- 
 ing with it and confidering as a furvival of the old 
 practice, ftill exifting in the prefent century among 
 the Khamti and Sing-Pho tribes on the fouth-weft 
 
2o6 Leaf Money. 
 
 borders of China, of ufing fmall fquare iron dhas 
 or knives as currency. The very name of thefe 
 dhas is obvioufly connected with the Chinefe tao 
 or knife-money, and fpeaks for itfelf. 
 
 A fort of defcendant of the older weights, known 
 as flips for weight, or leaf-money, received a greater 
 development than the knife-money. The latter 
 were too large to be the common and popular 
 medium of exchange in a country where the 
 exigencies of life were fo fmall and fo cheap that 
 every man needed i ,000 pieces of money or a little 
 more a year; the equivalent of which in our 
 money of the prefent day fliould be about eight 
 fhillings, which was a fufficient income for a man 
 in China in the third century b.c. In the fecond 
 half of the fourth century, the King of Tchao (a 
 ftate to the fouth of the modern Tchih-li and 
 Shan-fi provinces) granted to Tchang-y the ufe of 
 faddle-money : another name for leaf-money. All 
 the leaf-money of that period may be clafTed in 
 two divifions, one with fquare, and the other with 
 pointed feet. They bear on the obverfe the name 
 of the place where they were iffued, and generally 
 on the reverfe a ferial figure. The twenty and 
 odd towns whofe names occur were fcattered all 
 over the various ftates, but were moftly fituated 
 in the ftates of Ts'i and Wei. Thefe two ftates 
 fought to the laft againft their abforption by the 
 powerful ftate of Ts'in ; it is clear that the 
 multiplication of their money during that period 
 of warfare was for the purpofe of helping and 
 maintaining their ftruggle. Their rude workman- 
 
Gold Currency. 207 
 
 fhip, and the Amplifications of characters drawn 
 by ignorant hands, exclude any poflibility of their 
 being the produce of a ftate coinage. The figns 
 of the legends are abbreviated fo loofely, in de- 
 fiance of all principles of orthography, and they 
 offer fo many variants, that we may be fure that 
 they are the work of private individuals among 
 the people. 
 
 The leaf-money did not die out altogether with gold 
 the foundation of the Chinefe Empire ; it lingered 
 in obfcure corners, and was not extinguifhed by 
 the ftate currency ifiued by the Ts'in dynafty. 
 
 Of the early gold currency we have very little to 
 fay. It could not be in frequent ufe in a country 
 where life was fo cheap, and it was reftricled to 
 the purchafe of jewels or prefents from the princes 
 and wealthy people. Except in the financial 
 arrangements of the Tchou dynafty as eftablifhed 
 by the great Duke of Ts'i, we hear only of one 
 hiftorical inftance of the ufe of the 1 inch cube 
 of gold, or kin, weighing one pound, which had 
 been made the ftandard. 
 
 In the fourth century b.c. we read of anjy£ of 
 gold, but we know nothing more of it. It was 
 probably a weight of precious metal in the 
 lump. Under the Ts'in dynafty, the yh was the 
 unit for gold, and it was then equal to 20 Hang in 
 weight. When the Han dynafty arofe, the Ts'in 
 inftitutions were revoked, and the old cubic inch 
 of gold or kin was again the unit as under the 
 Tchou dynafty. A fpecimen of this curious money 
 exifted in the Cabinet des Medailles, at Paris, 
 
208 
 
 State Coinage. 
 
 and a great fcholar, Ed. Biot, has tried (but in 
 our opinion unfuccefsfully) to afcertain by its 
 weight the ftandard of the ancient Chinefe. 
 
 With the Ts'in dynafty appears the firft ftate 
 mintage of the central government, the lineal 
 antecedent of the prefent coinage. Of the gold 
 currency we have already faid the little that can 
 be recorded. The copper money was round, with 
 a fquare hole in the centre : " round as the fky, 
 fquare as the earth." The pieces were fub- 
 ftantially the fame as thofe of the Tchou dynafty 
 as far as their regular weight is concerned, and 
 their multiples were in correct proportion to the 
 unit ; their weight agreed with that infcribed upon 
 them. They were marked Pan-liang, or half- 
 liang, equivalent to the eighth part of a kin- 
 weight. All that were formerly ufed as mediums 
 of exchange — gems, pearls, tortoife-fhell, cowries, 
 filver, tin, etc., etc. — were no longer recognifed as 
 equivalent for currency in the official tranfaclions. 
 The purpofe of the founder of the empire, Ts'in 
 Shi Hoang-ti, was to effect a thorough affimilation 
 of the various and rather heterogeneous parts of 
 his dominion. His great achievements in this 
 refpect were, firft, the fubftitution, for the varieties 
 in the writing which had gradually arifen with the 
 independence of the ftates, of a uniform ftyle of 
 writing, a fort of ideographical tranfcription 
 which could be underftood everywhere, defpite 
 the differences of the vernacular dialects ; and, 
 fecond, his attempts at eftablifhing a State money. 
 The burning of the books, which, indeed, has 
 
Ts'in Dynajty. 
 
 209 
 
 deprived the world of many ancient records which 
 nowadays would be invaluable treafures, and muft 
 therefore be deeply regretted, was neverthelefs an 
 act of political wifdom, in order to clear away 
 the impediments by which the ultra-confervatives 
 tried to check his fteps. The new Emperor wilhed 
 to withdraw, out of the reach of the literati and of 
 the people at large, all the accumulated hiftorical 
 traditions, which by the Numerous examples there 
 recorded as patterns of conduct, offered too much 
 ground for protecting againft the fpirit of innova- 
 tion and progrefs which characterifed his govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The dynafty founded by this great ruler in 221 
 B.C. for " ten thoufand years," finifhed in troubles 
 and rebellions againft an atrocious and tyrannical 
 policy after only fifteen years, and was foon fuc- 
 ceeded by the great Han dynafty, which during 
 four centuries, with a flight eclipfe of fixteen 
 years, ruled the empire (204 B.C. to 190 a.d.). 
 
 The Han confidered the money of the Ts'in Han 
 too heavy and inconvenient, and they authorized 
 the people to caft fome leaf-money ; while the gold 
 coins were again of the weight of a pound, as under 
 the Tchou dynafty. But the fmall copper pieces 
 became gradually fo thin, that indeed they de- 
 ferred their nickname of elm-leaf money ; and 
 they were multiplied to fuch an extent that they 
 loft their former value, and prices rofe enormoufly. 
 In order to mitigate this evil, the Emprefs Kao 
 (185 b.c.) iffued pieces of 8 tchus^ equal in value 
 to the half-ounce pieces (pan-liang) of the pre- 
 
 p 
 
2IO 
 
 Han Dynajiy 
 
 ceding dynafty ; but it was found impoflible to 
 withdraw the elm-leaf money from circulation. 
 Eleven years afterwards, the Emperor Wen-Ti, 
 in the fifth year of his reign, tried to meet the 
 difficulty by the iffue of pieces having the fame 
 legend of fan-liang as before, but weighing 
 only 4 tchus ; and with the intention of rooting 
 out falfe coining, he let the people caft their own 
 money. The remedy, however, was infufficient, 
 and fome uneafinefs was felt by the Emperor as 
 to the influence of two feudal and almoft inde- 
 pendent ftates which ifTued their own money 
 at a higher ftandard than that of the Chinefe 
 Empire. 
 
 Counter- The Emperor, in face of the failure of free 
 mintage to check the counterfeiters, was obliged 
 to forbid the people to caft their own money. 
 King-Ti (156-140), the fuccefTor of Wen-Ti, was 
 accufed of having ifTued falfe gold coins ; fo that 
 the people eagerly ufed the money introduced by 
 the feudal ftate of Teng. Falfe coiners praclifed 
 their profemon, and fevere fentences could not ftop 
 the ever-growing evil. Wu-Ti, whofe reign of 
 fifty-four years was the moft glorious of his 
 dynafty, and whofe generals carried the Chinefe 
 arms into the heart of Afia, ifTued, as a palliative 
 meafure, a money of real value, bearing the defign 
 of 3 tchus; but five years later it had to be 
 fupprefled again, becaufe it was counterfeited 
 and clipped, and pieces of 5 tchus^ the ftandard 
 of the dynafty, were then caft like thofe intro- 
 duced by the Emprefs Kao. But all this was of 
 
Counterfeiting, 
 
 211 
 
 no avail againft the counterfeiters, who ifTued fuch 
 quantities of debafed coin, that the genuine money 
 nearly difappeared in fome parts of the Empire, 
 where pieces of cloth had to be ufed again as a 
 medium of exchange. To face fuch an emergency 
 it was decided to abolifh all the then exifting 
 pieces which had a nominal value of half an 
 ounce, but which in reality contained only 4 tchus, 
 and to make new pieces of a weight of 5 tchus, 
 furnifhed all around with a raifed edge, in order 
 to prevent the coins from being filed. 
 
 The third currency ifTued by order of the 
 Emperor Wu-Ti confifted of three forts of pieces 
 of different fize and form, made of tin and filver 
 melted together, and of a nominal value far beyond 
 the intrinfic. The firft was round, with the defign 
 of a dragon, emblem of the Imperial dignity, 
 weighing 8 Hang, and its value was fixed at 3,000 
 pieces of money. The fecond was fquare, with 
 the defign of a horfe, weighing 6 Hang, and worth 
 500 pieces. The third was oblong, with the 
 defign of a tortoife, weighing 4 Hang, and worth 
 300 pieces. The refult of thefe fiduciary iffues 
 was very unfatisfaclory ; and their end was fad 
 indeed. The very year of their iffue they could 
 no longer circulate, having been counterfeited on 
 a great fcale, not only by the people, but alfo by 
 the ftate officials. No fpecimens of this fanciful 
 mintage feem to be ftill in exiftence; and the 
 reprefentations of it which appear in fome native 
 books of numifmatics were drawn from the written 
 defcription, and the falfe fpecimens which appear 
 
212 
 
 The Shang-lin Mint. 
 
 fometimes in collections were made from the 
 drawings, for fale to collectors. 
 
 After twenty-three years fpent in thefe un- 
 fuccefsful eflays, the Emperor Wu-Ti was at laft 
 convinced that the evil was more deeply rooted 
 than had been hitherto fuppofed, and that fome 
 more adequate meafures had become necefTary. 
 Accordingly, with thefe wife views, great changes 
 were made in the monetary management of the 
 empire. Every diftrict and province was not 
 allowed, as formerly, to caft its own money ; and 
 a ftate mint was eftablifhed in the capital of the 
 empire, under the direction of three members of 
 the Shang-lin, or;Academy, which had been created 
 by the fame Emperor in 138 B.C. All the metallic 
 currency formerly in ufe was withdrawn and 
 brought to the Shang-lin mint to be melted and 
 recaft ; and all money not iflued by that mint 
 was confidered illegal. The moft {killed of the 
 falfe coiners were engaged as workmen at the 
 mint. The money iffued was that of §-tchu 
 pieces, which, being very well made, remained the 
 ftandard, excepting temporary mintages, during 
 feven centuries, or until the iflue of the Kai 
 yuen tung pao, the ftandard coin of the T'ang 
 dynafty, in 622 a.d. Thefe ($-tchu) pieces were 
 of the now ufual pattern — round, with a fquare 
 hole in the centre, fize 6 of Mionnet's fcale, with 
 a fmall raifed edge all around. In confequence of 
 the draftic meafures taken by Wu-Ti, the counter- 
 feiters had little chance during the latter part of 
 his reign ; and we do not hear of them during the 
 
State Coinage. 
 
 213 
 
 Ihort rule of his fucceflbr Tchao-Ti (86-73 B.C.). 
 However, in the long run, they proved to be 
 ftronger than the law of the land. Under the 
 Emperor Suan-Ti (73-48 B.C.), in the years 71 
 and 60 B.C., it was neceffary to make fome official 
 variations in the difpofition of the delign by the 
 addition of a raifed edge on both fides of the 
 fquare central hole. But in the reign of the 
 Emperor Yuen-Ti (48-32 b.c.) the counterfeiting 
 had again reached a dangerous level ; the forgers 
 were more than 100,000 in number, and propofals 
 were ferioufly difcufTed by the councillors of the 
 Crown to abolilh the metallic currency, and fub- 
 ftitute in its ftead grain, filk, cloth, and tortoife- 
 fhell as a medium of exchange ; but it was diffi- 
 cult to make a fudden change in money which 
 had been for a long time in circulation. The 
 only means of checking the counterfeiters then 
 was to ifTue from time to time new alterations, 
 in the fhape of additional lines or dots on the 5- 
 tchu pieces. We hear no more of changes in the 
 mintage until the ufurper Wang Mang, half a 
 century later. From 217 B.C., when the Shang-lin 
 mint began to caft money, till the beginning of 
 the reign of the Emperor Ping-Ti (1 a.d.), the 
 amount of pieces iflued was 280,000,000,000. In 
 the time of the Emperor Yuen-Ti (48-32 b.c.) 
 the treafury of the Imperial paiace amounted to 
 4,000,000,000, and the privy purfe contained 
 1,800,000,000 pieces of money. 
 
 The moft eventful period in the hiftory of Wang 
 Chinefe money is that of the eighteen years during Mang ' 
 
214 : The V fur per Wang Mang. 
 
 which Wang Mang the ufurper ruled the country, 
 tirft as Regent, and after as Emperor. He began 
 to cancel the various decrees enacted by the Han 
 dynafty, and reverted again to the money of the 
 Tchou dynafty, the multiple and unit pieces, or, as 
 the Chinefe fay, the mother and child, weighed in 
 proportion to each other. He alfo made again 
 what he fuppofed to have been the pieces of Ring 
 King of the Tchou dynafty, and he reintroduced 
 Revival of the knife-fhaped money. It is eafy to judge how 
 Money, far thefe revived fhapes were different from the 
 originals when we compare the knife-fhaped money 
 of his iflues to actual fpecimens of the older 
 currency. The fo-called knives of Wang Mang 
 have but the name in common with their originals ; 
 they are half as long and much thicker, while the 
 ring at the end of the handle is replaced by the 
 fhape of a thick piece of money with rim and 
 central fquare hole. 
 
 When the ufurper took actual pofTeftion of 
 the Imperial throne (9 a.d.), he was afraid of 
 all that would remind the people of the eclipfed 
 dynafty. As the name of Liu, the founder of 
 the dynafty, contained the characters kin ("metal"), 
 and tao ("knife"), Wang Mang feared that his 
 own knife-money would record the name of its 
 founder (an apprehension which later on proved 
 to be well grounded), and he decreed the abolition 
 of the two forts of knives and of the $-tchu 
 pieces. He fubftituted new forts of currency of 
 gold, filver, tortoife-fhell, cowries, and copper. 
 Of the tortoife-fhell and cowries thus revived 
 
Revived Han Dynafty. 215 
 
 we have already fpoken. The gold piece was, of 
 courfe, in imitation of the ancient rule of the 
 Tchou dynafty, and was called kin (pound), with 
 a value of 1 0,000 copper pieces. In filver there were 
 two pieces of different values bafed on a unit called 
 liu ( = 8 Hang) ; their difference confifted only in 
 the quality of the filver, arid their value was 1,580 
 and 1,000 cafh. As to the fhape of this gold and 
 filver money, we know nothing, and no fpecimen 
 is known to exift. 
 
 The copper money received the name of pu by 
 a revival of the oldeft name ufed in the ftate 
 of Ts'i previously to the financial Inftitutes of 
 the Tchou dynafty, when pu (or cloth) was the 
 principal medium of exchange in this region. 
 
 In a.d. 23, the ufurper Wang Mang was Revived 
 murdered, and the fecond Han dynafty began to Dynasty 
 rule. The currency of the country was in fright- 
 ful diforder ; the laft ifTues of Wang Mang were no 
 longer accepted, becaufe they exifted only in counter- 
 feit, and the old $-tchu pieces were in fuch fmall 
 numbers that cloth, filk, metals, and rice were all 
 ufed as currency, every individual making the moft 
 of them. However, Kwang Wu-Ti, the new 
 Emperor, was not able, through the difficulties of 
 the fituation, to caft money before 40 a.d., and 
 the pattern then ufed was that of the ^-tchu pieces, 
 the ftandard currency of the Han. The only 
 modification fubfequently made was the addition 
 on the reverfe of four ftraight ftrokes from the 
 corners of the central hole to the outfide rim. 
 Some iron ^-tchu pieces had been caft during the 
 
2l6 
 
 Divijion of the Empire. 
 
 troubles at the end of the laft reign, two being 
 equivalent to one of copper. 
 
 rfthe° n ^° ot ^ er currenc y tnan the copper $-tchu 
 
 Empire, pieces was iflued till the end of the Han dynafty 
 (220 a.d.), and the enfuing divifion for over fifty 
 years of the empire into three kingdoms, Shuh, 
 Wei, and Wu, — except fmall copper pieces iflued 
 in 190 a.d. by the laft Emperor, Hien-Ti, to fupply 
 the $-tchu pieces ; for which, as the neceffary 
 quantity of copper was not available, he feized 
 many copper objects and ftatues, efpecially thofe 
 of Fei-lien or Fong-poh, the God of the Winds, 
 who had incurred his curfe. 
 
 Wei. Four hundred years of monetary troubles and 
 
 diforders had not convinced the rulers of the 
 necefiity of a found currency. The King of Wei, 
 in the north, thought that the beft means of 
 avoiding all thefe difficulties was to fupprefs the 
 metallic currency altogether. Accordingly he 
 abolifhed the $-tchu pieces, and ordered the 
 people to ufe as currency only grain and filk. 
 It was only opening another door to the coun- 
 terfeiters, who, inftead of cafting bad metal, put 
 moift grain in the bags, and wove thin and fleecy 
 filk, so that after forty years it was necefTary to 
 return to the metal currency, and pieces of the 
 time-honoured $-tchu pattern were caft again and 
 put in circulation. 
 
 Wu . In the ftate of Wu, the eafternmoft ftate of the 
 
 three, matters were ftill worfe. In 236 a.d. were 
 iflued large pieces (8 of Mionnet's fcale), with 
 the legend Ta tfiuen wu poh (" Great money 
 
State of Wu. 
 
 217 
 
 500 "), and two years afterwards larger ones (97 2 )> 
 Ta tfiuen tang tfien (" Great money worth 1000"), 
 which were foon counterfeited on a fmaller fcale, 
 fo that it was deemed advifable to difcontinue 
 their mintage, and to melt them for implements. 
 In 256 a.d. was iflued ano^ier mintage, the pieces 
 whereof in the ordinary pattern were worth 100 
 tfien, as indicated by their legend, Tai-ping peh 
 tfien (" 100 tfien [or caJK\ of [the period] Tai 
 Ping "), which were of courfe foon imitated in a 
 fmaller fize. This is the fir ft example of the ufe of 
 the name of the reign or nien-hao in the denomi- 
 nation of the money. The cafe is worth noticing, 
 though only fporadic examples are ftill found 
 during the following centuries. Gradually the 
 cuftom became more general, and later on, from 
 the T'ang dynafty up to the prefent day, the iflues 
 are diftinguifhed by the names of the years during 
 which they were caft. Since the Ming dynafty 
 the nien-hao, which were generally changed feveral 
 times during one reign, have been made uniform 
 for the full length of a reign, and to a certain 
 extent have become identified with the ruler's own 
 name, which is too facred to be pronounced during 
 his lifetime. 
 
 Though the ftiape of the currency was pretty Later Ts'in 
 well fettled, we ftill find fome eccentricities in the Dynasty> 
 iflues, partly due to the abfence of the neceflary 
 quantity of metal. The Ts'in dynafty (265-317 
 a.d.), who re-united the empire under one fway, 
 iflued diminutive $-tchu pieces (fize 2 of Mionnet's 
 fcale), and two large iron pieces (fizes 9 and 15), 
 
218 - 
 
 Southern Empire. 
 
 worth 100 and 1,000, and fo marked from top 
 to bottom Th peh and Th tfien refpectively, with 
 Tung ngan ("Eternal peace ") from right to left, 
 denoting the name of the year (304 a.d.), when 
 they were caft. 
 
 The Two During a period of one hundred and fifty years, 
 the empire was nominally divided between two 
 Emperors, though in fact it was for a while parti- 
 tioned into nine different ftates, in feven of which 
 the rulers had not alfumed the Imperial title. Of 
 courfe, money too was in great diforder, but it 
 is worth noticing that the Tartars, who ruled in 
 the northern part of the Yang-tfe Kiang, while 
 the lawful heir of the ancient Chinefe had re- 
 moved to the fouth, had much more found views 
 on financial economy than the Chinefe themfelves, 
 with all their painful and coftly experience. 
 
 southern In the Southern Empire, under the Sung 
 dynafty (420-477 a.d.), the Emperor Wen-Ti 
 iffued, in the year 430, copper pieces with a 
 raifed edge, and the defign 4 tchus, which were 
 equal in value to the old $-tchu pieces ; thefe 
 pieces were hard to counterfeit, but very foon the 
 old frauds began again. Hia Wu Ti's ^-tchu 
 coins, with double legends (454-456), and his 
 later i-tchu pieces, were largely imitated, till they 
 received derifive nicknames from the people, who 
 called the thin ones " weed-leaves," and the fmall 
 ones " goofe-eye money." 
 
 At the beginning of the Liang dynafty (502-556 
 a.d.), in confequence of the clofing of the ftate 
 mints in fheer despair, money was fo fcarce that 
 
Iron Money. 
 
 219 
 
 it was employed only in the capital, Nanking, and 
 its vicinity. In order to put an end to the 
 fraudulent dealings of the money-changers, it was 
 decided to fuperfede the copper money by iron iron 
 money, and pieces bearing the legends Ta Kih wu 
 Ubu, Ta Fuh wu tchu^ Ta fung wu tchu^ in iron 
 were put in circulation. Ta fung only is a name 
 of year, being that of the years 527, 528. But 
 this was the folution of a difficulty by the creation 
 of a new one. Iron could be got much more 
 ealily than copper, and as the Government itfelf 
 could not refill: the temptation of making large 
 profits, in ten years the iron money fell to one-third 
 of its intended value. 
 
 When the Tch'en dynafty (557-587 a.d.) arofe, 
 among the confulions caufed by the fall of the 
 Liang, all the iron money was difcarded, and the 
 new princes reverted to the old $-tchu pieces, 
 which, in refpedt to the ftill circulating "goofe-eye 
 money," had a relative value of 10 to 1. 
 
 While all thefe monetary troubles and wild Northern 
 experiments were going on in the Southern Empire ' 
 Empire, more fober views and found economical 
 principles had guided the Tartar rulers in the 
 north. Indeed, their people, many of whom 
 had fettled m China, were not accultomed to 
 metallic currency, and continued bartering as 
 formerly, while the Chmefe themi'elves ufed the 
 former currency. It is only the feventh ruler of 
 the Topa or Wei dynafty (3X6-532 a.d.), Hiao 
 Wu-Ti, who directed in 477 a.d. that the falaries 
 of all the ftate officers mould be reckoned by 
 
220 : 
 
 Sui Dynafty. 
 
 money to be ufed henceforth in the empire, at 
 the rate of 200 pieces of copper money, being 
 equal to a piece of ftlk. The new money was 
 infcribed Tat Ho wu tchu, or " $-tchu of (the 
 period) Tai-ho." Fifty years afterwards falfe coin- 
 ing had impaired confiderably this money, and 
 new ones had to be caft with the legend Tung 
 ngan wu tchu^ or " $-tchu of (the period) Yung 
 ngan " (" Eternal peace "). 
 Sui Under the Sui dynafty (581-618 a.d.), who 
 
 Dynasty. m j ec j a g am G ver the whole empire, attempts 
 
 were made to revive the old ftandard pieces of 
 5 tchus, and new ones were caft with the new 
 diftinctive feature of a broader ring. But the 
 innumerable iflues of money which had been made 
 in the preceding centuries in the various ftates, 
 and which were locally ftill more or lefs in 
 circulation, had caufed the moft hopelefs con- 
 fufion. The old ftandard was no longer trufted 
 by the people, who were obliged in the North- 
 VVeftern provinces, weft of the Hoang-ho river, 
 to ufe money from the foreign countries of the 
 Weft with which they had commercial intercourfe. 
 modern With the great T'ang dynafty rifes a great 
 coinage. f Qr ^ ^^j. m t h e metallic currency of 
 
 China. As we have feen at the end of the laft 
 
 Dynasty P Qr ' 10 ^ tne S" tchu P ieces > which had been the 
 ftandard money for more than eight centuries, 
 had fallen into fuch difcredit that it was impof- 
 fible even to retain the name. An entirely new 
 money was eftablifhed, bearing the .legend Kaiyuen 
 t'ung $ao (or "Current money of the neweft 
 
Modern Coinage. 221 
 
 beginning "), weighing half as much again as the 
 old ^-tchu pieces [i.e., ^/-tchu), with a fize of 7 
 on Mionnet's fcale. On the reverfe was a nail- 
 mark, which fince then has fpread all over the Eaft, 
 in Japan as in Corea and Annam. The origin of 
 this curious mark is attributed to this incident : 
 when the Under-Secretary 0J 8 the Cenfors, Ngeu- 
 yang-fiun, who had himfelf written the characters 
 of the legend, Ihowed a model in wax of the new 
 money, the Emprefs Wen-teh in touching it left 
 on the wax the impreffion of her nail. 
 
 The new money was so good that it foon Limited 
 fpread all over the empire, and has never been 
 furpaffed. The only reproach was that it was not 
 iffued in sufficient quantities to meet the require- 
 ments of the traders. This infufficiency led to 
 feveral abufes. The pieces were counterfeited in 
 a mixture of iron and tin by fkilful forgers, 
 againft whofe cunning the officials were powerlefs. 
 The Emperor tried to abolifh the new money lefs 
 than forty years after its firft iffue, and caufed 
 the ftate-money to be provided with a new legend 
 (Hien King fung pad) ; but it was foon found 
 impoffible to go on with the new meafure, which 
 therefore was withdrawn. The only practicable 
 means was to make terms with the counterfeited 
 money, and to accept it in payment. In 666 a.d. 
 a new money with the legend K'ien fung (the 
 year-name) tung pao, was iffued, to be accepted 
 at the rate of one new for ten old pieces ; but it 
 foon became neceffiary to caft again the Kai yuen 
 pattern. The current money always circulated by 
 
222 
 
 T'ang Dynajiy. 
 
 firings of 1,000, and thus the falfe pieces eafily 
 
 efcaped detection. Under the reign of the Emprefs 
 
 Wu (684-704 a.d.), therefore, it was forbidden to 
 
 make payment in pieces ftrung together; they 
 
 were to circulate loofe, that the copper, tin, and 
 
 iron pieces might be diftinguimed at once. 
 
 Dearth of All the efforts of the Government were of no 
 Metal - . 
 
 avail. The lliue in 758 a.d. of larger money 
 
 directed to be the equivalent of 50 and of 10 of 
 the old pieces, was received with contempt by the 
 people, becaufe they had no intrinflc value. The 
 metallic currency was fo poor that flones for 
 grinding rice were received as money of an in- 
 trinfic value at the rate of 1 to 10 cajh. The 
 great difficulty to overcome, for the Govern- 
 ment, was the fcanty fupply of copper. Though 
 it had been forbidden to any individual to 
 ftore up more than a fixed quantity of the 
 precious metal, the amount in circulation had 
 gradually diminifhed by the melting of the good 
 copper pieces to make vafes, implements, and 
 Buddhifr. figures. In 809 a.d. private perfons 
 tried to circulate filver money by working the 
 filver mines of the Wuling Mountains (fouth of 
 Hunan province), but this was foon prohibited by 
 the Government. 
 Confisca- At laft it was found neceflary to regulate the 
 Buddhist ufe of the various metals. In 829 a.d. it was 
 Treasures. orc j erec [ t k at Buddhifr. figures and ornaments, 
 
 inilead of being made of copper, mould be made 
 of lead, tin, clay, or wood, and the girdle either 
 of gold, filver, Perfian brafs, or fleel blued and 
 
Conjifcation of Buddhiji Treafures. 223 
 
 polifhed ; only for mirrors, gongs, nails, rings, 
 and buttons, copper might be ufed. This reftric- 
 tive meafure was only the prelude of another 
 of a more fweeping character. By the natural 
 reaction from the extraordinary favour beftowed 
 upon Buddhifm during the% previous reigns, this 
 religion, from its exceffive development and the 
 immoderate pretentions of its devotees, came under 
 the difpleafure of the Emperor Wu Tfung, who, in 
 845 a.d., decreed its fuppreffion. 4,600 monas- 
 teries and 40,000 fmaller temples were deftroyed ; 
 260,500 monks and nuns were compelled to return 
 to lay life; more than 15,000,000 acres of 
 land v-ere feized, and 150,000 female flaves were 
 freed. All the copper ftatues, mallet-bells, gongs, 
 and clapper-bells were confifcated to the profit of 
 the Government, and melted to caft money of the 
 Kai-yuen pattern in about twenty-five mints, of 
 which the name was marked on the reverfe of the 
 pieces. This new fupply of money was received 
 with great favour, becaufe of the quantity of gold 
 fuppofed by the people to have been mixed with 
 the copper in the temples. 
 
 The continuation of the numifmatic records of 
 China is a tedious repetition of all that we have 
 feen thus far. InfufEciency in the fupply of 
 copper, and ftruggles againfi: the counterfeiters, with 
 the additional complications of a double ftandard 
 caufed by the temporary cafting of iron money 
 under the Sung dynafty and of the development of 
 the paper money, which, from fmall beginnings in 
 806 a.d., attained a paramount importance under 
 
224 
 
 Mandchu Dynafty. 
 
 Yuen and the Yuen or Mongol dynafty, which caft very 
 Dynasties, fmall quantities of copper-money. The Ming 
 dynafty had alfo a poor mintage. It is only the 
 prefent dynafty, the Ta Ts'ing Mandchu, who 
 iflued a regular and efficient mintage. From the 
 time of the Ming dynafty the year-names have 
 been reduced to one for each reign, fo that the 
 legend was henceforth the fame for the whole 
 mintage of a ruler. 
 Mandchu Regularity, however, is fairly fecured in the 
 Dynasty. f rom mint of the Board of Finance in 
 
 the capital, which are the pattern for the provincial 
 mints ; but the fhrinking of the cool metal, when 
 frequently repeated by the cafting from moulds 
 made from pieces and not from the pattern, 
 produces fometimes a fenfible difference, which is 
 certainly not difadvantageous to fome of the mint- 
 mafters. The authorized proportion of the alloys 
 was, till 1722, copper 50, zinc 4i J / 2 , lead 6 x / a , 
 tin 2 ; after that time the compofition confifted of 
 equal parts of copper and zinc. The obverfe 
 bears the name of the reign, read from top to 
 bottom, and the words tung pao y or " current- 
 money," from right to left. On the reverfe the 
 name of the mint in Chinefe, or in Mandchu and 
 Chinefe, or in Mandchu only. There has been only 
 one dark period in the prefent mintage, which for 
 a time funk to the loweft level during the great 
 Ta'i-ping rebellion. The fupply of the copper 
 mines was ftopped, and it was neceffary to caft 
 iron money, the worft of its kind that was ever 
 made. 
 
Japan, 
 
 225 
 
 Silver circulates generally caft in ingots, in fhape 
 rudely refembling fhoes, and for that reafon called 
 " fhoe-filver." With the exception of two un- 
 fuccefsful (becaufe counterfeited) attempts in 1835 
 and 1856 to caft filver % dollars, the Govern- 
 ment has never iflued filver money. In Fuhkien 
 province and Formofa ifland, in 1835, a l ar g e iffue 
 of native dollars was made to pay the troops on 
 that ifland ; the legend was, " Pure filver for 
 current ufe from the Tchang tchou commifTariat, 
 (weight) 7 mace 2 candareens" At Shanghai, in 
 1856, the taels, or dollars, were of the fame weight 
 and purity (417*4 grs. troy); and befides the in- 
 fcription in Chinefe and in Mandchu, they had 
 an effigy of the god of longevity on the head, 
 and a tripod on the tail, to authenticate the 
 official origin. Gold, caft into ingots, alfo circulates 
 by weight. 
 
 Private individuals have fometimes caufed lilver 
 to be caft as money ; but they are generally 
 fatisfied to make, with European appliances, imita- 
 tions of the Mexican and old Spanifh dollars which 
 are in currency ; thefe, as they pafs fromi hand to 
 hand, are punched with the feal or ftamp of the 
 owner by way of endorfement; and when the 
 marks are fo numerous that there is no room left 
 on the coin for more, they are melted. 
 
 The Japanefe records tell us nothing about the Japan. 
 means by which barter was carried on previous to 
 the ufe of metals, which do not appear in the 
 Empire of the Rifing Sun before the fifth century 
 a.d, Thefe records claim to go back uninter- 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 Japan 
 
 ruptedly to 660 B.C., fo that, even admitting that 
 this far-reached date has to be morn of feveral 
 centuries, there is ftill a long lapfe of time during 
 which regular means of exchange might have been 
 recorded. 
 
 In the Ko-ji-ki, or " Records of Ancient Matters," 
 lately tranflated with great learning and induftry 
 by Mr. Bafil Hall Chamberlain, the firft appoint- 
 ment of a treafurer is recorded during the reign of 
 the Emperor Tza-ho Wake, or Ri-chin, who ruled 
 from 400 to 405 a.d., according to the " accepted 
 chronology ;" and feveral, but not all, native numif- 
 matifts of high Handing attribute to his immediate 
 fucceflbr, Midzu-ha Wake, or Han-zei, in 408 a.d., 
 the ifliie of rough filver coins, flat and irregular 
 dilks, with a fmall round central hole bearing 
 feveral marks of rude ftars of fix lines, and fome- 
 times undiftinguifhable ftrokes, fize 9 of Mionnet's 
 fcale. Mu-mon-do-Jen^ i.e. coins bearing no 
 characters, are more often claflified among the 
 Kitte-fen, i.e. coins iflued provifionally in times of 
 difturbances and warfare, and therefore very 
 coarfely made, being generally cut out of a plate 
 of metal inftead of caft. 
 
 The genuinenefs of the next coins in date, i.e., 
 copper coins iflued in 683 and 690 a.d., has 
 remained comparatively unchallenged. They con- 
 fifl: in flat and irregular difks of copper, with a 
 fmall round central hole; flze, 6 of Mionnet's 
 fcale ; marks, 4 crofles, each in a circle. 
 
 The working of metallic mines in Japan began 
 very late — 674 for fllver, 708 for copper, 749 
 
Imitation of Chine fe Money. 227 
 
 for gold ; and previous to thefe dates the fupply 
 of metal by foreign importations was very 
 limited, and if wanted, it was always eafy to get 
 the copper cajh from China. It is only in 708 
 a.d., after the difcovery of copper mines, that 
 the Japanefe began to caft regularly copper coins, 
 of the fame fhape as had then been common in 
 China for many centuries ; viz., round, with a 
 fquare hole in the centre. The Chinefe fyftem 
 of the year-names, in Japanefe Nengo, which had 
 been adopted fince 645 a.d., was followed in the 
 legends of the coins. The difcovery and working 
 of copper mines was confidered fo important an 
 event for the country, that the actual Nengo 
 was changed into Wa-do, i.e., Japanefe copper; 
 and the legend of the coins was Wa-do-kai-tchin, 
 •which may be rendered " New precious article of 0 ™£j^ ( 
 the Wa-do or Japanefe copper period." The Money. 
 Japanefe recognife the various ifTues of their coins 
 by differences in the fhape of a character, or of 
 a ftroke of a character, and fo claffify three ifTues 
 of the Wa-do coin, all rather roughly caft, and a 
 fourth ifTue of a fuperior workmanfhip, imitated 
 from the celebrated Chinefe Kai-yuen coin, to 
 which it is like in form, fhape of characters, and 
 general appearance. Fifty-two years afterwards, in 
 a.d. 760, there were fo many forged Wa-do-kai- 
 tchin in circulation, that the Government decided 
 to ifTue a new coin, which was caft, with the legend 
 Man-nen-tfu-ho , or " Current money of ten thou- 
 fand years," in four ifTues. A filver coin, worth 
 ten of the copper ones, was put in circulation the 
 
228 : Lead Currency. 
 
 fame year, with the legend Dai-bei-gen-ho, " Fun- 
 damental money of the great tranquillity." 
 
 Ten other copper coins were fucceffively ifliied 
 in a.d. 765, 796, 818, 835, 848, 859, 870, 890, 
 907, and 958; gradually decreafing in fize and 
 workmanfhip till 870, and in material afterwards. 
 The legends are often undecipherable, and in the 
 laft coins the metal is largely alloyed with lead ; 
 in fome cafes they are made entirely of the latter 
 Lead metal. The execution was carelefs, and the refult 
 
 Currency. . ' 
 
 was a rather disreputable money. Thefe twelve 
 coins conftitute the antique coins of the country, 
 or, as the Japanefe call them, 1 Ju-ni-hin ("The 
 twelve kinds"). After the coinage of the latter 
 coin, in confequence of political troubles, no copper 
 coins whatever were iflued by the Central Govern- 
 . ment for over 600 years. Mintage in lead had 
 begun as a fecondary currency with the iflue of 
 835 a.d., and down to 1302 the twelve antique 
 coin patterns circulated in lead or in tin. 
 CoinTfn During this long interruption in the iflue of 
 japan. copper coins, the Chinefe cajh fupplied the de- 
 ficiency. Coins of various dynafties of China 
 formed the currency of Japan, efpecially coins of 
 the Northern Sung, and the Ta-tchung, Hung- 
 Wu, and Yung-loh coins of the Ming ; thefe 
 were largely imitated. We cannot be aftonifhed 
 to fee them imitated to a fome what large extent. 
 For inftance, the Chinefe Sung coins of Siang-fu 
 (1008 a.d.), Tien-Sheng (1023), Kia-yu (1056), 
 
 1 W. Bramfen, The Coins of Japan, p. 7. 
 
Chine fe Coins in "Japan. 229 
 
 Ming-yuen (1032), Tcheping (1064), Hi-ming 
 (1068), Yuen-fung (1078), Yiien-yu (1086), Shao- 
 fheng (1094), Yuen-fu (1098), were moulded, 
 and fpecimens caft: and iffued in quantities at 
 Mito in the province of Fitatfu. In fome cafes 
 new patterns were made, fuch as for the Yuen- 
 fung coin with five varieties, two being moulded 
 from the Chinefe, and three made anew, which 
 exhibits a finilh and excellence of workmanftiip 
 and bronze cafting far fuperior to its Chinefe 
 original. All thefe iflues were made by the 
 private Dai'mios in 'their own eftates, and not by 
 the Central Government ; the metal was bronze, 
 from the fineft quality downwards, and fometimes 
 a very poor alloy, and indeed lead. The Yung- 
 loh (a.d. 1403) coin of the Ming was imported 
 in not inconfiderable quantities, and largely imi- 
 tated, not only from moulds of the coin itfelf, but 
 alfo with new patterns. The device was ufed for 
 gold, filver, white alloy, lead as well as for bronze, 
 of which metal a larger coin was alfo ifliied. 
 
 With the period Ten-Jho (1 573-1 591) com- 
 mences a new era for Japan generally, as well as 
 for its coins. Gold, filver, and copper coins 
 began from thence to be regularly ifliied. In 
 1587 the "Current money of Ten-fho," i.e. the 
 coin infcribed with the legend Ten-fho -tfu-ho y 
 was firft ifiued. As might be expected after the 
 art of coining had been fo neglected for centuries 
 at the capital, this coin is not well made ; there 
 feems to have been a very limited number of 
 copper coins caft, while filver coins of the fame 
 
230 : Improved Coinage. 
 
 defign were iflued in larger quantity, the confe- 
 quence being that the former are at prefent much 
 rarer than the latter. While in the twelve antique 
 
 coins the characters of the legends were read 
 
 3 
 
 the order was changed into 4*3 in this new iflue and 
 the after ones. 
 
 The Bun-roku-tfu-ho, in copper and in filver, 
 were iflued in 1592, and followed in 1606 by the 
 Kei-tcho-tfu-ho (four varieties and two fizes), in 
 16 1 5 by the Gen-na-tfu-ho, with a ferial of 1 to 
 30 on the reverfe. The Kwan-ei-tfu-ho y firft 
 iflued in 1636, prefents an almoft endlefs variety 
 of iflues, due to the fact that the coinage was con- 
 tinued for over 225 years, during which the device 
 of the copper and iron coins of the Government 
 remained unchanged, with the exception of a few 
 coins of a higher denomination. All the copper 
 coins iflued from Wa-do up to the period of 
 Kwan-ei, and all the copper and iron, coins Kwan- 
 ei-tfu-hO) excepting the large-lized iflue with 
 wave-like lines on the reverfe, are of the value of 
 1 mon. The various iflues of different flzes, caft 
 of copper or iron, with or without infcription on 
 the reverfe, are claflified to the extent of more 
 than 1,000 by the native numifmatifts. 
 
 In 1768 coins of the Kwan-ei-tfu-ho pattern 
 were iflued in brafs and afterwards iron, the 
 reverfe being covered with twenty-one wave-like 
 lines ; they were to be worth 4 of the ordinary 
 mon. The number of the wave-like lines was 
 afterwards reduced to eleven. The laft coins of 
 
Copper and Iron Coins \ 231 
 
 this pattern were caft fo late as i860, in iron, of 
 two fizes, a larger and a fmaller one. In 1835 
 a large, oval, bronze coin, having on the obverfe 
 Tem-po above and tfu-ho below the fquare hole, 
 was put in circulation ; on *the reverfe, above the 
 hole, are the two characters To-biaku, " worth 
 100," indicating that the value of the coin was 
 100 mon, and under the hole the mark of the 
 mint. There are two varieties, diverfified by the 
 refpective fizes of the rim and of the fquare hole. 
 
 Finally, in 1863, was hTued the laft regular 
 copper coin, with the legend Bun-Kiu-ei-bo, 
 " Everlafting money of Bun-Kiu (period)," with 
 eleven wave-like lines on the reverfe ; worth 4 
 mon, three varieties; alfo caft in iron. Befides iron 
 
 ' Coin 
 
 the iron coins caft by the central Government 
 and current throughout the country, others were 
 at various times ifTued by the feudal lords (Da'imios) 
 for the exclufive ufe of their own dominions, or 
 by certain chief towns. The moft peculiar of this 
 clafs, frequently met with in the collections, is 
 fquare, with rounded corners, infcribed Sen-dai 
 tfu-ho, Sen-dai being the name of the dominion 
 where this pattern was caft in feveral iflues, of 
 which the firft took place about 1782. Space, 
 however, fails us to fpeak of the various peculiari- 
 ties of thefe feudal iftues ; or the iron coins caft in 
 moulds of Chinefe caft of a thoufand years earlier ; 
 or the token-like pieces ifTued at Mitoin 1 866-68, 
 with the couplet : 
 
 May your wealth be as vaft as the Eaftern Ocean, 
 And your age as great as the Southern Mountains. 
 
232 
 
 Bean Coinage, 
 
 Bean We can only refer to the filver-copper, or 
 
 Coinage, ^ jj Qn co i na g ej Q f w hich the moll curious examples 
 are the filver-bean coins, fhaped, as their name 
 fuggefts, in various fizes, from a fmall pea to a 
 large bean. Beginning in 1601 down to 1859, 
 they are varioufly ftamped ; but the marks, which 
 are made rather at random, are generally unde- 
 cipherable. In 171 1, etc., they were marked 
 with the figure of Dai-Koku, the god of wealth, 
 fitting on two rice bales, and holding his lucky 
 hammer in the right hand, while the left 
 grafps a fack of money flung over one fhoulder. 
 Each time Dai-Koku gives a blow with his 
 hammer, the wallet he has by him becomes filled 
 with money, rice, and other things, according to 
 what may be defired. 
 Silver I n our rapid furvey of the minor currency we 
 
 Coinage. nave mentioned feveral of the regular ifliies of 
 .filver coins, cart on the fame patterns as thofe in 
 lower metals. By far the larger! quantity of 
 filver-money circulated under other fliapes, viz., 
 fiat, fquare, oblong, plates, and lumps. Thofe of 
 the firft model were ifTued only during the laft 
 and the prefent centuries. The well-known 
 fmall oblong coins in filver are quite modern, 
 except the I-Jhu and Ni-Jhu pieces, iflued fince 
 1772. The Itfi-bu and Ni-bu pieces were 
 ifiued till 1868; the former fince 1846, and the 
 latter fince 181 8. The Ni-bu, of golden appear- 
 ance, prefents an interefting peculiarity, while 
 the other named coins were of filver of the ufual 
 finenefs; the Ni-bus were of filver, with a per- 
 
Silver Coinage. 
 
 2 33 
 
 centage of gold added, which was brought out on 
 the furface of the piece after the coin was made, 
 by treatment with acids. 
 
 Silver in lumps by weight was moft likely in 
 ufe a long while before the evidence of the native 
 collections and numifmatic records begin. The 
 oldeft, four inches in length, ftamped with crefts, 
 ftars, etc., is afcribed to the period 1570-80. 
 In the official records we hear of an ifTue of the 
 fame kind in 1601. Thofe of 1695 bear all 
 around fragmentary ftamps of Dai-Koku, the god 
 of wealth. In 1706, 17 10, 171 1, 17 14, 1736, 
 1820, 1859, l ar g e filver lumps of various fizes 
 were in circulation, and bear marks which traditions 
 underftand to have been ftamped at thofe dates ; 
 the evidence is of a moft ftiadowy character, and 
 refts on the mere aflertion of the native writers. 
 
 Large plates of filver of various fizes, and fmaller 
 ones like the gold Oho-bang and Ko-bang, were 
 alfo iftued between 1570 and 1580, but the 
 practice feems to have been discontinued. In 
 fome provinces filver was alfo ufed in lumps, from 
 which bits of the required value were cut and 
 weighed. 
 
 Previous to the adoption of the European gjjjj, 
 fyftem in 1870, round gold coins had been very 
 rare indeed. A gold coin of the ordinary ftiape, 
 pattern, and fquare hole in the centre, was iftued 
 in 760, with the four Chinefe characters Rai-Jhing- 
 ki-pao as legend. One of the endlefs feries of the 
 Kwan-ei-tfu-ho legend, and another in imitation 
 of the Chinefe yung-loh, conftitute the whole feries 
 
234 
 
 Gold Coinage, 
 
 of the infcribed coins. Another well-known round 
 coin is that ifTued in 1599 by Hide-yofi, better 
 known under his pofthumous name of Tai-kan- 
 fama, the powerful general who inftituted the 
 high poft of taikun. This rather fmall coin bears 
 on one fide fix ftamps, one central of the Kiri-mon y 
 and on the other fide five ftamps of the fame, with 
 the minter mark in the centre. The Kiri-mon, or 
 creft of the Mikado, is compofed of three leaves 
 pointed down with three flowers (one of feven 
 and two of five petals) above, of the Paulownia 
 Imperialis ; it differs of the Kiku-mon, or Imperial 
 badge of Japan, which confifts of a conventional 
 pattern of the chryfanthemum with fixteen petals, 
 and muft be diftinguifhed from the badge of the 
 Takugawa family, to whom belonged the later 
 Sboguns, and which confifted in three mallow 
 leaves within a circle, their points meeting in the 
 centre. In 1727 divifionary pieces, or itfi-bu y 
 ni-ftiU) and if-ftiu pieces fo-called, were ifTued round, 
 bearing on the obverfe the Kiri-mon on the upper 
 left fide, with the examiner's ftamp, and under- 
 neath, on the right hand fide, the mark of the 
 value ; on the reverfe are the mint ftamp and the 
 name of the year. The ni-Jhu and if-Jhu pieces 
 have on the reverfe the name of the particular 
 kind of gold of which it is coined. By far the 
 commoneft fliape of the gold coins ifTued fince the 
 fixteenth century to twenty years ago was that 
 of oblong boards, with rounded angles, except- 
 ing for the fmall pieces. Their denominations 
 were the following: Oho-ban, "large plate," of 
 
Gold Coinage. 
 
 235 
 
 10 ryo; Goryo-ban, "5 ryo board;" Ko-ban, 
 "{mail plate," of 1 ryo; Ni-bu, "two parts," 
 of 7 2 ryo ; Itfi-bU) " one part," of 7 4 ryo ; Ni-fhu y 
 " two fhu," of 7 8 ryo ; IJ-Jhu, " one fhu," of 7 l6 ryo. 
 The largeft were more tha& 67 2 inches in length, 
 and the fmalleft 3 /s or * an i ncn - They were ftamped 
 with the Kiri-mon in round, fan-fhaped, or pen- 
 tagon compartments, feverally repeated, the value, 
 the ftamp of the mint ; and on the fmall ones is 
 fometimes the date of iflue. Befides thefe ftamps, 
 the large coins often bear feveral punches of the 
 mint-examiner, teftifying to their genuinenefs. 
 Fees ufed to be charged by the duly appointed 
 officers of the Imperial mint or treafury for 
 certifying the value of the large ones, or Oho-ban; 
 and, in order to have thefe fees paid often, they 
 had recourfe to the ingenious device of marking 
 them fo that the marks could eafily be obliterated, 
 and the plan of writing the requifite figns in 
 Indian ink was adopted ; in confequence, the 
 pieces were always wrapped up fingly in filk 
 wadding and paper, and the greateft care taken 
 in handling them to prevent the writing being 
 defaced. 
 
CHAPTER X, 
 
 MEDALS. 
 
 HE fcience of Numifmatics has to deal 
 not only with thofe metallic objects 
 which have actually patted current as 
 money, but alfo with the numerous 
 
 fpecimens in the precious or other metals which 
 are defignated medals — fpecimens, that is to fay, 
 hTued to commemorate fome perfonage or event, 
 but not employed as media of exchange. The 
 application of the word " medal " to this clafs, in 
 contradiftinction to coins, is a recent one : Italian 
 and French writers of the fifteenth and fixteenth 
 centuries ufe medaglie and medailles to fignify 
 coins which, being no longer in circulation, are 
 preferved in the cabinets of collectors as curiofities. 
 Even in the laft century our own word medal 
 was fo employed. The " medals " of the Roman 
 Emperors, to which Gibbon often alludes in his 
 notes to the Decline and Fall, are, of courfe, what 
 we now know as coins ; and Addifon's Dialogue 
 upon the Ufefulnefs of Medals is, for the moft part, 
 
The Word "Medal." 237 
 
 a treatife on Roman Imperial coins. The Shilling 
 of Elizabeth, which is made to relate its adven- 
 tures in the Spectator, obferves that at the Refto- 
 ration it came to be " rather looked upon as a 
 medal than an ordinary C*oin." In the prefent 
 chapter we mall of courfe employ the word " medal " 
 in the fenfe which it has now generally acquired. 
 
 An inquiry into the hiftory of the medal 
 need not lead us far back into antiquity. The 
 Greeks had abfolutely no diftinct clafs of objects 
 correfponding to our medals, while even their 
 coin-types were only in rare cases of a com- 
 memorative character. The coin-types of the 
 Romans, indeed, are often directly allufive to 
 hiftorical events, and the Romans iflued a fpecial 
 feries of metallic objects not intended for circula- 
 tion as currency ; but even thefe latter pieces 
 (known to modern numifmatifts as the " Roman 
 medallions ") can hardly be confidered as the actual 
 prototypes of the modern medal. Between the 
 lateft Roman medallions, which are of the time of 
 Honorius, and the firft productions of the famous 
 Italian medallifts of the fifteenth century, there 
 is a great chafm, and the medals of the new 
 Italy are in no fenfe the defcendants of the old. 
 The firft Italian medals muft, indeed, be reckoned Italian 
 as a new artiftic product of their time: the 
 proceffes by which they are made are not thofe 
 of the older coin or medallion engravers, and 
 they are, at firft, entirely unofficial in character. 
 It is only by degrees that the medal becomes 
 more or lefs official, and is employed to comme- 
 
Italian Medals. 
 
 morate important public events. The earlier 
 Specimens of Italian workmanftiip were not in- 
 tended to commemorate events or even to do 
 honour to illuftrious men after their deceafe ; they 
 were deftined rather to ferve the purpofe of the 
 painted portrait or of the modern photograph. 
 The noble families of the time welcomed with a 
 natural eagernefs this new art, which not only- 
 portrayed their features with all the power of 
 painting, but which rendered them in a material 
 which itfelf was aes ferenne^ and which was readily 
 available for tranfmiflion from friend to friend. 
 
 Firft of thefe great creators of the medal, in 
 time no lefs than in merit, ftands Vittore Pifano 
 of Verona, whofe artiftic activity in this direction 
 belongs to the ten years 1439-1449. Pifano is 
 known alfo as a painter (his medals often bear 
 the fignature " Opus Pifani pictoris "), and it is, 
 no doubt, a circumftance having an important 
 influence upon the beginnings of modern medallic 
 art that he and moft of his fellow-workers were 
 not by profemon engravers of coin-dies, but 
 followers of the arts of painting and fculpture. 
 The art of coin-engraving, which had attained to 
 fuch perfection in the hands of Greek and even 
 of Roman artifts, had during the Middle Ages 
 fuffered a terrible eclipfe. Artiftic portraiture was 
 dead, and even the talk of producing mere like- 
 nefs was effayed no longer: the bold relief of 
 Greek coin and Roman medallion was emulated 
 no more, and although in the fourteenth century 
 an ornate and not unpleafing ftyle had begun to 
 
Pifano. 
 
 manifeft itfelf on coin-reverfes, it never pafied the 
 limits of decorative fkill. 
 
 It was open, of courfe, to Pifano and his 
 rollowers to take the procefles of die-engraving as 
 they found them — to accomplifh what they could 
 within such limitations — to give likenefs and life 
 to the conventional heads of the obverfe, and 
 employ their tafte and invention in improving the 
 defigns of the reverfe. Trained, however, in the 
 liberal fchool of painting and fculpture, they hefi- 
 tated to pour their new wine into the old bottles. 
 Thefe medallifts of the fifteenth century are diftin- 
 guilhed above all other medallifts by the large- 
 nefs and freedom of their ftyle ; they required a 
 yielding fubftance to work upon, and a broad 
 fpace wherein to carry out their conceptions. 
 For producing medals of great fize and in 
 high relief, the mechanical procefies of die- 
 engraving were at that time quite inadequate ; 
 and hence it is that all the early medals, and many 
 of thofe produced in the fixteenth century, are 
 not ftruck from dies, but caft from moulds. The New 
 
 » Process 
 
 firft Italian medallifts made their models from the Casting 
 life in wax — working, in fact, as did the fculptor Medals ' 
 of bronze who modelled in clay — and from thefe 
 wax-models they prepared, by a careful and ela- 
 borate procefs, a mould into which the metal was 
 finally poured. To Pifano himfelf about thirty 
 extant medals have been attributed. They are 
 diftinguiftied (as indeed are all the works of the 
 great medallifts of Italy) by their fplendid por- 
 traiture — portraiture of the higheft kind, which 
 
240 
 
 Pifano. 
 
 not only reproduces faithfully the features of man 
 or woman, but which alfo reveals character, and 
 which delights efpecially to show character only 
 in its nobler traits. 
 
 The medallic art of Pifano (and in an equal or 
 lefs degree that of his contemporaries) is further 
 diftinguiftied by the excellence of its reverfe 
 defigns — defigns remarkable for originality, and 
 for ftrength combined with grace, and which are 
 never chofen at hazard, but felected for their 
 peculiar fitnefs to adorn the circular field of a 
 medal. As characteristic fpecimens of Pifano's 
 work, let us mention the two famous medals, 
 " Venator intrepidus " and " Liberalitas augufta," 
 each bearing the head of Alfonfo the Mag- 
 nanimous — "Divus Alphonfus rex triumphator 
 et pacificus" — and having as their reverfe types 
 admirable reprefentations of animals : the one a 
 boar-hunt, the other an eagle furrounded by a 
 vulture and other inferior birds of prey. In the 
 reprefentation of animals Pifano took efpecial 
 delight, and we often find them introduced in the 
 reverfes of his medals. As a rule, he does not 
 attempt elaborate allegorical fubjects ; but his re- 
 verfes often mow fome comparatively fimple defign, 
 taken from ordinary life : thus a medal of his 
 of Sigifmondo Pandolfo di Malatefta, which has, 
 as ufual, a portrait of the prince for the obverfe, 
 mows Malatefta alfo on its reverfe, this time as a 
 full-length figure in armour. 
 
 This artift's turn for realifm does not, however, 
 preclude the production of feveral works infpired 
 
Pifano. 241 
 
 by pure poetic fancy. A confpicuous instance 
 of this may be found in the medal which he made 
 for Leonello, Marquefs of Efte, on the occalion of 
 his marriage in 1444. Juft as the poet Spenfer, 
 when he wrote the Prothalamion of the noble 
 Ladies Somerfet — " againft their bridal day which 
 
 ITALIAN. PORTRAIT OF MALATESTA NOVELLO, BY PISANO. 
 
 was not long " — imaged, by a charming yet ftately 
 fancy, the fubjecls of his verfe as fwans, fo the 
 artift Pifano, playing on the name Leonello, por- 
 trayed his bridegroom as a lion. A little Cupid 
 or winged genius of marriage ftands holding out 
 to the lion an unrolled fcroll, whereon in mufical 
 characters is difplayed the lion's marriage-fong. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 Followers of Pijano. 
 
 This defign, which to a reader unacquainted with 
 the original might feem too fanciful, is redeemed 
 from being a mere concetto by the noble figure of 
 the lion and the graceful grouping. Another of 
 Pifano's reverfe defigns, which mows the fame 
 qualities of ftately grace and fancy, is that on 
 the medal of Cecilia Gonzaga — " Cicilia virgo 
 filia Johannis Francifci primi marchionis Mantue " 
 — a lady who afterwards became a nun. Cecilia 
 is reprefented fitting amidft a rocky landfcape, 
 with her hand refting on the head of the unicorn 
 who reclines befide her, while above them hangs 
 the crefcent moon. But to dwell at length upon 
 the reverfes of Pifano's medals, or upon his 
 medallic portraits of " many nobles and perfonages 
 renowned in arms or diftinguifhed for learning," 
 we mould need an entire chapter. 
 Followers Matteo Pafti, who worked from 1446, was the 
 firft diftinguifhed medallift who followed in the 
 train of Pifano. He, too, was a native of Verona, 
 and probably a pupil of his great fellow-citizen, 
 whofe influence on his ftyle is traceable. Sperandio, 
 who worked at the end of the fifteenth century, 
 is alfo of the fchool of Vittore. He made 
 numerous medals of the Eftes, and of members 
 of the Bentivoglio family, of Pope Julius II., 
 and others. To the fame century belong Gio- 
 vanni Boldu, Guacciolotti, Enzola, and Melioli, 
 as well as Lixignolo, Pollajuolo, and others, who 
 have left behind them productions of great merit. 
 After the firft impulfe had been given, the art had, 
 indeed, foon fpread to the northern cities of Italy 
 
Sixteenth Century Medallifts. 243 
 
 —to Mantua, Padua, Milan, Brefcia, etc. — and, 
 fomewhat later, to the cities fouth of the Apen- 
 nines. 
 
 The Italian medallifts o£ the fixteenth century 
 worthily carry on the work begun by their Medallists 
 forerunners of the fifteenth. Though with them 
 fomething of the large treatment of the earlier 
 mafters is loft, we find, on the other hand, the 
 greateft variety in the defigning of reverfes, re- 
 markable {kill and delicacy in the execution of 
 details, as well as abundant examples of excellent 
 portraiture. A difference of a technical kind dif- 
 tinguifhes the new medallifts from the old ; for 
 with the beginning of the fixteenth century there 
 came in the art of ftriking medals from engraved 
 dies, and though all the medals of larger module 
 continued to be caft till the end of the century, 
 the fmaller fpecimens, which then began to mul- 
 tiply, were ftruck by the new procefs. We ob- 
 ferve, indeed, that moft of the medallifts of the 
 fixteenth century were alfo goldfmiths or gem- 
 engravers, and were thus led naturally to the 
 engraving of dies. To fay even a few words 
 of each of the many remarkable medallifts of this 
 century would be impoftible here, but the very 
 names of Pomedello and Spinelli, Cellini and 
 Francia, Romano and CaradofTo, Valerio Belli, 
 Lione Lioni, Paftorino of Siena, and the reft, are 
 full of charm to every lover of Italian medals. 
 Of thefe names, we can only felect but one or 
 two, referring the reader for more detailed notices 
 to the works of Friedlaender, Armand, Heifs 
 
Francia. 
 
 and others, and to the Britifh Mufeum Guide to 
 the Italian Medals ', by Mr. C. F. Keary. 
 
 Francia. Francia, who is confpicuous as one of the 
 earlieft of this band of medallifts, began life, 
 as is well known, as a goldfmith, and acted for 
 fome time as director of the mint of Bologna. 
 Vafari has a very interefting paflage on his work 
 as a medallift : — " That in which Francia delighted 
 above all elfe, and in which he was indeed excel- 
 lent, was in cutting dies for medals; in this he 
 was highly diftinguifhed, and his works are moft 
 admirable, as may be judged from fome on which 
 is the head of Pope Julius II. — fo lifelike that 
 thefe medals will bear comparifon with thofe of 
 Caradofso. He alfo ftruck medals of Signor 
 Giovanni Bentivoglio, which feem to be alive, 
 and of a vaft number of princes who, paffing 
 through Bologna, made a certain delay when he 
 took their portraits in wax : afterwards, having 
 finifhed the matrices of the dies, he defpatched 
 them to their deftination, whereby he obtained not 
 only the immortality of fame, but likewife very 
 handfome prefents." Medals by Francia of Julius 
 and Bentivoglio may ftill be feen in the Britifh 
 Mufeum. The medals of another renowned gold- 
 
 Benvenuto fmith, Benvenuto Cellini, are not very numerous. 
 
 cdiini. He was Mafter of the Mint to p ope clement VII., 
 
 for whom he made two portrait-medals. 
 
 In connection with portraiture, the name of 
 Pastorino. Paftorino, who died about 1591, is of efpecial 
 intereft, as he devoted himfelf with ardour almoft 
 entirely to this branch of art, and attained in it 
 
Fontana. 
 
 245 
 
 wonderful fuccefs. The number of his medals is 
 considerable, for (as Vafari fays of him) " he has 
 copied all the world, and perfons of all kinds, 
 great nobles, diftinguifhed taifts, and perfons of 
 unknown or of low degree." His delicate and 
 beautiful ftyle makes him efpecially happy in his 
 portraits of women and children. To the reverfe- 
 defigns of the medals of this century we cannot 
 refer in detail ; but we muft dwell for a moment 
 upon the reverfe of a medal in the Britifti Mufeum 
 by Annibale Fontana (1540-15 87) — a work of Fontana . 
 Angular charm and beauty, though contrafting 
 ftrongly in its picture-like character with the 
 reverfes of the early medallifts. It reprefents 
 Hercules in the Garden of the Hefperides. The 
 hero is {landing in calm dignity belide the Tree, 
 his right hand outftretched to pluck its golden 
 apples : its dragon guard he has already flam, 
 and is trampling the carcafe beneath his feet. In 
 the diftance are feen the towers and cities of men 
 in the light of the fetting fun. 
 
 It muft be added that very few medals in the 
 Italian fenes commemorate events: their chief 
 ftrength lies in portraiture, and their intereft may Portraits 
 be reckoned rather artiftic than hiftorical, al- 
 though, as has been truly faid, " in this aftonifh- 
 •ng fenes of portraits the chief actors in the 
 cragedies ana comedies of thofe times pafs before 
 as, their characters written m their faces." After 
 the clofe of the fixteenth century the medals of 
 Italy ceafe to be of high artiftic merit. But we 
 . ought not to forget to mention that a continuous 
 
246 : Ma [[acre of St Bartholomew. 
 
 feries of contemporary Papal portraits, from 
 Nicolas V. onwards, is to be found on the medals. 
 Probably the moft interefting piece in this clafs, 
 from an hiftorical point of view, is the famous 
 medal ftruck by Gregory XIII. to commemorate 
 Massacre the MarTacre of St. Bartholomew in 1 C72. Three 
 
 of St 
 
 Barthoio- fpecimens of this medal are exhibited in the 
 Britifh Mufeum ; the firft in filver, by Federigo 
 Bonzagna, mows as its obverfe type the buft of 
 the Pope himfelf, and on the reverfe — tantum 
 religio potuit—\s reprefented the Deftroying 
 Angel holding fword and crofs, while around are 
 men and women wounded, or dead, or flying 
 before her. The legend is " Ugonottorum 
 Strages," and the date 1572. A fecond example 
 is in bronze, gilt ; a third, in bronze and flightly 
 varied, is thought to be of more recent date. 
 
 German The Italian RenaifTance did not fail to make 
 
 Medals. 
 
 its influence felt in the medallic art of other 
 European countries, and it was from Italy that 
 Germany derived the practice of calling medals, 
 through Peter Fifcher, who had ftudied art 
 beyond the Alps. But although a foreign im- 
 portation, the German medal foon acquired a 
 diftinct and national character. The minute and 
 patient induftry which diftinguifhed German 
 workers in other branches of art difplayed itfelf 
 likewife in their medal-work. Their productions 
 are alfo thoroughly German in their tendency to 
 avoid idealizing any reprefentation ; but if they 
 lack the nobility of the Italian mailers, they 
 derive true force and artiftic value from tneir 
 
German Medals, 
 
 247 
 
 naive and vigorous realifm. Among German 
 medallifts two names are efpecially confpicuous — 
 one, Heinrich Reitz, the gpldfmith of Leipzig, 
 who worked for the Electors of Saxony, and in 
 whofe productions has been traced the influence 
 of Lucas Cranach — the other, Friedrich Hagen- 
 auer of Augfburg, whofe ftyle is of greater fim- 
 plicity than that of Reitz. The medals executed 
 by the goldfmiths of Nuremburg and Augfburg 
 
 GERMAN. PORTRAIT OF J. RINGELBERG. 
 
 are extremely numerous ; moft of them are un- 
 figned, and it is even difficult to feparate the 
 productions of the two great centres, though 
 Nuremburg has a diftincl: fuperiority, due to the 
 influence of Albert Durer Many of the earlier 
 German medals are ftruck, for the Germans had 
 made confiderable improvements in the appliances 
 for ftnkmg money : thofe fpecimens which are 
 cait have been delicately chafed after the cafting. 
 
248 French Medals. 
 
 The fifteenth century is the period during 
 which the production of German medals attained 
 its higheft degree of excellence. As an original 
 art, it may be faid to have perifhed in the 
 commotions of the Thirty Years' War. 1 
 
 The medallic art in France had a longer leafe of 
 life than in Germany, and its hiftory is of con- 
 fiderable intereft. In fpite of a few early native 
 efforts, this art may be faid to have come into 
 exiftence under the aufpices of Italy. Thus we 
 find that the firft medal with a French effigy, that 
 of Louis XL, was executed at Aix by an Italian, 
 Francefco Laurana. Another early medal, repre- 
 fenting Charles VIII. and Anne of Brittany, 
 caft at Lyons in 1494, was the work of a French 
 goldfmith, Louis le Pere, who had been inftructed 
 in the medallift's art by Nicolo Spinelli, of 
 Florence. Yet it muft be obferved that this 
 medal is French rather than Italian in character, 
 and the medals made by native artifts under 
 Louis XII., for inftance thofe of Louis and Anne 
 of Brittany (1500), and of Philibert le Beau and 
 Margaret of Auftria (1502), are evidence to 
 prove that a purely French fchool might have 
 maintained itfelf with very little Italian affiftance. 
 Under Francois I., however, very diftinct encourage- 
 ment is given to Italian artifts; and Benvenuto 
 Cellini made for this fovereign a medal with the 
 regal effigy. Another Italian artift of merit, 
 
 1 Mention mould be made of the fine portrait-medals of 
 the Flemifti fchool in the fixteenth century. See C. Picque, 
 in the Mem. du Congr. internat. de numifmatique, 1891, pp. 
 661-678. 
 
Dupre. 
 
 249 
 
 Giacomo Primavera, alfo worked For France, and 
 has left medals of Catherine de Medicis, the Duke 
 of Alencon, the poet Ronfardf and others. 
 
 The medals of the latter half of the fixteenth 
 century, partly ftruck and partly caft, are generally 
 unfigned: the feries of large medallions reprefenting 
 Henry II., Catherine de Medicis, Charles IX., 
 and Henry III., has been attributed to Germain 
 Pilon, a medallift who worked for Charles IX. 
 With the acceffion of Henry IV. begins the fine 
 fuite of medals by Guillaume Dupre, an artift Dupr& 
 whofe productions well continued the traditions of 
 the large caft medals of Italy. He worked both 
 under Henry IV. and Louis XIII., and, like the 
 Italian mafters of the fifteenth century, undertook, 
 and accomplished with great fuccefs, the cafting of 
 his own medals. All the more important per- 
 fonages among his contemporaries were eager for 
 the privilege of being portrayed by Dupre ; and 
 in his medallions, as a French writer has remarked, 
 though with a foupfon of exaggeration, he has left 
 pofterity " une galerie iconographique de fon 
 temps, dont la beaute et l'interet egalent ceux des 
 oeuvres analogues de la RenaifTance italienne. 
 Perfonne n'a donne au portrait numifmatique un 
 accent plus vivant et plus vrai; perfonne n'y a 
 mieux rendu la phyfionomie d'une epoque." 
 After Dupre fine medals ftill continued to be 
 produced by the two chief French medallifts of the 
 feventeenth century — Claude Warm, engraver to The 
 
 i t ill- / ix Warins 
 
 the mine at JLyons, who died in 1654 , and Jean 
 Warin, the Engraver-General of Coins, whofe death 
 
250 : Napoleonic Medals. 
 
 took place in 1672. The long feries of medals of 
 Louis XIV. is hiftorically interefting, though it 
 too faithfully reflects the pompous and conven- 
 tional art of his time. 
 
 The firft medals of Napoleon, ftruck between 
 1796 and 1802, are of indifferent execution and 
 Napoleonic defign. Under the direction of Denon they 
 
 Medals. ] 
 
 gradually improved, and at length attained to fome 
 degree of artiftic merit ; the heads of Napoleon by 
 Andrieu and Droz, from the buft by Chaudet, are 
 interefling portraits touched with ideal beauty, and 
 fome of the reverfes of the Paris mint medals are 
 not inelegant compofltions. Perhaps the moft hif- 
 torically important medals of the Napoleon feries 
 are thofe connected with the propofed invafion of 
 England. In May, 1804, Napoleon took the title 
 of Emperor, and in July of the fame year he left 
 Paris to vifit the camp of Boulogne and the "Army 
 of England." About this time there was ftruck 
 a medal which is ftill extant and not uncommon. 
 Its obverfe fliows the head of Napoleon, and the 
 reverfe a male figure fqueezing a leopard between 
 his legs while he throttles it with a cord. The 
 legend relates to the flotilla of frames, or flat- 
 bottomed boats and gunboats, which was to 
 tranfport the invading army acrofs the Channel :— 
 "En Tan XII. 2,000 Barques font conftruites." 
 The invafion being certain to fucceed, nothing 
 further was needed but a commemorative medal. 
 There is reafon for believing that in this year a 
 die was , actually prepared for a medal recording 
 the fuccefs of the invafion to be ftruck sn London 
 
" Frappee a Londres" 251 
 
 when the army arrived there. No fpecimens lJS^ 
 ftruck from this die are now known to be extant, 
 but the Britifh Mufeum poffefles an electrotype 
 which is believed to reproduce the reverfe of the 
 original die. Its type and infcriptions have refer- 
 ence to the victorious "Defcente en Angleterre." 
 A powerful naked figure has in his grafp a human 
 being whofe body ends in a fifh's tail. It is the 
 Hercules Napoleon deftroying the fea-monfter 
 England. In the exergue may be read the modeft 
 legend, "Frappee a Londres en 1804." A 
 French medal with a fimilar type was really iflued 
 two years later, but the "Defcente" and "Frappee" 
 legends have difappeared thereon in favour of the 
 confolatory Virgilian quotation : " Toto divifos 
 orbe Britannos." 
 
 We have yet to fpeak of the medals of Holland Medals, 
 and of thofe of our own country. Both the Dutch 
 and Englim feries, which in the feventeenth 
 century run much into one another, are attractive 
 rather because of their hiftorical intereft than by 
 reafon of their artiftic merit. By hiftorical intereft 
 we do not, however, mean to imply that the medals 
 furnifh us with any very large amount of informa- 
 tion not derivable from the documentary fources, 
 but that they have the property of making hif- 
 torical events more vivid and more eafily realized. 
 Though medals can be regarded only as a flight 
 and imperfect index to the hiftory of any notable 
 epoch, yet fomething, at any rate, they do fhow of 
 its very form and prefture. They are the mirrors 
 which the men of the paft delighted to hold up to 
 
252 Dutch Medals. 
 
 every momentous event — or to every event which 
 Teemed to them momentous ; and they are mirrors, 
 moreover, which have the magic power of ftill 
 retaining the images which they originally re- 
 flected. 
 
 The Dutch medals of the fixteenth century, 
 though not without occafional picturefquenefs, 
 are certainly not the fineft of their time; they 
 have, however, much hiftorical intereft— a feature 
 which they mare with thofe of the fucceeding 
 
 DUTCH. PORTRAITS OF C. AND J. DE WITT. 
 
 century. In point of art the feventeenth-century 
 pieces are poor, and they convey their political 
 alluflons by means of elaborate allegory. Many 
 of the portraits on Dutch medals are noteworthy, 
 efpecially thofe of William the Silent, Prince 
 Maurice, the De Witts, Van Tromp, and De 
 Ruyter. In the reign of our William the Third, 
 the Dutch feries fills up gaps in the Englilh ; 
 indeed, feveral Dutch medallifts worked at different 
 periods for Englifh monarchs. 
 
Englifh Medals. 
 
 253 
 
 The medallic feries of England opens in the ^da* 
 reign of Henry VIII. , and the pieces at firft are 
 commemorative chiefly of perfons, and not of 
 events. Of Henry himfelf there exifts a bufl* 
 executed after a portrait of Holbein. Another of 
 Henry's medals proclaims his fupremacy over the 
 Church: — "Henricus octavus fidei defenfor et in 
 terra Ecclefiae Angliae et Hiberniae fub Chrifto 
 caput fupremum." The King's fupremacy was 
 confirmed by Parliament in 1534, though this 
 
 ENGLISH. PORTRAITS OF PHILIP AND HARY, BY TREZZO. 
 
 medal was not made until 1545. The moft 
 interefting portrait medals of this time are thofe 
 of Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, and Sir 
 Thomas More. More's medal bears the date 
 1535 — the year of his death — and its reverfe 
 typifies him as a cyprefs-tree which has fallen 
 beneath the ftroke of an axe, and derives there- 
 from a more fragrant odour, "Suavius olet." 
 Thefe early fpecimens, as well as the portrait 
 medals of Edward VI., are caft and highly chafed. 
 Of Mary and her hulband we have, befides other 
 reprefentations, admirable half-length figures on a 
 
Elizabeth. 
 
 medal produced at Madrid by the Italian artift 
 Trezzo, while in the fervice of Philip. This 
 medal is the firft figned one in the Englilh feries ; 
 and the fact that it is executed by a foreign artift 
 is (unfortunately for the artiftic credit of England) 
 not to be noted as exceptional, but as the rule ; 
 for the hiftory of our Englifti medallifts is, as we 
 mall fee, to a great extent the hiftory of the 
 medallifts of other nations. 
 Elizabeth. The reign of Elizabeth, efpecially, has to fhow 
 fome excellent portraits by foreign artifts. Chief 
 amongft thefe in beauty and in intereft is the medal 
 of Mary Queen of Scots, made and figned by the 
 Italian Primavera, who worked chiefly in the 
 Netherlands, and, as was noted before, in France. 
 Its date is uncertain, but it was probably produced 
 about the fame time as the Morton portrait, which 
 was painted in 1566-67, during Mary's imprifonment 
 in Lochleven Caftle. Modern cafts of this medal 
 have a reverfe added to them, but the original is 
 merely a copper plaque. Stephen of Holland, 
 who lived for a fhort time in England, executed, 
 chiefly in the year 1562, a number of meritorious 
 portrait-medals (caft and chafed), principally, how- 
 ever, of private perfons. Perfonal medals of the 
 more celebrated men of the Elizabethan era are 
 Armada unhappily not very numerous. The lefs important 
 Medals, public medals of this reign may well be pafled 
 over in favour of thofe which commemorate the 
 defeat of the Armada. Several of thefe pieces, 
 fomewhat varied in their details, are ftill in 
 exiftence, and as they are of oval form, and 
 
Armada Medals. 255 
 
 furnifhed with ring and chain for fufpenfion, it is 
 probable that they were diftributed at the time as 
 decorations. It is interefting to note that the 
 moft important do not bear the fignature of any 
 foreign medallift, but are, as it would feem, the 
 work of native artifts. Foremoft of all the Armada 
 medals muft ftand the large gold piece with the 
 full-face buft of Elizabeth, encircled by the legend, 
 "Ditior in toto non alter circulus orbe." The 
 obverfe of this extraordinary medal, with its high 
 relief, its brilliant colour, its almoft barbaric pro- 
 fufion of drefs and ornament heaped upon the 
 crowned and fceptred Queen, feems to fpeak the 
 very euphuifm of medallic language, and is wonder- 
 fully chara&eriftic of its age. The reverfe is con- 
 ceived in a foberer manner. It reprefents a bay- 
 tree ftanding upright and alone upon an ifland; 
 its leaf alfo is not withered, nor has the lightning 
 power to fcathe it ; for, fays the legend, " Non 
 ipfa pericula tangunt." The allufion is, perhaps, 
 not merely to the defeat of the Spaniards, but 
 alfo to the calm which had followed the political 
 complications of the time — "the Queen of Scots 
 was dead ; James of Scotland had been conciliated ; 
 France and. the Vatican were baffled." Upon 
 another medal of this period, England is repre- 
 fented as an ark floating, "faevas tranquilla per 
 undas." 
 
 Two other medals of Dutch workmanfhip, but 
 alfo referring to the great victory over Spain, have 
 ftill to be noticed. One of thefe, which was 
 probably ftruck by the direction of Prince Maurice, 
 
256 jfames I. 
 
 reprefents the Church ftanding firm on a rock 
 amid ftormy waves ; the other has a quaintly ex- 
 preffed allufion to the confederation formed againft 
 Elizabeth by the Pope, the King of Spain, the 
 Emperor, and others. Upon one fide are feen the 
 Kings of the earth and the Rulers taking counfel 
 together, but "Blind" — as the Latin fuperfcrip- 
 tion warns them — " Blind are the minds of men, 
 yea, and their hearts are blind ;" the floor of 
 their council-chamber is covered with fpikes, for 
 "Durum eft contra ftimulos calcitrare." On the 
 other fide, the Spanifh fleet is driven on the rocks, 
 and around are the words of the Pfalmift, quoted 
 from the Vulgate : " Thou, O Lord, art great, and 
 doeft wondrous things; Thou art God alone!" 
 fames 1. The medals of James I. are principally Dutch, 
 and for the moft part commemorative of in- 
 dividuals. It fhould be noticed that feveral of 
 them are ftruck from dies, and not caft, for at this 
 period the invention of the fcrew for ftriking 
 coins and medals was coming into general ufe. 
 Mechanical improvements of this kind, though 
 very important to the mint-mafter, who naturally 
 wifhes to turn out his coinage with all poflible 
 rapidity and neatnefs, will be found both in 
 England and other countries to exercife a bane- 
 ful influence upon the art of medals. The 
 hard and machine-made look of the later ftruck 
 medals too often contrafts unfavourably with the 
 older fpecimens produced by cafting and chafing. 
 To this reign belong the engraved, or, as they 
 fhould rather be called, the ftamped medals of 
 
Charles /. 
 
 Simon PafTe, the clearnefs and neatnefs of whofe 
 ftyle is very pleafing. Simon, who was the fon of 
 Crifpin PafTe, the artift of Utrecht, refided for 
 about ten years in England, and executed a large 
 number of prints and portraits. His medals are 
 chiefly of James and the royal family. Amongft 
 the few public events commemorated in this reign 
 are the peace with Spain, concluded in 1604; and 
 the alliance of England, France, and the United 
 Provinces againft Spain. Curioufly enough, the 
 Gunpowder Plot, which made fo deep an im- 
 preflion on the popular mind, is alluded to only 
 on a Angle medal, and that a Dutch one. This 
 medal mows a fnake gliding amongft lilies and 
 rofes, and has the legend, " Detectus qui latuit." 
 
 The moft noteworthy medals of the early part of 
 the reign of Charles I. are thofe by Nicholas Briot, Charles 1. 
 who, after being chief engraver to the Paris mint, 
 came to England and executed a number of dies and 
 moulds for medals as well as dies for the Englifh 
 coinage. With the outbreak of the Civil Wars there 
 begins in England a period of exceptional medallic 
 intereft. During the lifetime of the King, and 
 under the Protector and Commonwealth, medals 
 continued to be made in extraordinary numbers. 
 Some of thefe record the fuccefTes of the contend- 
 ing parties, but moft of them are what are called 
 " badges " — medals, that is to fay, of oval form, 
 furnimed with a ring for fufpenfion, fo that they 
 could be worn by partifans of either fide. When 
 we reflect that thefe pieces were once worn by 
 the actors in that memorable drama, they can 
 
 s 
 
258 Commonwealth. 
 
 hardly fail to awaken a peculiarly pathetic intereft ; 
 and this intereft is much enhanced by their fre- 
 quently prefenting the portraits of the remarkable 
 men of the time. Among the portraits appearing 
 on badges, or on other medals, are thofe of EfTex, 
 Fairfax, Waller, Laud, Strafford, and many others. 
 A portrait of Hampden exifts on a fmall engraved 
 plate, but it is probably of eighteenth-century 
 work. Of Cromwell and his family there are a 
 confiderable number of medals, as well as of men 
 confpicuous among the opponents of the King, 
 fuch as Ireton, Lilburne, Lambert, and Thurloe. 
 The battle of Dunbar is commemorated by a 
 medal mowing on its obverfe a buft of Cromwell in 
 armour, and, in the diftance, the battle itfelf, with 
 the infcription, " The Lord ofHofts — -[watch-] word 
 at Dunbar, Septem. y. 3, 1650." The reverfe 
 difplays the Parliament aflembled in one Houfe 
 with the Speaker. To the time of the Common- 
 wealth alfo belong feveral " Naval Rewards " 
 (165 0-165 3), efpecially the fine medals ftruck by 
 the Parliament in commemoration of Blake's 
 victories over the Dutch, and diftributed to various 
 officers. A fpecial medal records the faving of 
 the Triumph, Blake's flag-lhip : " For eminent 
 fervice in faving y. Triumph, fiered in fight w h . y. 
 Duch in July, 1658." Another medal of this 
 time has engraved upon it an Englilh legend which 
 has a quaint Latin ring about it : " Robt. Blake. 
 Born 1598. Died 1657. He fought at once with 
 Ships and Cajiles. He dared the Fury of all the 
 Elements, and left an Example to Pofterity which 
 is incredible ; to be imitated" 
 
The Simons. 
 
 259 
 
 The continuous and eager demand for medallic 
 badges and memorials at the epoch of the Civil 
 Wars was fortunately well refponded to by three 
 artifts of merit. Two of thefe, the brothers 
 Thomas and Abraham Simon, who employed ^ ons . 
 their talents on the Parliamentary fide, have 
 produced fome of the moft praife worthy works in 
 the Englifh feries: their place of birth is un- 
 certain, but they may, perhaps, be claimed as 
 Englifhmen. Thomas is efpecially well known, 
 from his connection with the Englifh mint. He 
 it was who made the fplendid coins with the 
 effigy of the Protector, and the famous " Petition 
 Crown " for Charles II. The two brothers pro- 
 duced medals fingly or together : in the cafe of 
 a joint work, it feems that Abraham Simon made 
 the model, while Thomas, a more fkilful engraver, 
 did the after-chafing. The Simons appear to have 
 firft made their models in wax, and then to have 
 caft the medals from moulds in fand. Moft of 
 the 1 medals of Charles I. and the Commonwealth 
 are caft and chafed. Thomas Rawlins, the medallift Rawlins, 
 who worked for the King, and who, after the 
 death of Charles, prepared feveral commemorative 
 medals for the adherents to the royal caufe, cannot 
 be fpoken of fo favourably as the Simons. " His 
 work was above the average, but it failed to attain 
 the fharpnefs and high finifh which characterize 
 that of his two rivals." Thefe three artifts con- 
 tinued to work after the Reftoration; but the 
 chief medallift under Charles II. was John Roettier, 
 the fon of a native of Antwerp. His medals, 
 
260 : 
 
 Charles IT. 
 
 which are always {truck, are fharply cut, and mow 
 good portraits as well as fome picturefque reverfe 
 defigns. Another medallift who worked in Roet- 
 tier's ftyle, though with inferior {kill, was George 
 Bower, or Bowers. Both Roettier and Bower 
 continued to produce medals under James II. and, 
 for a time, under William III. 
 
 An abundance of loyal medals heralds and in- 
 Charies II. augurates the Reftoration. Charles is the fun 
 juft riflng from the fea — the leaflefs branch foon 
 to recover greennefs — the Jupiter deftroying the 
 proftrate giants. Many royalifl badges, with the 
 effigies of the King and his father, probably 
 belong to this time : one interefting medal was 
 doubtlefs beftowed upon fome faithful follower 
 of Charles, for it bears the royal head, and is 
 infcribed with the words, "Propter ftrenuitatem 
 et fidelitatem rebus in adverfis." The important 
 engagements between the naval powers of England 
 and Holland receive due illuftration from medals 
 popish _Englifh, Dutch, and French. The Popim Plot, 
 and efpecially one incident — the murder of Sir 
 Edmund Berry Godfrey — have left curious medallic 
 evidences of themfelves. The medals relating to 
 Godfrey all contain fome fatire upon the Jefuits. 
 On one remarkable fpecimen in pewter, two monks, 
 ftyled " Juftice-killers to his Holinefs," may be 
 feen ftrangling Godfrey, overlooked by the Pope, 
 who is himfelf prompted by the devil. This is 
 "Rome's revenge, or S r . Edmvndberry Godfrey 
 mvrthered in the pope's flaughter-hovs." One 
 other medal of this reign — that flruck by Bower 
 
y<zmes II. 
 
 261 
 
 to celebrate the acquittal of Shaftefbury on the 
 charge of high treafon — ought not to be here 
 omitted. Its obverfe has a portrait of the Earl, 
 and the reverfe is a view of London, with the 
 fun appearing from behind a cloud; the legend 
 being "Laetamur: 24 Nov., 1681." This is the 
 piece alluded to with fo much bitternefs in Dryden's 
 fatire called The Medal : 
 
 "Five days he fate for every call and look, 
 Four more than God to finilh Adam took ; 
 But who can tell what effence angels are, 
 Or how long Heaven was making Lucifer." 
 
 The reign of James II., though brief, has left j am es n 
 its traces on a confiderable number of medals. 
 Many of thefe are Dutch, but they are perhaps 
 more full of intereft than the official Englifh 
 medals. The Rebellion of Monmouth is recorded 
 on feveral fpecimens. One, by the Dutch artift 
 Jan Smeltzing, bearing on the obverfe the head of 
 the Duke ("Jacobus infelix Dux Monumethenfis "), 
 has a reverfe of unufual power — the ghaftly de- 
 capitated head of the ill-fated leader lying upon 
 the ground, and fpouting blood — " Hunc fan- 
 guinem libo Deo Liberatori." The attempt of 
 James to reftore Catholicifm by the repeal of the 
 Teft Act, and the Trial of the Seven Bimops, 
 receive full illuftration, efpecially the latter event. 
 One well-known medal gives portraits of Arch- 
 bifhop Sancroft and the Bifhops ; another, mowing 
 feven ftars in the midft of the ftarry heavens, 
 likens the feven prelates to the " fweet influences " 
 of the Pleiades — " Quis reftringet Pleiadum 
 
262 : Pretender Medals. 
 
 delicias." On yet another fpecimen, alfo bearing 
 medallions of the Bifhops, a Jefuit and monk 
 are feen vainly endeavouring to undermine the 
 Church, a vifible edifice built on a rock, and fup- 
 ported by a hand from Heaven — " The Gates 
 of Hell mall not prevaile !" The other medals 
 of this reign refer chiefly to the flight and abdica- 
 tion of the King, and to the birth of the young 
 prince James. Some of the Dutch medals make 
 very broad hints as to the legitimacy of the 
 youthful heir. On one curious fpecimen Truth 
 is feen throwing open the door of a cabinet, 
 within which ftands a Jefuit, thrufting through 
 a trap a child with pyx and crown. The name 
 of this fuppofltitious child whom Father Petre or 
 fome other papift is thus introducing to the world 
 is infcribed on the cabinet door — "Jacobus Francis 
 Edwardus." 
 
 The Flight of James to France conducts us 
 naturally to the medals of the Stuart family, of 
 MIS! 61 whofe members there are feveral memorials of 
 this kind : many of them, no doubt, were ftruck 
 for prefentation to the faithful adherents who 
 viflted the princes in exile, or were iflued to 
 awaken intereft in the Jacobite caufe. One very 
 pleaflng medal of this feries reprefents the youth- 
 ful Charles Edward and his brother Henry , before 
 Prince Charles is feen a ftar, with the motto 
 " Micat inter omnes." Another medal — cleariy, 
 however, not iflued by the Stuarts— ridicules the 
 two attempts of the Elder Pretender to recover 
 the Englifh throne in 1708 and 1716, a map of 
 
Touch-pieces. 
 
 263 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland, with mips at fea, is 
 difplayed, with the dates of the expeditions, and 
 the legend " Bis venit, vidit, non vicit, flenfque 
 receflit." A very interefting evidence of the ftill pieces, 
 unfurrendered "right divine" is to be found in 
 the touch-pieces of the Stuart family. Previous 
 to the reign of Charles II., the Englifh fovereigns 
 who touched for the cure of the fcrofula or 
 " King's evil," diftributed to their patients the 
 current gold coin, called the angel. Under 
 Charles II., who exerted his healing powers for 
 an enormous number of perfons, and under James 
 II., a medalet having types fomewhat fimilar to 
 thofe of the angel was fubftituted, and hung round 
 the neck of each afflicled perfon by a white ribbon. 
 The Elder Pretender claimed the power as well 
 as his two fons Charles and Henry, and of all 
 three, touch-pieces are ftill extant, Henry's bearing 
 the ftyle of Henry IX. The practice of touching 
 was repudiated by William III., and finally aban- 
 doned by George I. Between thefe reigns, how^ 
 ever, Anne had been willing to difpenfei the royal 
 gift of healing, and one child whom me touched 
 (unhappily without refult) was Samuel Johnfon, 
 whofe golden touch-piece, pierced with a hole for 
 fufpenfion, may ftill be feen in the Britilh Mufeum. 
 Bofwell records that when, on one occafion, Dr. 
 Johnfon was alked if he could remember Queen 
 Anne, he anfwered that he had " a confufed, but 
 fomehow a folemn, recollection of a lady in 
 diamonds and a long black hood." 
 
 The medallic feries of William III. and Anne 
 
264 Eighteenth Century Medals. 
 
 William is due to the efforts of Dutch artifts, the mo ft 
 
 and Mary. . r 1 101 
 
 Anne. active of whom were the Smeltzings, Luder, 
 Hautfch, Bofkam, and Croker, a German. Their 
 medals are in many refpects iimilar to thofe of 
 John Roettier, but in lower relief ; the reverfes are 
 generally pictorial and full of minute detail, which 
 is not always ineffective, though their art on the 
 whole is decidedly poor and conventional. The 
 medals of William and Anne form the completed 
 fuite in the Englifh feries ; any attempt, indeed, 
 to give a detailed reference to the events which 
 they commemorate would amount to a repetition 
 of nearly all the beft-known events in Englifh 
 hiftory, from the Battle of the Boyne to the Peace 
 of Utrecht. This continuous record is far lefs 
 fatisfaclorily kept on the acceiTion of George I. At 
 that time there were few medallifts in England, and 
 the Dutch no longer worked for us. The medals 
 of his fuccelTor are, however, commemorative of 
 feveral important events, efpecially of thofe con- 
 nected with the War of the Auftrian SuccelTion, 
 the Jacobite Rebellion of '45, and the Conqueft 
 
 George in, of Canada. The long reign of George III. is very 
 fertile in medals, of which a good typical felection, 
 down to the Battle of Waterloo, may be feen in 
 the public exhibition galleries of the Britifh 
 Mufeum. The greater portion of the medals of 
 this period which are there exhibited relate to 
 "the ftruggles of England with her American 
 colonifts, and to the fubfequent wars with France, 
 Spain, and Holland by fea and land. Following 
 thefe are feveral pieces commemorating fome of 
 
Military and Naval Medals. 265 
 
 the battles of the Peninfular War, and bearing 
 portraits of the principal generals, and a few 
 perfonal medals of ftatefmen and others." 
 
 Some remarks muft be made on the interefting Military 
 
 0 and Nav 
 
 clafs of Englifh Military and Naval medals. Medals. 
 The Armada medals already mentioned may 
 be regarded as the earlieft of the clafs, though 
 it is not known that they were iflued by 
 authority. In 1643 Charles I. granted medals to 
 foldiers who diftinguifhed themfelves in Forlorn 
 Hopes, and many of the Royalift and Parlia- 
 mentary "badges" were doubtlefs intended as 
 military rewards. Under the Commonwealth were 
 diftributed the Dunbar medal, and thofe for 
 Blake's victories over the Dutch, to which we have 
 already alluded. After the Reftoration, military 
 awards were occafionally iflued, though the firft 
 decorative medal, fubfequent to the Common- 
 wealth, having a ring for fufpenfion, feems to be 
 that for the battle of Culloden. 
 
 "Again a long period elapfes during which no 
 decorative medals appear ; and the victories of 
 the Nile and Trafalgar would have remained un- 
 rewarded, but for the munificence and patriotifm 
 of two Englifhmen, Alexander Davifon and 
 Matthew Boulton. In 1784 the Eaft India Com- India * 
 pany acknowledged the fervices of its troops by 
 awarding a medal for the campaign in the Weft 
 of India, an example which originated a cuftom ; 
 and from that time, as long as India remained 
 under the control of the Company, medals were 
 awarded for all fubfequent wars. The firft medal 
 
Waterloo. 
 
 iflued by authority in England in this century, is 
 Waterloo, that given for the Battle of Waterloo. It was 
 conferred, by order of the Prince Regent, upon 
 every officer and private prefent at that battle; 
 but no acknowledgment was made of all the 
 brilliant engagements in the Peninfular War till 
 1 847, when a medal was iflued for military fervices 
 between the years 1793-18 14. At the fame time 
 a correfponding medal for naval fervices was 
 ordered to be ftruck for all naval engagements 
 during the fame period. Since the acceflion of 
 her Majefty, medals have been awarded for every 
 campaign, as well as others for 'meritorious 
 Service,' 'long fervice,' etc. Befides the medals 
 ifTued by the authority of the Crown and thofe 
 of the Eaft India Company, there are a number 
 of Regimental medals. Thefe were ftruck at the 
 expenfe of the officers of the regiments, for dis- 
 tribution among thofe who ferved under them ; 
 but this cuftom ceafed when a public acknowledg- 
 ment was made of the fervices of the army." 1 
 Present The unfatisfactory condition of the medallic 
 S°M d edanic art in England — and, indeed, in other European 
 Art * countries — during the prefent century has been 
 juftly lamented; and its productions muft too 
 often feem to thofe acquainted with the beft 
 efforts of Greek engravers and Italian medallifts 
 to be almoft beneath contempt, ajid beyond the 
 power of criticifm to amend. To entertain a 
 very fanguine expectation as to the future of this 
 interefting branch of art would, perhaps, be fome- 
 1 H. A. Grueber, Brit. Mus. Guide to Eng. Med., p. xv. 
 
ClaJJical Defigns. 267 
 
 what rafti ; but there is certainly no real ground 
 for denying the poflibility of reinftating it in 
 fomething of its priftine glory. If England 
 cannot at once produce a fchool of medallifts 
 worthy to rank with the Italians of the fifteenth 
 and the fixteenth centuries, her artifts may at leaft 
 begin by making themfelves free from the trammels 
 in which they have moved fo long and fo pain- 
 fully. And, firft, there is certainly needed a 
 reform in the prefent rapid but deadly mechanical 
 procefles of producing medals: the old Italian 
 cafting and modelling in wax — the old Greek 
 method of ftriking with the hammer on "blanks" 
 not uniformly flat, muft reaflert their fuperiority — 
 efpecially in the cafe of medallic portraiture. To 
 create original artifts — to breathe a new fpirit into 
 medal defigns — particularly the reverfe defigns — is, 
 indeed, a far more difficult talk ; yet at leaft it is 
 poflible to abandon in part, if not entirely, that 
 claflicifm, or rather pfeudo-claflicifm, which fo long 
 has reigned fupreme. To prefs the inhabitants classical 
 of Olympus into the fervice of modern art — to 
 employ the fymbolifm of that Pagan creed out- 
 worn to commemorate a Methodift Conference or 
 a Medical Congrefs, is in ltMf a confefiion of 
 weaknefs; and though a few artifts, fuch as the 
 Wyons, may in a few inftances claim to have im- The 
 parted congruity and gracefulnefs to their claflical Wyons » 
 defigns, yet in the majority of modern medals 
 thefe two eflential qualities are fuggefted only by 
 their abfence. Modern ftudents of art, and even the 
 ordinary Englifti public, have begun to difplay an 
 
268 . Contemporary Medals. 
 
 increafing defire to know and enjoy the remains of 
 claffic Art, but it is to the fountain-head that they 
 rightly turn — to Hellas, and not to Rome. It is 
 ufelefs, therefore, at this time of day, for a medallift 
 to hope to conjure with mythological puppets of 
 Hercules and Mars, and well-nigh impoffible for 
 him to awaken by claffic emblem and divinity the 
 fympathies of an audience for whom the wings of 
 Viclory have long loft all their fwiftnefs, and 
 the fteeds of Neptune all their animation. Yet it 
 muft be obferved that already there are figns of 
 better things. Among the medals exhibited to 
 the public at the Britifh Mufeum will be noticed 
 a feries by Profeflbr Legros of large portrait 
 medallions of feveral eminent Englimmen — 
 Carlyle, Tennyfon, Gladftone, and others — which 
 have been in the firft inftance modelled in wax, 
 and then transferred to metal by cafting. This 
 new departure in medallic portraiture is very 
 interesting, and the boldnefs of ftyle in the 
 medals in queftion is worthy of praife; but it 
 muft be remarked that the heads are treated 
 fketchily, and feem to have little or no affinity 
 to the material in which they are wrought. The 
 Italian artifts, on the contrary, even when work- 
 ing in their boldeft and largeft ftyle, were never 
 fketchy, but paid attention to finifh, efpecially in 
 the details of the hair and eyes, and even in fuch 
 a minor matter as the lettering of the legend. 
 Profeflbr Legros has not at prefent eflayed what 
 is, perhaps, the ftill more arduous tafk of pro- 
 ducing original defigns fuitable for the reverjes 
 
Contemporary Medals. 269 
 
 of medals. In the reverfe of the Alhantee War 
 medal, defigned by Mr. Poynter, we muft admire Poynter 
 the originality which makes itfelf independent 
 of the conventional claffic reverfes — here, at laft, 
 we have real negroes, and real Englilh foldiers 
 in their helmets, introduced in a fcene which 
 is in itfelf a genuine artiftic expreffion of the 
 event intended to be commemorated by the 
 medal. Yet even here it muft be objected that 
 the artift mows the want of a familiar and practical 
 acquaintance with the material in which his ideas 
 are exprefTed ; and his defign, though it would 
 probably expand into an excellent painting, is far 
 too confufedly picturefque for the limits of a 
 fmall medal, and as a reverfe-delign cannot there- 
 fore be pronounced fuccefsful. Certain recent 
 medals by Roty and other foreign artifts 1 deferve 
 favourable notice ; and Englim ftudents have 
 produced fome commendable work under the 
 aufpices of the Society of Medallifts. 
 
 1 See Dr. F. P. Weber, Medals and Medallions of the 
 Nineteenth Century, relating to England, by Foreign drtifts, in 
 Num. Chron., 1893, 1894. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 IBBASY Khalifs, 
 168 
 
 'Abbafy Khalifs 
 of Egypt, 
 186 
 
 'Abd-El-Mejid, 
 173 
 
 'Abd-El-Melik, 165 
 
 Aberyftwith mint, 135 
 
 Abgarus, 151 
 
 Account, money of, 96 
 
 Achelous, 23 
 
 Acoka inscriptions, 176 
 
 Addifon, Dialogue upon Medals, 
 
 30, 236 
 Adrian I., 80 
 Adze currency, 200 
 Aegina, 11, 15 
 Aeifred, 106 
 Aelia Capitolina, 155 
 Aelian, Var. Hift., 12 
 Aeneas and Anchifes, 54 
 Aes grave, 43 
 Aes rude, 42 
 Aes fignatum, 43 
 Aethelred, 106, 115 
 African company, 138 
 Aghlab, Beni-1-, 169 
 Agnel, 89 
 
 Agoniftic types, 22, 27, 28 
 Agrigentum, 26 
 Ahfanabad, 186 
 Akbar, 186, 188 
 Akcheh, 173 
 
 'Alam, Shah, 189 
 Alencon, Duke of, 249 
 Alexander the Great, 27 
 Alexander's portrait, 28, 29, 31 
 Alexander's fucceffors, 143 
 Alexander II. of Scotland, 114 
 Alexander III., 114 
 Alexandrian coinage, 67 
 Alfonfo VI., 86 
 
 Alfonfo the Magnanimous, 240 
 Alfred. See " Aeifred." 
 Almohades, 170 
 Almoravides, 81, 170 
 Altar, 53 
 Altun, 173 
 'Aly, 165 
 
 Amphora of Dionysos, 19 
 
 Amphictyonic council, 17 
 
 Anatolia, 172 
 
 Anchifes, 54 
 
 Ancus Marcius, 54 
 
 Andalufia, 167 
 
 Andhra dynafhy, 179, 181 
 
 Andrew, St., 115 
 
 Andrieu, 250 
 
 Angel, 112 
 
 Angelots, 112, 120 
 
 Anglo-French currency, ill 
 
 Animals on Pifano's medals, 240 
 
 Anne, 139 
 
 Anne Boleyn, 253 
 
 Anne of Brittany, 248 
 
 Ant coins, 196 
 
 Antigonus, 153 
 
272 
 
 Index, 
 
 Antioch, 150 
 Antiochus I. and II., 143 
 Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, 144, 
 150 
 
 Antiochus VII., 153 
 Antiochus Hierax, 150 
 Aphrodite (Aegina), 15 
 Aphrodite Melainis (Thefpiae), 
 19 
 
 Apollo and Artemis (Camarina), 
 24 
 
 Apollo (Delphi), 17 
 
 ■- Didymaean, 15 
 (Philip's gold money), 27 
 (Tanagra), 19 
 Apulia, Norman Dukes of, 86, 
 87 
 
 Aquitaine, ill 
 
 Arab coinage, 152, 156 et/eg. 
 Arab merchants, trade with, 85 
 Arabia, 151 
 
 Arabic currency in the North. 
 84 
 
 Aragon, 86, 109 
 
 Ardefhir, 148 
 
 Ardit, in 
 
 Aretas, 151 
 
 Arethufa, 25 
 
 Argenteus, 60 
 
 Argos, 11 
 
 Ariadne, 22 
 
 Ariarathes, 32 
 
 Ariftophanes, Birds, 16 
 
 Ariftoxenus, artift of Metapon- 
 
 tum, 37 
 Armada medals, 254 
 Armenia, 150 
 Arfaces, 144, 146 
 Arfacidae, 145 
 Arfames, 150 
 
 Art, early Saxon and Irifh, 104 
 on Charles L's coins, 135 
 on Englifh coins, 117, 118 
 on medals, 237 et feq. 
 on Mohammadan coins, 156 
 
 Artaxerxes or Ardefhir, 148 
 
 Artaxias, 151 
 
 Artavafdes, 151 
 
 Artemis (Ephefus), 21, 40 
 (Camarina), 24 
 
 Artifts' names, Greek, 36 
 
 As libralis, 43 
 Afia, Central, 145 
 
 Minor, 20 
 
 Wefiern, 150 
 Afiatic divinities, images of, 40 
 Atabegs, 169 
 Athens, 15 
 
 coins copied in Arabia, 152 
 Atrebates, 102 
 
 Attalid Kings of Pergamus, 31 
 Attambulus, 152 
 Augfburg medals, 247 
 Augur, 21 
 
 Auguftus copied in India, 178 
 Auguftus's new copper coinage, 
 
 Auguftulus to Charlemagne, 77 
 Aurelian, 151 
 Aureus, 50, 59, 61 
 Ayyubis, 169 
 
 Babar, 186 
 
 Babylonian influence on China, 
 191 
 
 Bacchus, 20 
 Badlria, 144, 176, 177 
 Bahmany Kings of Kulbarga, 
 186 < 
 
 Bak tribes in China, 191 
 Baliol, John, 114 
 Barter, 10 
 
 Bartholomew Maffacre, medal, 
 246 
 
 Bafe money, 84, 115, 126, 131 
 Bawbee, or bas piece, 131 
 Bean coinage, 232 
 Beaufort family, 122 
 Bee (Ephefus), 21 
 Beefton Caftle, 135 
 Belli, 243 
 Beneventum, 80 
 Bentivoglio, 242, 244 
 Berbers, 170, 172 
 Berenice, 29 
 Beybars, 160 
 Bezant, 81 
 
 Billhook currency, 200 
 
 Billon, 115, 131 
 
 Biot, E., 208 
 
 Bird on ear of corn, 23 
 
 Bifhops, Trial of the Seven, 261 
 
Index. 
 
 2 73 
 
 Black Prince, 1 1 k 
 
 Blancs, 112 
 
 Blake, Admiral, 258 
 
 Blondeau, 138 
 
 Boar of Artemis, 14 
 
 Boldu, G., 242 
 
 Boeotia, 18 
 
 Bonnet pieces, 130 
 
 Bonzagna, F., 246 
 
 Bordeaux, m 
 
 Bofkam, 264 
 
 Bower, G., 260 
 
 Boyne, battle of the, 264 
 
 Brabant, 108 
 
 Bracleates, 84, 90 
 
 ornaments, T03 
 Brandenburg, Eleclor of, 94 
 Briot, Nicholas, 136, 257 
 Briftol, 135 
 Britifti coins, 100 
 British Islands, coins of, 99- 
 140 
 
 Britons, 100 
 
 Roman mints, 102 
 
 Saxons, 102 
 
 Sceat, 103 
 
 Normans, 107 
 
 Groats, 108 
 
 Gold currency, 109 
 
 Anglo-French coinage, 1 1 1 
 
 Scottifti coinage, 113 
 
 Ireland, 115 
 
 Henry VII., 116 
 
 Shilling, 117 
 
 Art on Englifh coins, 118 
 Increafe of wealth, 119 
 Sovereign, 120 
 Henry VIII., 120 
 Crown, 120 
 Wolfey's groat, 122 
 Edward VI., 123 
 Mary, 123 
 Elizabeth, 124 
 Eafl India Company, 125 
 Debafement of coinage, 
 127 
 
 Tokens, 128 . 
 Scotland, 129 
 James L 7 131 
 Denominations, 133 
 Charles I., 134 
 
 British Islands, Siege pieces, 
 135 
 
 Commonwealth, 136 
 Simon's portraits, 137 
 Guinea, 138 
 
 James II., Irifh coins, 139 
 Anne's farthing, 140 
 Broad, 132 
 
 Bronze money of James II., 139 
 Bruce, Robert, 114 
 Brutus, 52 
 
 Buckler of Boeotia, 19 
 Buddha, figure of, 179 
 
 monafteries and temples,222 
 Bull, human-headed, 21 
 Bull and Horfeman, 185 
 Bullion exchange, 10 
 Buwheyhis, 168 
 Byzant, 81 
 
 Byzantine gold ufed by Arabs, 
 164 
 
 Byzantine iconography, 86 
 imitations, 82 
 
 types on Mohammadan 
 coins, 169 
 
 Caepio, 51 
 
 Caefar, Julius, 50 
 
 £aka Scythians, 144, 176-180 
 
 Calais, 111 
 
 Calligraphy, 157, 186 
 
 Camarina, 24, 25 
 
 Campania, 21, 45, 50 
 
 Camulodunum, 102 
 
 Canada, conqueft, 264 
 
 Canute, 106 
 
 Cappadocia, 32 
 
 Caradoffo, 243 
 
 Caraufius, 102 
 
 Carlille, 135 
 
 Carlovingian coinage, 82 
 Caft coins, 176 
 Caftile, 86 
 
 Calling medals, newprocefs, 239 
 Cellini, Benvenuto, 243, 248 
 Celt, flioulder-headed, 201 
 Centaurs, 20 
 Cententionalis, 60 
 Cerberus, 21 
 Ceylon, 182 
 Chaife, 111 
 
274 
 
 Index. 
 
 Chamberlain, B. Hall, 226 
 Chalukya dynafty, 182 
 Chandra Gupta, 179 
 Characene, 152 
 Charles I., 134, 257 
 Charles II., 137, 259, 263 
 Charles VIII. of France, 248 
 Charles IX., 249 
 Charles XII. of Sweden, 94 
 Charles Edward Stuart, 262 1 
 Chefter, 135 
 Chimaera, 21 
 
 China and Japan, coins of, 
 190-235 
 China, 190 
 
 Shell currency, 192 
 Earlieft metal currency, 
 
 195 
 
 Mines, 197 
 Tchou dynafty, 198 
 Adze currency, 200 
 Ring weights, 202 
 Leaf weights, 203 
 Contending States, 203 
 Knife money of Tf'i, 
 205 
 
 Leaf money, 206 
 Gold currency, 207 
 State coinage, 208 
 Tf'in dynafty, 208 
 Han dynafty, 209 
 Counterfeiting, 210 
 The Shang-lin mint, 212 
 Wang Mang, 213 
 Revived knife money, 214 
 Han dynafty revived, 215 
 Divifion of the Empire, 
 216 
 
 State of Wei, 216 
 State of Wu, 216 
 Later Tf'in dynafty, 2 1 7 
 The Two Empires, 218 
 Southern Empire, 218 
 Iron money, 219 
 Northern Empire, 219 
 Sui dynafty, 220 
 Tang dynafty, 220 
 Limited iffue, 221 
 Dearth of metal, 222 
 Confifcation of Buddhift 
 treafures, 222 
 
 China, Yuen and Ming dynaf- 
 
 ties, 224 
 Mandchu dynafty, 224 
 Japan, 225 
 
 Earlieft iffues, 226 
 Imitation of Chinefe 
 
 money, 227 
 Lead currency, 228 
 Chinefe coins in Japan, 
 
 228 
 
 Ten-fho coinage, 229 
 Iron coinage, 231 
 Bean coinage, 232 
 Silver coinage, 232 
 Gold coinage, 233 
 
 Chinguiz Khan, 172 
 
 Chlovis II., 79 
 
 Chohan horfeman, 185 
 
 Cholas of Ceylon, 182 
 
 Chriftian Europe, coinage of, 
 74-98. See " Europe." 
 
 Chriftian figures on Mohamma- 
 dan coins, 169 
 
 Chriftian types on Roman coins, 
 63 
 
 Chutia Nagpur, 201 
 
 Cities perfonified on Parthian 
 
 coins, 147 
 Cities, views of, 96 
 Civic coinage of Greece, 14 
 Clement VII., 244 
 Cleopatra's portrait, 33 
 Cnut, 106 
 
 Colchefter, 102, 135 
 Commius, 102 
 Commonwealth, 136, 258 
 Company, African, 138 
 
 Eaft India, 125, 139, 265 
 
 South Sea, 140 
 Conftantine, 61 
 Conftantinople, 173 
 Confular feries, 48 
 Contorniates, 69 
 Contending States in China, 203 
 Copper coinage in England, 128 
 
 India, 175, 176, 185 
 
 China, 195 
 Cork, 116, 135 
 Counterfeiting in China, 210 
 Cowry currency, 192 et/eq. 
 Cranach, L., 247 
 
Index. 
 
 275 
 
 Crenides, gold mines, 100 
 Crefcent of Aphrodite, 19 
 Crimiffus, 24 
 Croker, 264 
 Cromwell, O., 137, 258 
 T., 253 
 
 Cross, forms of, 83, 90, 108, 114, 
 
 136 
 Crown, 120 
 
 Cubes of gold in China, 198 
 Culloden medal, 265 
 Cunipert, 79 
 Cunobelinus, 102 
 Curtius, E., 13 
 Cypraea, 193 et feq. 
 Cyprus, 142 
 
 Dai-Koko, god of wealth, 232 
 Daimios, 229, 231 
 Damascus, 165, 167 
 Damietta, conqueft of, 160 
 Danifh kings, 106, 107 
 Dante, Paradifo, 88, 126 
 Daric, 141 
 
 Date on Englifh coins, 123 
 David I. of Scotland, 113 
 Davifon, A., 265 
 Debafement of coinage in Eng- 
 land, 126 
 
 Scotland, 114, 131 
 
 Germany, 84 
 Deccan, 186 
 Declaration type, 134 
 Decuffis, 43, 
 Dehli, 171, 185-189 
 Delphi, 16 
 Delphian games, 23 
 Demeter (Metapontum), 23 
 Demetrius Poliorcetes, 31 
 Demi-chaife, 111 
 Demy, 115 
 Denarius, 48, 81, 96 
 Denier, new, 81, 111 
 Denmark, 85 
 
 Denominations of Englifh coins, 
 133 
 
 Roman coins, 42 et feq. 
 Denon, 250 
 Defiderius, 79 
 Diana, 53 
 
 Die-engravers, 36, 119 note 
 
 Dinar, 167 
 
 Diocletian's reforms, 60 
 Diogenes Laertius, vil., 2, 70 
 Dionyfos, 31 
 
 (Thebes), 19 
 
 Hebon, 22 
 Diofcuri, 50 
 Dirhem, 167 
 Divine honours, 29 
 Dollar, 98 
 
 Dolphin of Apollo, 18 
 
 of Syracufe, 25 
 
 of Tarentum, 22 
 Double hardi, 1 1 1 
 Double fovereigns, 127 
 Dove of Aphrodite, 14 
 Drachmas, Attic, 16 
 Dragon, 211 
 Drogheda, 116 
 Droz, 250 
 
 Dryden, The Medal, 261 
 Dublin, 116, 135 
 Ducats, 87, 97, 130 
 Dunbar, battle, 258 
 Dupondius, 43, 50 
 Dupr£, 9, 92, 249 
 Dixrer, A., 93, 247 
 Durham, 122 
 
 Dutch medals, 251, 256, 258, 
 259, 261 
 
 Eadward the Confessor, 
 107 
 
 Eagle, two-headed, 169 
 
 on thunderbolt, 50 
 
 of Zeus, 14 
 Eagles devouring hare, 26 
 Ear of corn of Demeter, 23 
 Earth god, 21, 22 
 Eaft, early coins of, 141 
 EckhePs Doclrina Numorum 
 
 Veterurn, 1 
 Economic fallacies, 126 
 Ecu, 97, 130 
 Edeffa, 151 
 Edinburgh, 135 
 Edward I., 108 
 Edward III., 108, 109 
 Edward, the Black Prince of 
 
 Wales, in 
 Edward IV., 112 
 
276 
 
 Index. 
 
 Edward VI., 118, 123, 253. See 
 
 " Eadward." 
 Egberht of Weffex, 106 
 Eleazar, 154 
 Elis, 37 
 
 Elizabeth, 124, 254 
 Elm-leaf money, 209 
 Eloi, St., 79 
 
 Emperors, Roman, portraits, 5 
 England, portraits, 92, 93. See 
 
 " Britifh Islands." 
 England, army of, 250 
 Engravers, Englifh, 119 note 
 
 Greek, 36 
 Enzola, 242 
 Epaminondas, 39 
 Ephefus, 20, 39 
 Erafmus, 128 
 Effex, 258 
 
 Efte, Leonello, Marquefs of, 
 
 241 
 Eftes, 242 
 Efterlings, 109 
 Ethelred. See "Aethelred." 
 Etruria, 21 
 
 Europe, Christian, coinage 
 of, 75-98 
 
 Divifions of the fubjecl, 75 
 Special intereft of each, 76 
 
 I. Auguftus to Charlemagne, 
 77 
 
 Lombards, 79 
 
 II. True Mediaeval period, 
 80 
 
 New Denarius, 81 
 France, 82 
 
 Germany and Italy, 83 
 Bracteates, 84 
 Spain, 85 
 Iconography, 86 
 
 III. Return to gold, 87 
 Fiorino d'oro, 88 
 Fourteenth century, 90 
 
 IV. Renaiffance, 90 
 Portraits, 91 
 
 V. Modern coinage, 93 
 Sovereigns' portraits, 94 
 Medallic character, 95 
 Views of cities, 96 
 Weights and denomina- 
 tions, 96 
 
 Evaenetus, a coin engraver, 36 
 Exeter, 135 
 
 Eybek the Mamluk, 161 
 
 Fairfax, 258 
 
 Fairs at Delphi, 17 
 
 Fallacies, economic, under 
 
 Tudors, 126 
 Farthing, 108 
 
 Farthings, Queen Anne, 140 
 F&timy Khalifs, 170 
 Federal currency of Boeotia, 18 
 Finenefs of Mohammadan coins, 
 167 
 
 Fiorino d'oro, 88 
 Fifcher, P., 246 
 Five-guinea piece, 138 
 Flanders, 108, 248 
 Fleurs-de-lis on Scottifh coins, 
 114 
 
 Florence, 88, 92 
 Florin, 88, 97 
 
 in England, 1 10 
 Fontana, 245 
 Forgers, Chinefe, 210 
 Formulas, religious, 8 
 France, Englifh coinage in, in 
 
 Mediaeval coinage, 82 
 
 portraits, 92 
 Francia, 243, 244 
 Francois I., 248 
 Franconian emperors, 83 
 Francs, 112 
 Franks, 78 
 Frederick II., 87 
 Frederick the Great, 95 
 Frederick of Bohemia, 94 
 French crufade to Egypt, 160 
 
 Games, sacred, on coins, 41 
 
 Metapontine, 23 
 
 Olympian, 23 
 
 Pythian, 17 
 
 Tarentine, 22 
 Gandhara, 176, 177 
 Gaulifh coins, 100 
 Gelas, 24 
 Gems, 197 
 
 engravers of, 4 
 Genealogy on Muflim coins, 159 
 George I., 139, 263 
 George II., 139 
 
Index. 
 
 277 
 
 George III., 139 
 George noble, 121 
 German portraits, 93, 246 
 
 reprefentations of Saints, 87 
 Germany, mediaeval coinage, 83 
 Gibbon's ufe of the word 
 
 "medal," 236 
 Godfrey, Sir Edmund Berry, 
 
 260 
 
 Gods on coinage, Greek, 14 
 
 Gold coins of Rome, 45 
 
 Gold cubes and currency in 
 
 China, 198, 207 
 Gold currency in England, 109 
 Gold mines of Crenides, 100 
 Gold and filver mines of Pan- 
 
 gaeum, 20 
 Gonzaga, Cecilia, medal, 242 
 Gorgon's head on Etrufcan 
 
 coins, 21 
 Greek Coins, 3, 10-41 
 Bullion money, 10 
 Invention of coinage, 10 
 Methods of coinage, 1 1 
 Scientific value, 12 
 Types, 12 
 
 Religious afpecl, 12 
 Temple coinage, 13 
 State coinage, 14 
 Aegina, 15 
 Delphi, 16 
 Boeotia, 18 
 Ephefus, 20 
 Etruria, 21 
 Campania, 21 
 Magna Graecia, 22 
 Agoniftic types, 22 
 Metapontum, 23 
 Sicily river gods, 23 
 Water nymphs, 25 
 Eagles devouring hare, 26 
 Philip and Alexander, 27 
 Portraiture, 28 
 Alexander's fucceffors, 28 
 Portraits, Alexander, etc., 30 
 Realifm, 31 
 Mithradates, 32 
 Cleopatra, 33 
 
 Styles of art and fequence, 
 33 
 
 Die engravers, 36 
 
 Greek Coins, Magiftratei 
 names, 38 
 
 Greek cities of Afia, 40 
 Imperial coinage, 39 
 Kings of India, 176-178 
 types on Indian coins, 177 
 types in Perfia, 142 
 
 Gregory XIII., 246 
 
 Griffin, 21, 50 
 
 Groats, 89, 108 
 
 Gros, in 
 
 Grofil, or gros, 89, 91 
 Groffus, 97 
 
 Grueber, H. A., Guide to Eng- 
 
 li/h Medals, 266 
 Guacciolotti, 242 
 Guadaleta, battle, 78, 85 
 Guienne, 11 1 
 Guiennois, ill 
 Guinea, 138 
 Gujarat, 186 
 Gun-metal, 139 
 Gunpowder Plot medal, 257 
 Gupta empire, 179, 180 
 Guftavus Adolphus, 94 
 
 Hades on Etrufcan coins, 21 
 Hadleye, Robert de, 108 
 Hadrian, 63 
 Hagenauer, F., 247 
 Hainault, 108 
 Half-crowns, 120' 
 Half-demy, 115 
 Half-groat, 112 
 Half-guinea, 138 
 Half-moon money, 200 
 Half-plack, 115 
 Half-quarter-fovereign, 124 
 Halfpence and farthings, 108 
 Half-fliekel, 153 
 Half-fovereigns, 120 
 Hamdanis, 168 
 Hampden, 258 
 
 Han dynafty, 195, 196, 209, 215 
 Hardi, 111 
 
 Hare devoured by eagles, 26 
 Harp of Ireland, 136 
 Harrington, Lord, 129 
 Harfha Vardhana, 186 
 Hat, Cardinal's, 122 
 Hautfch, 264 
 
278 
 
 Index. 
 
 Hempen cloth, 192 
 Henry II., 107 
 
 Irifh coinage, 116 
 Henry VII., 117 
 Henry VIII., 118, 120, 253 
 Henry [IX.] Stuart, 263 
 Henry II., III., and IV. of 
 
 France, 249 
 Heraclius, 164, 
 Herakles, 245 
 
 of Croton, 3 
 
 on Philip's coins, 28 
 
 at Thebes, 19 
 
 fhield of, 19 
 Heraldic devices on Englifh 
 
 coins, 121 
 Herodian family, 154 
 Herodotus, 11 
 Hefperides, 245 
 Hia dynafly, 192 
 Himyarites, 152 
 Hindu types, 179, 185 
 Hipparis, 24 
 Hippoftratus, 178 
 Historical value of Muhamma- 
 dan coins, 158, 161 
 
 Roman money, 5, 6 
 
 Greek coins, 12 
 Hohenftaufen dynafly, 87 
 Holbein, 253 
 
 Holland, medals, 251, 254, 258 
 
 Holy Carpet, 159 
 
 Honorius, 103 
 
 Hulagu, 187 
 
 Huns, 144, 180 
 
 Huvifhka, 179 
 
 Hypfas, 24 
 
 Iconography, 64, 86 
 Ides of March, 53 
 Idnsis, 169 
 I kh mid is, 169 
 Ilkhans of Perfia, 171 
 Imitations, 152, 227 
 Imperial coinage of Rome, 59 
 Incufe fquare, 11 
 India, 144 
 
 Indian Coins, 175, 189 
 Greek, Kings, 176-178 
 Scythic Kings, 178 
 Kufhans, 178, 179 
 
 I Indian Coins — 
 
 Native Kings, 179 
 Guptas, 179, 180 
 White Huns, 180 
 Southern India, 181 
 Ceylon, 182 
 
 Mohammadan coinage, 182 
 Copper currency, 184 
 Muflim dynafties, 185 
 Patans of Dehli, 186 
 Mohammad Taghlak, 187 
 Moguls of Dehli, 188 
 India Company, Eaft, 125, 139, 
 265 
 
 Invention of coinage, 10, 141 
 Ireland, 115, 127, 139 
 Ireton, 258 
 Iron bars, 15 
 
 Iron currency in Japan, 231 
 Italian cities, autonomous, 84 
 
 medals, 237 et feq. 
 
 mediaeval coinage, 83 
 
 Jagatay family, 171 
 James I. of Scotland, 115 
 James II. „ 115 
 James III. „ 115 
 James IV. „ 130 
 James V. „ 130 
 James VI. and I., 130, 256 
 James II. of England, 139, 261 
 James [III.] the Pretender, 262 
 Janus, 44-46 
 
 Japan, 225-235. See "China." 
 Jaunpur, 186 
 Jehangir, 189 
 Jewiih coins, 153 
 Joachimfthal, 98 
 John Baptift, St., 88, 116 
 John, King, ii., 1, 113 
 Irifh. coinage, 116 
 John, St., 86 
 Johnfon, Samuel, 263 
 Judaea, 62, 153, 134 
 Julius, 242, 244 
 
 Kabul, 175, 176, 185 
 Kadamba dynafly, 181 
 Kalidafa, 181 
 Kandy Rajas, 182 
 Kanifhka, 179 
 
Index. 
 
 2 79 
 
 Kafhmir, 181 
 
 Keary, C. F., Guide to Italian 
 
 Medals, 244 
 Khalifs, 164-168, 186 
 Khorafan, 168 
 KhubilayKhan, 188 
 Khutbeh and Sikkeh, 162 
 Kipchak, 171 
 Kiri-mon, 234 
 Knives, 192 
 
 Knife money of Tf'i, 204 
 Knife money revived, 214 
 Krim, 171 
 
 Kufic character, 157 
 
 Kulbarga, 186 
 
 Kurds, 169 
 
 Kurur, battle, 180 
 
 Kufhans, 177-179 
 
 Kwan-tze, financial reform, 197 
 
 L. s. D., 97 
 
 Lamb, Pafchal, 89, 111 
 Latten tokens, 128 
 Laud, Archbifliop, 258 
 Laurana, F., 248 
 Laurel, 133 
 
 Lead currency, 179, 228 
 Lead tokens, 128 
 Leaf money, 206, 209 
 Leaf weights, 203 
 Leather tokens, 128 
 Legros, 268 
 Leipzig medals, 247 
 Lenormant, F., 2 
 Leopard, no, in 
 Leovigiid, 78 
 Lex Julia Papiria, 44 
 Lexignolo, 242 
 Liang dynafty, 218 
 Liberty, cap of, 53 
 Libra, 97 
 Lima, 140 
 Limerick, 116 
 Lion, 115 
 
 Lion creft borne by Bey bars, 160 
 
 Lion noble, 132 
 
 Lioni, 243 
 
 Local mints, 56, 66 
 
 Locuft, 23 
 
 Lombards, coins of, 79 
 Londinium, 102 
 
 London, 102, 135, 251 
 " Londres, frapple a," 251 
 Louis IX., St., deniers, qo 
 
 Crufade of, 160 
 Louis XI., 248 
 Louis XII., 248 
 Louis XIII., 249 
 Louis XIV., 94, 250 
 Louis le Pere, 248 
 Low Countries, 108, 251 
 Luder, 264 
 
 Ludwig of Bavaria, 95 
 Luther medals, 95 
 Lycian league, 142 
 Lydia, 10 
 
 Lyons medals, 248, 249 
 Lyre of Apollo, 14 
 Lyfimachus, 28, 31 
 Lyfippus ftatue of Alexander, 
 3i 
 
 Maccabees, 153 
 
 Macedon, Britifh imitations of, 
 100 
 
 Magiftrates' names, 38 
 Magdalen Tower, 136 
 Magna Graecia, 22 
 Magnus Maximus, lafl Imperial 
 
 coins in Britain, 102 
 Mahmal, 159 
 Mahmud of Ghazni, 185 
 Mahmud II., 173 
 Maidens, 16 
 Malatefta, 240 
 Malayan Peninfula, 201 
 Malchus, 151 
 Malwa, 179, 186 
 Mamerces, 54 
 Mamluk Queen, 158 
 Mamluks of Egypt, 172, 160 
 Mandchu dynafty, 224 
 Manghir, 173 
 Mannus, 151 
 Manfurah, battle of, 160 
 Mantua, Marquefs of, 242 
 Maravedis, 81, 170 
 Marcia gens, 54 
 Margaret of Auftria, 248 
 Maria Therefa, 95 
 Mark, 97 
 Mark, St., 86 
 
280 
 
 Index, 
 
 Marks, moneyers', 54 
 Mars, 50 
 
 Mary, Queen, 123 
 Mary Queen of Scots, 130, 254 
 Maffalia, trade with, 100 
 Mathura, 176, 179 
 Matthew, St., 86 
 Maundy money, 139 
 Maurice, Prince, 252, 255 
 Medaglie, 236 
 Me'dailles, 236 
 
 Medallic art, 6, 70, 91, 95, 236 
 Medallions, 68, 237 
 Medals, 236-269 
 
 The word Medal, 236 
 
 Italian medals, 237 
 
 Pifano, 238 
 
 New procefs of cafting, 239 
 Followers of Pifano, 242 
 Sixteenth century medal- 
 lifts, 243 
 Francia, 244 
 Benvenuto Cellini, 244 
 Paftorino, 244 
 Fontana, 245 
 Portraits, 245 
 Bartholomew, 246 
 German medals, 246 
 French medals, 248, 
 Flemifh medals, 248, note 
 Duprd, 249 
 The Warins, 249 
 Napoleonic medals, 250 
 Frappe'e a Londres, 251 
 Dutch medals, 251 
 Englifh medals, 253 
 Armada medals, 254 
 James I., 256 
 Charles I., 257 
 Commonwealth, 258 
 Blake medals, 258 
 The Simons, 259 
 Rawlins, 259 
 Charles II., 260 
 Popifh Plot, 260 
 James II., 261 
 Pretender medals, 262 
 William and Mary, and 
 
 Anne, 264 
 Military and Naval medals, 
 265 
 
 Medals — 
 
 Indian medals, 266 
 
 Waterloo, 266 
 
 Prefent condition of medal- 
 lic art, 266 
 
 Claffical defigns, 267 
 
 The Wyons, 267 
 
 Profeffor Legros, 268 
 
 Society of Medall.fts, 269 
 
 Mr. Poynter, 269 
 Mediaeval coinage, 6, 74-98 
 Medicis, Catherine de, 249 
 Medufa, 21 
 Mejidieh, 173 
 Melioli, 242 
 Meliffae (Ephefus),'2i 
 Merv, 165 
 
 Mefopotamia, 144, 145, 169 
 Meffana, pharos, 53 
 Metapontum, 23 
 Methods of coining, 1 1 
 Mewar, 186 
 Michael, St., 79, 112 
 Middle Ages, coins of, 74-98 
 Mikado's creft, 234 
 Milan, 79 
 
 portraits, 92 ♦ 
 Miliarenfis, 61 
 Military medals, 265 
 Mill, 94 
 Millares, 170 
 Minerva, 44 
 Mines in China, 197 
 Ming dynafty, 224 
 Mints of Charles I., 134 
 
 provincial Rome, 55, 66 
 Mints, Scottifti, 114 
 Mithradates, 32, 145, 150 
 Modern coins, 7, 93 
 Moguls of Dehli, 188 
 Mohammad ibn Taghlak, 187 
 Mohammad II., 173 
 
 MOHAMMADAN COINS, 1 5 6- 1 74 
 
 Art on Muflim coins, 156 
 Calligraphy, 156 
 Hiftorical Affociations, 158 
 A Mamluk Queen, 1 58 
 Genealogical data, 159 
 Crufade of St. Louis, 160 
 Value of numifmatic evi- 
 dence, 163 
 
Index. 
 
 281 
 
 MOHAMMADAN COINS— 
 
 Origin of the coinage, 164 
 Religious infcriptions, 166 
 Weight and finenefs, 167 
 The Khalifate, 167 
 Dynaftic coinage, 168 
 Chriftian figures, 169 
 Mongols, 170 
 Mamluks, 172 
 Berbers, 172 
 Ottoman Turks, 173 
 
 Mohammadan coins of India, 182 
 
 Mohammadan dynafties of In- 
 dia, 185 
 
 Mommfen, Th., 2, 44 
 
 Moneyers, 54 
 
 Mongols, 170 
 
 Monmouth, rebellion of, 261 
 Monopoly of copper tokens, 129 
 Moorilh currency, 81, 167 et 
 
 More, Thomas, 253 
 Morocco, 172 
 
 Morton's portrait of Mary, 254 
 Mofes of Khoren, 150 
 Mofil, 169 
 Mouton, in 
 Murabitin, E1-, 81, 170 
 Murfhidabad, 189 
 Mufa, 148 
 Mufta'fim, E1-, 159 
 Muwahhidin, E1-, 170 
 Mythological types, 12 
 Mythology on Greek coins, 5 
 
 Indian, 179 
 
 Perfian, 141, 142 
 
 Nabathea. 151 
 Naples, 22, 91 
 Napoleon I., 96, 250 
 Naval rewards, 258 
 
 medals, 265 
 Neptune, 53 
 
 Neuantos, artifl of Cydonia, 37 
 Newark, 135 
 Nien-hao, 217 
 
 Nike on Parthian coins, 147 
 Nile medal, 265 
 Noble, no 
 Normandy, in 
 Normans, 107 
 
 Normans of Apulia, 86 et feq. 
 Norfe Kings in Ireland, 106, 115 
 Norfe Arabic coins, 84 
 North Africa, 169, 170 
 Norway, 106 
 
 Numerals on Englifh coins, 118 
 note 
 
 Nuremberg, 96, 247 
 Nymphs, 20, 25 
 
 1 
 
 'Odenathus, 151 
 Offa, King of Mercia, 82, 105 
 Olive branch of Athena, 16 
 Olympian games, 23 
 Omayyad Khalifs, 167 
 Omphalos, 18 
 
 Oriental Coins, Early, 141- 
 
 155 
 
 Perfia, 141 
 
 Phoenicia, 143 
 
 Succeffors of Alexander, 143 
 
 Satraps, 144 
 
 Central Afia, 145 
 
 Parthians, 145 
 
 Saffanians, 148 
 
 Armenia, 150 
 
 Nabathea, 151 
 
 Palmyra, 151 
 
 Arabia, 151 
 
 Judaea, 153 
 Oriental invention of coinage. 
 
 11, 141 
 Ormazd, 149 
 Ortygia, 26 
 Ofcan coins, 57 
 Ofroene, 151 
 Oflrogoths, 78 
 Ottoman Turks, 172 
 Owl of Athene, 16 
 Oxford, 135 
 Oxford Crown, 136 
 
 Padlock money, 200 
 Pallas, 28, 44, 147 
 Palm-tree (Ephefus), 21 
 Palmyra, 151 
 Pangaeum mines, 20 
 Panjab, 176, 178, 185 
 Pantheon, Indian, 179 
 Parian Chronicle, 10 
 Partabgarh, 182 
 
282 
 
 Index. 
 
 Parthians, 145 
 Paffe, Simon, 257 
 Pafti, Matteo, 242 
 Paftorino, 243, 244 
 Patans of Dehli, 185 
 Pavia, 79 
 Pavilion, in 
 Pearls, 197 
 Pecunia, 10 
 Pehlvi, 165 
 Peloponnefus, 15 
 Peninfular medal, 266 
 Penny, filver, 82, 105 
 
 copied abroad, 108 
 
 degradation of, 109 
 
 gold, of Henry III., 109 
 
 Scottifh, 131 
 
 etymology, 81 note 
 Pepin the Short, 82 
 Pere, Louis le, 248 
 Perfephone, 22, 36 
 Perfia, ancient, 141 
 
 Shahs of, 7, 171 
 Peter, St., 86 
 
 the Great, 94, 95 
 Petition Crown, 138, 259 
 Petra, 151 
 Petrarch, 6 
 Pfaffenpfenninge, 84 
 Pfenning, 81 
 Pheidias' Zeus, 40 
 Pheidon, King of Argos, 10 
 Philetaerus, 31 
 Philibert le Beau, 248 
 Philip of Macedon, 27 
 Philip the Fair, 126 
 Philip and Mary, 123, 253 
 Phoenicia, 143 
 Phraates IV., 148 
 Phraataces, 148 
 Pilon, G., 249 
 Pifano V., 6, 238 
 Pifo, 51 
 Plack, 115 
 
 Plumbei Angliae, 128 
 Poitou, in 
 Pollajualo, 242 
 Pomedello, 243 
 Pompeius, Sextus, 53 
 Pontefracl, 135 
 
 Popes, portraits of, 92, 242, 244 
 
 j Portcullis, 125 
 Portraits, 4, 7, 94 
 Greek, 12, 28 
 Roman, 72 
 Italian, 91, 238 etfeq. 
 Englifh, 117, 253 et feq. 
 Flemifh, 248, note 
 Scottifh, 130 
 German, 246 
 French, 248 
 
 Dutch,252,254,256, 257,259 
 Pofeidon (Haliartus), 19 
 
 (Tarentum), 23 
 Poftumia gens, 53 
 Pound, 97, 132 
 Poynter, E. J., 269 
 Prague, 89 
 
 Praxiteles' Aphrodite (Cnidus), 
 40 
 
 Prelatical frauds, 126 
 Pretender medals, 262 
 Prieftly colleges, 13 
 Priefts, names on coins, 39 
 Primavera, G., 249, 254 
 Prinfep, 183 
 
 Procurators of Judaea, 154 
 Provincial mints, 66 
 Pruilas, King of Bithynia, 31 
 Ptolemies, 152 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus, 30 
 
 Soter, 29 
 Punch-marked coins, 8, 175. 
 181 
 
 Pythian Feftivals, 17 
 Python, 25 
 
 Quadrans, 43, 50 
 Quarter-fovereign, 124 
 Quincuffis, 43 
 Quinarius, 3, 48 
 
 Rajas of Kandy, 182 
 Ram's head of Apollo, 18 
 Rawlins, T., 136, 259 
 Realifm on Greek coins, 31 
 on Italian medals, 240 
 Reformation medals, 95 
 Regimental medals, 266 
 
 I Reitz, H., 247 
 
 [Religious types, vl 
 
Index. 
 
 283 
 
 Renaiffance, 91 
 
 in England, 117 
 Reftoration medals, 260 
 Reftriclions on export of coins, 
 126 
 
 Reuter, de, 252 
 
 Revolts, Jewifh, 154 
 
 Rider, 115 
 
 Ring weights, 202 
 
 Ringelberg, J., 247 
 
 River gods, 23 
 
 Robert II., 115 
 
 Robert III., 115 
 
 Roettier, 138, 259 
 
 Roma, head of, 50 
 
 Roman Coins, 42-73 
 
 Aes rude, fignatum, and 
 
 grave, 42, 43 
 Early gold and filver, 45 
 Campanian coins, 45 
 Reduction of the as libralis, 
 46 
 
 Firft Roman filver coins, 48 
 Victoriatus, 49 
 Uncial as, 49 
 
 Gold coins after, B.C. 269, 50 
 Types, 52 
 
 Moneyers' marks, 54 
 
 Mint officers, 55 
 
 Local iffues, 56 
 
 Ofcan coins, 57 
 
 Imperial coinage, 59 
 
 Argenteus, 60 
 
 Diocletian's reforms, 60 
 
 Solidus, 61 
 
 Imperial types, 61 
 
 Chriflian types, 63 
 
 Iconographic types, 64 
 
 Local mints, 66 
 
 Alexandrian coinage, 67 
 
 Medallions and tickets, 68 
 
 Medallic art, 70 
 Roman currency ufed by bar- 
 barians, 77 
 Roman effigies on Jewifh coins, 
 154 
 
 Roman influence in India, 178 
 Roman mints, 66, 102 
 Romano, 243 
 Ronfard, 249 
 Rofe noble, 112 
 
 Rofe ryal, 132 
 
 Tudor, 120 
 
 on fixpence, 124 
 Runes, 103 
 Ruffia, 93, 95, 172 
 Ryal, 120, 132 
 
 Sabazius, 20 
 Sabines, rape of, 54 
 Sacae, or (^aka, 144, 176 
 Saddle-money, 206 
 Saffaris, 168 
 Saints, 64, 86 
 Saladin, 169 
 Salih, Es-, 159, 160 
 Salutes, 112 
 Samanis, 168 
 Sancho Ramirez, 86 
 Saphadin, 160 
 Saffanians, 148, 180 
 
 filver ufed by Arabs, 
 164 
 
 Satraps, Greek, 144 
 
 Indian, 179, 180 
 Saturn, head of, 52 
 Satyrs, 20 
 Saulcy, de, 2 
 Sauvaire, H., 158 
 Saxons, 102 
 
 Emperors, 83 
 Scandinavian coinage, 85 
 Scarborough, 135 
 Sceat, 103 
 Sceptre piece, 132 
 Schilling, 96 
 Schools of coin artifts, 4 
 Schutz-thaler, 95 
 Scotland, 106, 113, 129 
 Sculpture compared with coins, 
 
 Greek, 3 
 Scylla, 53 
 
 Scythic Kings, 144, 176-180 
 
 Seifachtheia, 16 
 
 Seiftan, 168 
 
 Segefta, 24 
 
 Selene, 178 
 
 Selucid era, 147 
 
 Seleucidae, 143, 176 
 
 Seleucus I., 143 
 
 Selinus, 24 
 
 Seljuks, 169 
 
Index. 
 
 Semis, 43, 50 
 
 Semrang Sen, 201 
 
 Sequence, chronological, of 
 
 Greek coins, 33 
 Sequin (Zecchino), 89, 97, 173 
 Servius Tullius, 42 
 Seftertius, 48, 50 
 Sextans, 43 
 Sextantal as, 47 
 Shaftefbury, 261 
 Shahs of Perfia, 171 
 Shakefpeare, Henry VII 7., 122 
 
 Merchant of Venice ; 113 
 
 Merry Wives, 113 
 Shang dynafty, 197 
 Shang-lin mint, 212 
 Shejer-ed-durr, 158 
 Shekel, Perfian, 141 
 
 Jewifh, 153 
 Shell currency, 192 et feq. 
 Sherifs of Morocco, 172 
 Shield, Englifh, 120 et feq. 
 Shield of Boeotia or Herakles, 
 18 
 
 Shilling, 96, 117 
 
 Shrewsbury, 135 
 
 Shu King, 199 
 
 Sicily, 23 
 
 Siege pieces, 135 
 
 Sieges-thaler, 95 
 
 Sigli or shekels, 141 
 
 Signatures of artifts, 36, 37 
 
 Sikkeh rupee, 189 
 
 Siliqua, 61 
 
 Silk, 192 
 
 Silver among the Germans, 
 104 
 
 Silver prevailing in Europe, 
 81 
 
 Simon, Abraham, 136, 259 
 Simon bar Cochab, 154 
 Simon the Maccabee, 153 
 Simon, Thomas, 136, 259 
 Sixpence, 123 
 Skilling, 96 
 Sluys, battle of, no 
 Smeltzing, 261, 264 
 Solidus, 61, 96 
 Solon, 15 
 
 Sophocles, Trach., 12 
 South Sea Company, 140 
 
 Sovereign, 120 
 Sovereigns, portraits of, 94 
 Spade weights, 202 
 Spain mediaeval coinage, 85, 
 167 
 
 Armada, 255 
 Spectator's Shilling, 237 
 Spenfer, Prothalamium, 241 
 Sperandio, 242 
 Sphinxes, 21 
 Spinelli, N., 248 
 Spur ryal, 132 
 Stag of Artemis, 14 
 
 Artemis (Ephefus), 21 
 State coinage of China, 208 
 
 of Greece, 14 
 Statues, copies of, on coins, 3, 
 40, 71 
 
 Stephen of Holland, 254 
 
 Sterlings, 109, 113 
 
 Stone age, relic of, 201 
 
 Strabo, viii., 6 
 
 Strafford, 258 
 
 Stuarts, coinage, 134 
 
 Styles of art on Greek coins, 33 
 
 Styles, fequence of, 33 
 
 Succeffors of Alexander, 28 
 
 Sulla, 50 
 
 Sung dynafty, 218 
 Surafhtra, 179, 180 
 Swan of Camarina, 25 
 Sword dollar, 132 
 Syracufan artifts, 36, 37 
 Syracufe, 25 
 
 Syro-Greek kingdom, 143 
 
 Tacitus, Germ., 5 
 Taikun, 234 
 Tai-ping rebellion, 224 
 Tamerlane, 171, 185 
 Tanagra, 19 
 Tankah, 186 
 Taras, 22 
 Tarentum, 22 
 Tarpeia, 54 
 Tartars, 218 et feq. 
 Taxila, 176 
 Tch'en dynafty, 219 
 Tchou dynafty, 198 
 Telephus, 178 
 Temple coinage, 13 
 
Index. 
 
 285 
 
 Temples and monafteries, Budd- 
 hift, 222 
 
 Temples, pictures, and ftatues, 
 reprefented on coins, 3, 5, 40, 
 71 
 
 Ten-milling pieces, 138 
 Ten-mo period in Japan, 229 
 Terina, 4 
 
 Teft Act medal, 261 
 Thaler, 98 
 Theodebert, 78 
 Theodotus of Cydonia, 37 
 Third-ryal, 131 
 Thirty-milling pieces, 132 
 Thiftle dollar, 132 
 
 mark, 132 
 
 noble, 132 
 Thomas, E., 183, 184, 187 
 Thrace, 19 
 
 Three-halfpenny pieces, 124 
 Threepenny piece, 124 
 Thunderbolt, fymbol of Zeus, 14 
 Tiara, Armenian, 150 
 Tickets, 68 
 Tigranes, 143, 150 
 Timur, 171 
 Tin tokens, 128 
 Tiraeus, 152 
 Titus, coins of, 62 
 Tokens, Englifli, 128 
 Topa dynafty, 219 
 Tortoife-fhell currency, 193 
 Tortoife of Aphrodite, 14, 15 
 Touch-pieces, 263 
 Tower mint, 136 
 Towns, names of, 106 
 Trafalgar medal, 265 
 Trajan, 63 
 Tranfoxiana, 168 
 Trevancore, 182 
 Treafures, temple, 14, 222 
 Tremiffis, 79 
 Trezzo, 253 
 
 Trident of Pofeidon, 19 
 Triens, 43, 50 
 Triental as, 46 
 Trim, 116 
 
 Trinity, Holy (Hand, Cross, and 
 
 Dove), 86 
 Trinobantes, 102 
 Tripod of Apollo, 14 
 Triumph, the, 258 
 
 Tromp, Van, 252 
 Tf'i, Duke of, 198 
 
 knife money of, 204 
 Tf'in dynafty, 208 
 
 later, 217 
 Tudors, 117^/ feq. 
 Tulun, Beny, 168 
 Turks, Ottoman, 172 
 Twenty-milling piece, 130 
 Two-guinea piece, 138 
 Two-penny piece, 124 
 Two-third ryal, 131 
 Type, 11 
 
 Tyre and Sidon, 143 
 
 UjAlN, 176, 180 
 Ulyffes, 54 
 Umawy Khalifs, 167 
 Uncia, 43 
 Uncial as, 49 
 Unicorn, 115 
 Unite or broad, 132 
 Urtukis, 169 
 Utrecht, Peace of, 264 
 
 Vagarshag, Valarsaces, 1 50 
 Vandals, 78 
 Venice, 89 
 
 Verona, artifts of, 238, 242 
 Vefpafian, 62, 154 
 Viceroys of Egypt, 173 
 Vicloriatus, 49 
 Viftory, 28, 46, 63, 147 
 Views of cities, 96 
 Vigo Bay Expedition, 139 
 Vikings, 85, 106 
 Virgil, ^Eneid, 45 
 Virgin on Mohammadan coins 
 169 
 
 Virgin'and Child, 86 
 Virgin and Saviour, 64 
 Vifigoths, 78 
 Vultus Sanclus, 86 
 
 Wang Mang, 213 
 Warin, 92, 249 
 Water nymphs, 25 
 Waterloo medal, 264, 266 
 Waterford, 116 
 
 Wealth, increafe in England. 
 119 
 god of, 232 
 
286 
 
 Index. 
 
 Wei, State of, 216 
 Weights and denominations, 96 
 Weight of Mohammadan coins, 
 167 
 
 Weights, current, in China, 202 
 Weftminfter Abbey, ftiields :in, 
 121 
 
 Wexford, 116 
 Weymouth, 135 
 Wheel of Apollo, 19 
 William I. and II., 107 
 William III., 139, 263 
 William the Lion, 113 
 William the Silent, 252 
 Winecup on Indian coin, 189 
 Witts, the De, 252 
 Wolfey's groat, 122 
 Women on Arabian coins, 152 
 Worcefler, 135 
 
 Wu, State of, 216 
 Wyon, 267 
 
 Xerxes, T50 
 
 Yang-tcheu cowries, 193 
 Yh-King, 192 
 York, 122, 135 
 Yuen dynafty, 224 
 
 Zecchino (sequin), 89, 97, 17 
 Zengy, Beny-, 169 
 Zenobia, 151 
 
 Zeus, chryselephantine, copied 
 on, 40 
 
 on Philip's filver coins, 27 
 Zion, deliverance of, 153 
 Zodiacal coins, 8, 189 
 
BY 
 
 STANLEY LANE-POOLE. 
 
 THE LIFE OF THE RT. HON. STRATFORD CANNING, 
 VISCOUNT STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE, K.G. From his 
 Memoirs and Papers. Three Portraits. Library Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. , 
 pp. xxix, 519 ; xviii, 475. Popular Edition, pp. xx, 377. 
 
 THE LIFE OF SIR HARRY PARKES, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., 
 H.B.M. Minister to China and Japan. Portrait and Maps. 2 vols., pp. 
 xxviii, 512 ; xxi, 477. 
 
 SIR RICHARD CHURCH, C.B., G.C.H., Commander-in-Chief 
 of the Greeks in the War of Independence. Plans. 8vo. , pp. , iv, 73. 
 
 THE LIFE OF EDWARD WILLIAM LANE. 8vo., pp. 138. 
 
 LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF JONATHAN SWIFT. 
 With Commentary and Notes. 8vo., pp. xv. 292. 
 
 THE SPEECHES AND TABLE-TALK OF THE PROPHET 
 MOHAMMAD. i8mo., pp. lxiii, 196. Golden Treasury Series, 1882. 
 
 AURANGZIB. Rulers of India Series. 8vo., pp. 212. 
 
 THE MOHAMMADAN DYNASTIES: Chronological and 
 Genealogical Tables. 8vo., pp. xxviii, 361. 
 
 THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Illustrated. Eleventh Thousand. 
 8vo., pp. xx, 285. 
 
 TURKEY. Illustrated. Eighth Thousand. 8vo., pp. xix, 373. 
 
 THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. Illustrated. Fifth Thousand. 
 8vo., pp. xviii, 316. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS ILLUS- 
 TRATED BY THEIR COINS, pp. clxxvii. 
 
 STUDIES IN A MOSQUE. Second Edition. 8vo., pp. viii, 326. 
 
 THE ART OF THE SARACENS IN EGYPT. Illustrated, 
 8vo., pp. xviii, 264. Published for the Committee of Council on Education. 
 
 CAIRO : SKETCHES OF ITS HISTORY, MONUMENTS, 
 AND SOCIAL LIFE. Illustrated. 8vo., pp. xiv, 320. 
 
 CATALOGUE OF ORIENTAL AND INDIAN COINS IN 
 THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Printed by order of the Trustees. (Ouvrage 
 couronne* par l'lnstitut de France.) 8vo., 13 vols. pp. clxv, 3872.