Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
GREEK
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: GRA-GUI
del.icio.us it!
|
GREEK COINS] These are followed by didrachms of the same and other cities until the See also:time of the See also:Persian See also:War. The result of the unpatriotic policy of See also:Thebes and most of the towns of See also:Boeotia was the degradation of the leading See also:city, and the coins reveal the curious fact that Tanagra for a time became the centre of the See also:League-coinage. We now See also:notice the See also:abandonment of the old incuse See also:reverse and the See also:adoption of See also:regular types, the See also:wheel at Tanagra and the See also:amphora at Thebes. These types increase, and indicate several cities during the See also:short See also:period of Athenian See also:influence (456–446 B.C.). The democratic institutions were next over-thrown, and Thebes became again the See also:head of Boeotia, and struck alone and in her own name, not in that of the League. To the earlier See also:part of this period belong splendid didrachms with reverse types chiefly representing Heracies, subsequently varied by heads of See also:Dionysus in a See also:series only less See also:fine. With the See also:peace of See also:Antalcidas (387 B.c.) Thebes lost her See also:power, the League was dissolved, and the other Boeotian cities issued a coinage of some merit. In 379 B.C. Thebes became the See also:chief See also:state in See also:Greece, and the patriotic policy of See also:Pelopidas and See also:Epaminondas is shown in the issue of the Boeotian coins at the See also:great city without any name but that of a See also:magistrate. Among those which occur is EIIAM, or EIIAMI, who can scarcely be any other than the illustrious See also:general (Pl. I. fig. 18). After the See also:battle of Chaeronea (338 B.c.), swiftly followed by the destruction of Thebes, the coinage is comparatively unimportant, See also:save only for the See also:appearance of new league-See also:money of See also:Attic See also:weight, with the head of See also:Zeus and the figure of See also:Poseidon, between 288 and 244 B.C. In See also:Attica the great series of See also:Athens is dominant. See also:Eleusis issued a small See also:bronze coinage of See also:good See also:style in the 4th See also:century. Athens. See also:Oropus and the See also:island of See also:Salamis also had an unim- portant coinage. The Athenian coinage, apparently introduced by See also:Solon, begins with didrachms on the Eubcic See also:standard, which, owing to the fame of the Athenian money, received the name of Attic. The type is an See also:owl, the reverse having only the incuse square. These didrachms were succeeded under See also:Peisistratus by the well-known Attic tetradrachms with head of See also:Athena on the obverse, and owl and See also:olive-spray on the reverse (Pl. I. fig. 20). The See also:change supposed to have been introduced by Hippias (Pseudo-Arist. Oeconz. ii. 4) was merely one of nomenclature; by calling in the coinage and reissuing it at See also:double its old nominal value he only paid back See also:half of what he had received. To what had previously been called didrachms he gave the name of tetradrachms, by which they have since been known. An obol bearing the name of Hippias himself, and types similar to those of Athens, was probably issued by him during his See also:exile. From the time of the Persian See also:wars the See also:helmet of Athena is adorned with three olive-leaves. A rare decadrachm corresponds at Athens to the Demareteia at See also:Syracuse, and was probably issued for similar reasons in See also:commemoration of victory over the barbarians. Otherwise See also:historical events seem to have See also:left little See also:record in the coinage and the Athenians deliberately affected archaism in the style of their coins, which See also:bear no See also:mark of the splendour of Athens as the centre of the sculptor's See also:art. No doubt commercial reasons dictated this conservative policy, which makes the coinage of Athens a disappointment in See also:numismatics. Her money was See also:precious for its purity not only in the Greek See also:world but among distant barbarians, so that imitations reach us from the See also:Punjab and from See also:southern See also:Arabia, and any change would have injured its wide reception. There are many divisions of See also:silver coinage with the types a little varied, and some different ones; and towards the end of the 5th century (probably in 407 B.C.) See also:gold and bronze were introduced. The gold, of good quality and See also:bad style, was never plentiful. The Macedonian See also:empire put an end to the See also:autonomy of Athens, and when the money is again issued it is of a wholly new style and the types are modified. The great series of spread tetradrachms may be dated from about 229 B.C., and lasted probably until the time of See also:Augustus. The obverse type is a head of Athena with a richly-adorned helmet, unquestionably borrowed from the famous statue by See also:Pheidias in See also:ivory and goid, but a poor See also:shadow of that splendid See also:original, and an owl on an amphora within an olive-See also:wreath. The earliest coins
S83
have the monograms of two magistrates, the later the names of two who are See also:annual (although the nature of their offices is not certain—possibly they were Xarovp-ylat), and, during the period 146–86, a third name, of the treasurer of the prytany in which the See also:coin was issued. Among the names are those of See also:Antiochus (175 B.C.), afterwards Antiochus IV. of See also:Syria, and of See also:Mithradates the Great (Pl. II. fig. 1) and his creature, Aristion (87–86 B.C.); but comparatively few of the coins can be dated exactly. Mithradates issued the only gold staters in this series. The symbols in the See also: The weight of the coins is of course on the Aeginetic standard. The See also:oldest pieces are very See also:primitive didrachms, bearing on the obverse a See also:sea-See also:tortoise and on the reverse a See also:rude incuse See also:stamp (Pl. II. fig. 2). Afterwards the stamp becomes less rude, and later has a See also:peculiar shape. The sea-tortoise is also replaced by a See also:land-tortoise. There are some coins of the early part of the fine period of excellent See also:work. The great currency was of didrachms. The bronze coins are not remarkable, but some appear to be of an earlier time than most Greek pieces in this See also:metal. The series of See also:Achaea begins under the Achaean League in the time of Epaminondas, with a fine Aeginetic stater and smaller coins in the name of the See also:Achaeans. The later silver coins are either Attic tetrobols or Aeginetic nchaeta hemidrachms. On all but the earliest, i.e. after about 28o B.C., monograms or symbols indicate the cities which were members of the league; on the later bronze coins the names are given in full. The type of the silver is the head of Zeus Homagyrius, the reverse bearing the See also:monogram of the Achaeans in a See also:laurel-wreath. The oldest bronze repeats the silver types; the later bear a See also:standing Zeus and a seated See also:Demeter, with the name of the city at full length. About See also:forty-five cities are represented by this coinage. See also:Corinth is represented by a very large series of coins, the weight of which is always on the Corinthian standard, See also:equivalent to Attic but differently divided,—the Corinthian tridrachm, the Corinth. chief coin, corresponding to the Attic didrachm. The oldest pieces, of the 6th century B.C. (some perhaps even earlier), bear on the obverse See also:Pegasus with the See also:letter Q, koppa, the initial of the name of Corinth, and on the reverse an incuse See also:pattern. In course of time (about 50o B.c.) the head of Athena in an incuse square occupies the reverse. The incuse square disappears, as generally elsewhere, in the early period of fine art. Of the See also:age of the excellence and decline of art we find beautiful work, though generally wanting in the severity of the highest Greek art (Pl. II. fig. 3). Pegasus is ordinarily seen galloping, but some-times standing or drinking, the koppa is usually retained, and the helmet of Athena, always Corinthian, is sometimes See also:bound with an olive-wreath. The smaller coins have the same reverse, but on the obverse a charming series of types, principally See also:female heads, mostly representing See also:Aphrodite. There are some drachms with See also:Bellerophon in a combatant attitude mounted on Pegasus on the one See also:side and the See also:Chimaera on the other. The autonomous bronze money is poor, but often of See also:fair work, and interesting, especially when the type relates to the myth of Bellerophon. In 46 B.C. this city was made a colonia; and we have a large and interesting series of the bronze coins struck by it as such, including the remarkable type of the See also:tomb of Lais. The coins of the " colonies " of Corinth See also:form a See also:long and important series, struck by Acarnanian towns with Corcyra, and in the See also:west by See also:Locri Epizephyrii in See also:Italy and Syracuse. Some of these cities were not strictly colonies of Corinth, but the Pegasus staters struck by them form a homogeneous See also:group. They range from the time of See also:Dion (357 B.c.) to nearly the end of the 3rd century. The coins are distinguished by the See also:absence of the koppa, and bear the names or monograms of the cities. There are bronze coins of Patrae as an important See also:Roman colonia, and silver and bronze money of Phlius, both of the period of good Patrae, art. The coinage of See also:Sicyon, on the Aeginetic standard Pat rac Bc dominant in the See also:rest of the See also:Peloponnesus, is disappoint- , See also:ing for a famous See also:artistic centre. It begins shortly before the period of fine art; in that age the silver is abundant and well executed, but the leading types, the Chimaera and the flying See also:dove within an olive-wreath, are wearying in their repetition, and good work could not make the Chimaera an agreeable subject. Small coins with types of See also:Apollo are the only subjects which suggest the designs of the great school of Sicyon. The money of the Eleans is inferior to none in the Greek world in its art, which reaches the highest level of dignified See also:restraint, and in the See also:Elis. variety of its types, which are suggested by a few subjects. The leading types are connected, as we might expect, with the See also:worship of Zeus and See also:Hera and Victory, the divinities of the great Panhellenic contest at See also:Olympia, and the coinage is rather the money of Olympia than of the Eleans as a civic community. The prevalent representations are the See also:eagle and the winged thunderbolt of Zeus, the head of Hera and the figure of Victory. The series begins early in the 5th century B.C. with coins, some of which are didrachms (Aeginetic), having as subjects an eagle carrying a See also:serpent or a See also:hare, and on the reverse a thunderbolt or Victory bearing a wreath—archaic types which in their vigour promise the excellence of later days. From 471 to 421 B.C., while Elis was allied with the Spartans, such types continue; the eagle and Victory (sometimes seated) are both treated with great force and beauty, and the subject of seated Zeus is remarkable for its dignity. The Argive See also:alliance (421–400 B.C.) seems marked by the pre-See also:eminence given to Hera, whose head may suggest the famous statue of Polycleitus at Argos. About the same time was issued a didrachm with a See also:noble head of Zeus (Pl. II. fig. 4), which probably recalls, though it is not a copy of, the Zeus of Pheidias. This alliance broken, the old types recur. Magnificent eagles, some admirably designed on a See also:shield, and eagles' heads (see Pl. II. fig. 5), the seated Victory, and fantastically varied thunderbolts mark this age. Among the artists' signatures at this time is AA, which may represent the sculptor See also:Daedalus of Sicyon. In 364 B.C. the coinage is interrupted for a See also:year, the Pisatans, who conducted the festival then, issuing small gold coins; these are immediately followed by Elean money with the heads of Zeus and the nymph Olympia. Aristotimus, who was See also:tyrant in 272 B.C., issued coins with his See also:initials. The coinage closes with imperial money, some types of which have a local interest, notably two of See also:Hadrian bearing the head and figure of Zeus, copied from the famous statue by Pheidias. Cephallenia gives us the early silver coins of Cranii, the money of See also:Pale, of charming style, with the figure of Cephalus on the reverse, Cephal- and that of Same, all cities of this island. Of the island of len/a, etc Zacynthus there are silver pieces, usually of rather coarse work, but sometimes of the style of the best Cephallenian money. Some struck in 357 bear the name of Dion of Syracuse, who collected the forces for his expedition in this island. The coins of See also:Ithaca are of bronze. They are of interest on See also:account of their See also:common obverse type, which is a head of See also:Odysseus. Returning to the mainland, we first notice the money of See also:Messene, or the Messenians. The earliest coin is a splendid Aeginetic didrachm, Messene. having on the obverse a head of Persephone, and excels in See also:design the"similar subjects on the money of Syracuse, from which it must have been copied, for it is of about the time of Epaminondas. It shows the purer style of Greece, which, copying Syracusan work, raised its See also:character. On the reverse is a figure of Zeus, inspired by the work of Hageladas. The other silver coins are of about the period of the Achaean League. The bronze money is plentiful, but See also:Laconia. not interesting. See also:Lacedaemon, as we might have expected, has no early coins, the silver money being mostly of the age of the Achaean League, but the King Areus (309–265 B.C.) and the tyrant Nabis (207–192 B.C.) are represented by Attic tetra-drachms. On a tetradrachm of the time of the former is a figure of the Apollo of Amyclae. Among the types of the autonomous bronze pieces may be noticed the head of the Spartan lawgiver See also:Lycurgus, with his name. The series of Argos in Argolis begins early in the Argolis. 5th century. The standard is Aeginetic. The first pieces are the drachm and smaller denominations with a See also:wolf, half-wolf or wolf's head on the obverse, and A on the reverse. A rare See also:iron coin was issued with these types. At the end of the 5th century begin the didrachms, which have for the obverse type the head of the Polycleitan Hera—a design which is not equal to that of the coins of Elis, the style being either careless or not so See also:simple. The reversetype of the drachm represents See also:Diomedes stealthily advancing with the See also:palladium in his left See also:hand and a short See also:sword in his right. A 4th-century drachm of See also:Epidaurus represents the famous seated figure of Asclepius by See also:Thrasymedes of See also:Paros. Of the money of See also:Arcadia some pieces are doubtless among the most See also:ancient struck by the Greeks; and the types of these and later coins are often connected with the remarkable myths of Arcadia. this primeval part of Hellas, showing particularly the remains of its old nature-worship. The first series to be noticed is that of the Arcadian League; it begins about 50o B.C. with hemidrachms having the type of Zeus See also:Lycaeus seated, the eagle represented as if flying from his hand, and a female head. Of a later time, from the age of Epaminondas, there are very fine coins (issued from See also:Megalopolis) with the head of Zeus, and Pan seated. The coins of Heraea begin deep in the 6th century B.C. The earliest have for obverse type the veiled head of Hera, and on the reverse the beginning of the name of the See also:town. The silver coins of Mantinea (beginning early in the 5th century) have on the obverse a bear, representing See also:Callisto, the See also:mother of Arcas, who was worshipped here, and on the reverse the letters MA, or three acorns, in an incuse square. Later coins, especially the bronze, have subjects connected with the worship of Poseidon at this inland town. The silver coins of Pheneus must be noticed as being of fine work. The didrachms of the age of Epaminondas have a head of Persephone, and See also:Hermes carrying the See also:child Arcas. The obverse type is interesting as a copy of the Syracusan subject, as in Locris and Messene. As in Locris, the merit is in the greater force and simplicity of the See also:face, here most successful, the See also:hair being treated more after the Syracusan manner than after that of the Messenians, who simplified the whole subject. The finest coin attributed to Stymphalus is a magnificent didrachm of the age of Epaminondas, with a head of the local See also:Artemis See also:laureate, and Heracles striking with his See also:club. The smaller silver coins have on the one side a head of Heracles and on the other the head and See also:neck of a Stymphalian See also:bird. There were representations of these birds in the See also:temple of Artemis. The series of See also:Tegea is not important, but two of the reverse types of its bronze coins are interesting as See also:relating to the myth of Telephus and to the See also:story that Athena gave a See also:jar containing the hair of See also:Medusa to her priestess Sterope, daughter of See also:Cepheus, in See also:order that she might terrify the Argives should they attack Tegea in the absence of Cepheus, when Heracles desired his aid in an expedition against See also:Sparta. Iron coins were issued by Tegea, and also perhaps by Heraea.
The peculiar position of See also:Crete and her long See also:isolation from the See also:political, artistic and See also:literary movements of Hellas have
been already touched on. It is not until the age of Crete. See also: That this project took actual shape is proved by the issue at all the chief mints of the island of tetradrachms with the well-known types of Athens, to be distinguished from the Atticizing types of other cities at this time.
The oldest coins are probably of about 500 B.C., but few cities seem to have issued many until a See also:hundred years later. Then there is a great outburst of coinage, sometimes beautiful, some-times barbarously careless, which lasts until the age of See also: The most interesting types are Dictynna and seated beside a date-See also:palm, placing her right hand on the head of a serpent in reference to the myth of the See also:birth of Zagreus. As usual, the figure is foreshortened. The reverse has a standing figure of Poseidon. Rhaucus has Poseidon beside his See also:horse. The rare didrachms of Sybritia, or Sybrita, may fitly See also:close the series; one, among the most exquisite of Greek coins, has heads of Dionysus and Hermes in high See also:relief (see Pl. II. fig. 7); another has on the obverse a charming subject, Dionysus seated on a See also:running See also:panther, and on the reverse Hermes drawing on his right See also:buskin,—a delightful figure. Another beautiful type is a seated Dionysus. Zeus Cretagenes. The autonomous coins are very varied. The obverse of the didrachms of Aptera bears a head of Artemis and the reverse a See also:warrior (Ptolioikos) before a sacred See also:tree. Of Chersonesus, the See also:port of Lyctus, there are didrachms of coarse style, with a head of Artemis Britomartis, who had a temple at the See also:place. The head is copied from Stymphalus, as also is one of the reverse types, Heracles wielding his club. The money of See also:Cnossus is of great interest. The oldest coins may be as early as 480 B.C. They bear the figure of the Minotaur as a See also:bull-headed See also:man, kneeling on one See also:knee, and a maeander-pattern, in one See also:case enclosing a See also:star (the See also:sun), in another a head (See also:Theseus?). Of the period 431–350 there are didrachms with the head of Persephone, and the labyrinthine pattern enclosing the sun or the See also:moon or a bull's head for the Minotaur, and at length be-coming a regular See also:maze. To this time belongs the wonderful coin in the See also:Berlin Museum with Minos seated, his name in the field, and the head of Persephone within the maeander-pattern. In the later 4th century a head of Hera (copied without spirit from the coins of Argos) occupies the obverse of didrachms and drachms, and the reverse has a maze through which the way may be clearly traced. This series closes with Alexander's empire, and the native coinage disappears until the league of Cephisodorus revives it with the Athenian tetradrachm of Attic weight, bearing the name of the Cnossians. It is of inferior style, and is followed by See also:base coins with heads of Minos and Apollo, and the Labyrinth, either square as before or in a new circular form, which is interesting as showing it was a See also:mere See also:matter of tradition. There are interesting coins of Cydonia, some of them of beautiful style and work. One bears an engraver's name, Neuantos. The head is that of a Maenad, and the reverse has a figure of the traditional founder Cydon, stringing his See also:bow, who on other didrachms is seen suckled by a bitch. The style is good, but the See also:execution poor. Gortys, or See also:Gortyna, is represented by most remarkable coins, which generally allude to the myth of Europa. Didrachms of archaic style have on the obverse Europa carried by the bull and on the reverse the See also:lion's See also:scalp. These pieces are followed by a remarkably fine class of spread didrachms; the best are of about 400 B.C. They have on the obverse Europa seated in a pensive attitude on the See also:trunk of a tree, doubtless the sacred See also:plane at Gortyna, mentioned by See also:Pliny, which was said never to See also:shed its leaves, and on the reverse a bull suddenly turning his head as if stung by a See also:fly (Pl. II. fig. 6). Nothing in Greek art exceeds the skill and beauty of these designs. The truth with which the tree is sketched, and the graceful position of the forlorn Europa are as much to be admired as the fidelity with which the bull is See also:drawn, even when foreshortened, sharply turning his head, with his See also:tongue out and his tail raised. These designs, beautiful in themselves, are strikingly deficient in fitness, and afford equally strong illustrations of the excellencies and of the one great See also:fault of the art of Cretan coins. Many pieces of the same class are of rude execution. Of Itanus there are remarkable coins, the earlier, some of which are of good style, with the subject of a Tritonian sea-See also:god (See also:Glaucus ?) and two sea-monsters. Lyctus (Lyttus) is represented by strangely rude pieces, with the types of a flying eagle and a See also:boar's head. The coins of Phaestus form a most interesting series. Among the didrachms are some of admirable work, with on the obverse Heracles slaying the See also:Hydra with his club and on the reverse a bull. Others have on the obverse Heracles seated on the ground, resting. Another noticeable obverse type is the beardless Zeus seated in a tree, with his Cretan name, Velchanos. On his knee is a See also:cock crowing, showing that he was a god of the See also:dawn. We also find Talos, the man of See also:brass, said to have been made by See also:Hephaestus or Daedalus, portrayed as a winged youth naked, bearing in each hand a See also: It includes some of the very earliest Greek money. Carystus begins in the time of the Persian War Euboea. with the type of the cow and See also:calf, as in Corcyra, and its See also:special badge is the cock. In the period 197–146 it issued gold drachms. See also:Chalcis, the mother of western colonies, has already in the 6th century, or even earlier, a long series with the wheel-type and an incuse diagonally divided, and later, a nymph's head and an eagle devouring a serpent. See also:Eretria probably begins as early as Chalcis, but the obverse type is the See also:Gorgon's head. This is succeeded by the same type and a panther's or bull's head, and fine See also:late archaic coins bear the cow and the cuttle-See also:fish. Eretria was probably the See also:mint of coins with the head of a nymph and a cow or cow's head struck in the name of Euboeans in the fine period. Of Histiaea the usual type is the head of a Maenad and a female figure seated on the stern of a See also:galley. Among the other islands classed after Euboea, Amorgos must not be passed by, as a bronze coin of Aegiale, one of its towns, presents the curious type of a See also:cupping-See also:glass. To See also:Andros has been See also:Cyclades attributed a group of early coins bearing an amphora. and The silver money of Carthaea, Coressia and lulls in See also:Ceos See also:Sporades. is extremely old, beginning in each case in the 6th century. The weight is Aeginetic, and there are didrachms and smaller coins. The usual types of Carthaea are an amphora and then a bunch of grapes; that of Coressia is a cuttle-fish and. See also:dolphin. The coinage of See also:Delos is insignificant. Melos coined from the early 5th century to imperial times: its chief type is a canting one, the fiXov (See also:pomegranate). See also:Naxos is represented by early Aeginetic didrachms and coins of the fine period, the latter being chiefly bronze pieces of remarkably delicate and good work. The types are Dionysiac. A 7th-century coin with the head of a satyr (one of the earliest representations of the human head on a coin) is probably Naxian. Of Paros there are early Aeginetic didrachms with the type of a kneeling See also:goat and beneath a dolphin. Of the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. there are Attic didrachms with a head, possibly of Artemis, at first of a charming style, and a goat on the reverse. There are very archaic Aeginetic didrachms of Siphnos, which was famous for its gold and silver mines. A late tetradrachm of Syros is interesting as representing the Cabiri. The coinage of See also:Asia begins with that of Asia See also:Minor. It falls into certain great classes—first, the ancient gold and See also:electrum, Lydian and Greek, in time succeeded by electrum Asia or gold and silver, all struck in the west and mainly minor. on the See also:coast. Then the Persian dominion appears in the silver money of the satraps, circulating with the gold and silver of See also:Persia, and the Greek money is limited to a few cities of the coast, none save the electrum of the great mint of See also:Cyzicus uninterrupted by the See also:barbarian. With the decay of the barbarian empire the renewed See also:life of the Greek cities is witnessed by a beautiful coinage along the coast from the Propontis to See also:Cilicia. On Alexander's conquest autonomy is granted to the much-enduring Hellenic communities, and is . again interrupted, but only partially, by the See also:rule of his successors, for there was no time at which Asia Minor was wholly parcelled out among the See also:kings, Greek or native. The See also:Romans, after the battle of See also:Magnesia (Igo B.c.), repeated Alexander's policy so far as the cities of the western coast were concerned, and there is a fresh outburst of coinage, which, in remembrance, follows the well-known types of Alexander. When the See also:province of Asia was constituted and the neighbouring states See also:fell one by one under Roman rule, the autonomy of the great cities was generally reduced to a shadow. Still the abundant issues of imperial coinage, if devoid of high merit, are the best in style of late Greek coins, and for See also:mythology the richest in See also:illustration. The oldest money is the electrum of See also:Lydia, which spread in very early times along the western coast. This coinage, dating from the 7th century B.c., has an equal claim with the Aeginetic silver to be the oldest of all money. Probably the two currencies arose at the same period, and by interchange became the recognized currency of the primeval marts; otherwise we can scarcely explain the absence See also:European electrum or gold. The electrum of the coins is gold—the precious metal washed down by the Pactolus—with a native alloy of a varying part of silver. Its durability recommended it to the Lydians, and it had (by See also:convention) the See also:advantage of exchanging decimally with gold, then in the ratio 13.3 to silver. But this commercial advantage allowed the issue of electrum coins on silver See also:standards, while it was natural to coin them on those of gold; hence a variety of weight-systems perplexing to the metrologist. The See also:classification of the earliest coins is exceedingly obscure; it is hardly possible to say which were struck in Lydia itself, which in the Greek coast cities, such as See also:Miletus; but the See also:majority probably belong to Greek mints. The most primitive in appearance are those in which the obverse is merely marked with lines, corresponding to the original rough See also:surface of the See also:die, while the reverse has three depressions, an oblong one flanked by two squares (Pl. II. fig. 8); there are also various coins of small See also:denomination with a See also:plain See also:convex obverse, and a single rough depression on the reverse, known from the excavations at See also:Ephesus. Both the Babylonian and the Phoenician standards were in use in early times. This double currency, as Head suggests, was probably intended, so far as the Lydians were concerned, for circulation in the interior and in the coast towns to the west, the Babylonic weight being that of the land See also:trade, the Phoenician that of the See also:commerce by sea. See also:Croesus (Pl. II. fig. 9) abandoned electrum, and issued pure gold (on the Babylonic and Old-See also:shekel standards), and pure silver(Babylonic), the silver stater exchanging as the tenth of the Euboic gold stater. These results are explained by the metrological data given earlier in this See also:article. Of the Greek marts of the western coast we have a series of early electrum staters, for the most part on the Phoenician weight. An interesting homogeneous group was issued by the various cities which took part in the Ionian revolt (500–494 B.C.). The Euboic weight naturally found its way into the currencies, but was as yet limited to See also:Samos. See also:Phocaea, Teos and Cyzicus, with other towns, followed from a very early period the Phocaic standard, which for See also:practical purposes may be called the double of the Euboic. They alone before Croesus issued gold money, which was superseded at Phocaea and Cyzicus by electrum. This is the See also:main outline of the native coinage of Asia Minor before the Persian conquest. Its later history will appear under the several great towns, the money of Persia (which circulated largely in Asia Minor) being treated in a subsequent place. The first countries of Asia Minor are See also:Bosporus and See also:Colchis, the coins of the cities of which are few and unimportant. The autonomous coinages of the cities of See also:Pontus are more Bosporus, numerous, but the only place meriting a special Coklls, notice is Amisus, which almost alone of the cities of Pontus. gold allowed under the empire) is gradually depreciated and becomes electrum, and ultimately billon and bronze. They bear the heads of the king and the See also:emperor, and are dated by the Pontic era (297 B.C.). In See also:Paphlagonia we must specially notice the coins of the cities Amastris and See also:Sinope. The silver pieces of the former place bear a youthful head in a laureate Phrygian cap, probably representing See also:Mithras, Amastris, the go Paphla foundress, being seated on the reverse. The silver pieces of Sinope are plentiful. In the 4th century they bear the names of Persian See also:governors. The types are the head of the nymph Sinope and, as at Istrus, an eagle preying on a dolphin. See also:Bithynia is represented by a more important series. Bithynla. The provincial See also:diet issued Roman silver medallions of the weight of cistophori (to be presently described), with Latin See also:inscriptions, and bronze pieces with Greek inscriptions. The See also:ordinary silver coins of See also:Chalcedon strikingly resemble on both sides those of See also:Byzantium, and a monetary convention evidently at times existed between these See also:sister-cities, Of Cius, also called Prusias ad See also:Mare, there are gold staters and smaller imperial silver pieces. Of See also:Heraclea there are silver coins of good style; the most interesting type is a female head wearing a turreted head-See also:dress, one of the earliest representations of a city-goddess (early 4th century). The tyrants of Heraclea, See also:Clearchus, Satyrus, See also:Timotheus and See also:Dionysius are represented by coins. Of the imperial class there is a large series of See also:Nicaea, and many coins of See also:Nicomedia. The series of the Bithynian kings consists of Attic tetradrachms and bronze pieces, issued by Ziaelas, Prusias I. and II., and Nicomedes I. IV. The fine Greek coinage of Asia may be considered to begin with See also:Mysia. Cyzicus is in numismatics a most important city. Its coinage begins in the 6th century; and the famcus electrum Cyzicene staters were struck here for nearly Mysia. a century and a half (c. 500–350 B.C.). During that whole period they were not only the leading gold coinage in Asia Minor but the chief currency in that metal for the cities on both shores of the See also:Aegean; the value at which they were rated was doubtless a matter of convention, and varied from time to time. The actual weight is of the Phocaic standard, just over 248 grains. The divisions were the hecta or See also:sixth, and the twelfth. The extraordinary variety of " types " at Cyzicus is due to the fact that these types are really symbols differentiating the issues, the true badge of the city, the See also:tunny-fish, being relegated to a subordinate position (Pl. II. fig. 11). The reverse invariably has the quadripartite incuse square in four planes of the so-called See also: Both late autonomous and imperial coins in bronze are well executed and full of interest, the two classes running parallel under the earlier emperors. See also:Lampsacus is represented by a long series of coins. Its distinctive type is the forepart of a Pegasus, which occurs on its coins from the 6th century onwards. In the first half of the 4th century it issued splendid gold staters with various types (really, as at Cyzicus, symbols distinguishing the issues) on the obverse and the half-Pegasus on the reverse. The most remarkable type is a bearded head (probably of a Cabirus) with streaming hair in a conical cap, bound with a wreath, singularly pictorial in treatment as well as in expression (Pl. II. fig. 12). In contrast to this is a most carefully executed head of a Maenad with goat's See also:ear; and other types of great interest are the See also:Earth-goddess rising from the earth, and Victory nailing a helmet to a See also:trophy, or sacrificing a See also:ram. The money of the great city of See also:Pergamum is chiefly of a late time. Apart from some rare pieces of gold, the silver coinage is chiefly supplied by the money of the kings of Pergamum and by cistophori. The bronze pieces of the city are numerous, both autonomous and imperial, the two classes overlapping, and there are medallions of the emperors. The local worship of Oldest of See also:Asiatic silver, though it is easy to explain that of colnaze. Pontus seems to have issued autonomous silver money. The common subjects of the bronze money of this place relate to the myth of See also:Perseus and Medusa, a favourite one in this See also:country. The See also:regal coins are of the old See also:kingdom.; of Pontus and of the Cimmerian Bosporus, of the two See also:united as the state of Bosporus and Pontus under Mithradates VI. (the Great), and as reconstituted by the Romans when Polemon I. and II. still held the kingdom of Mithradates, which was afterwards divided into the province of Pontus and the kingdom of Bosporus. The early coinage of the kingdom of Bosporus is of little interest. Of that of Pontus there are tetradrachms, two of which, of Mithradates IV. and Pharnaces I., are remarkable for the unflinching realism with which their barbarian type of features is preserved. Mithradates VI., king of Bosporus and Pontus, is represented by gold staters, and tetradrachms. The portrait on the best of these (see P1. II. fig. 1o) is fine despite its theatrical quality, characteristic of the later See also:schools of Asia Minor. The kings of Bosporus struck a long series of coins for the first three and a half centuries after the See also:Christian era. Their gold money (the only non-imperial See also:Aesculapius is especially promient under the Roman rule. The chief coins of the kings are Attic tetradrachms, with on the obverse a laureate head of Philetaerus, the founder of the state, and on the reverse a seated Athene, the common type of See also:Lysimachus, from whom Philetaerus revolted. See also:Variations from these types are rare,the most important being a coin with the name of See also:Eumenes (II.), representing his portrait and the Dioscuri. Otherwise the inscription is always 4'IAETAIPOY. The cistophorus probably originated at Ephesus towards the end of the 3rd century, but was soon adopted for the Pergamene dominions, and down to imperial times was the only important silver currency in Asia Minor. It acquired its name from its obverse type, the cisla mystic¢, a See also:basket from which a serpent issues, the whole enclosed in an See also:ivy-wreath. The reverse type represents two serpents, and between them usually a bow-case (Pl. II. fig. 13). The half and the See also:quarter of the cistophorus have on one side a bunch of grapes on a See also:leaf or leaves of the See also:vine, and the club with the lion's skin of Heracles within an ivy-wreath. They were tetradrachms equal in weight to about three Attic drachms or three denarii. These coins became abundant when the kingdom of Pergamum was transformed into the province of Asia, and are struck at its chief cities, as Pergamum, Adramyttium, the Lydian Stratoniceia, Thyatira, See also:Sardis, See also:Smyrna, Ephesus, See also:Tralles, Nysa, See also:Laodicea and See also:Apamea. They have at first the names of Greek magistrates, afterwards coupled with those of Roman proconsuls or propraetors. The silver medallions of Asia, the successors of the cistophori, range from Mark Antony to Hadrian and Sabina. They bear no names of cities, but some may be attributed by their references to local forms of worship. The obverse bears an imperial head, the reverse a type either Greek or Roman. The art is the best of this age, more delicate in design and execution than that of any other pieces, the Roman medallions excepted. One of the most remarkable imperial bronze coins of Pergamum represents the Great See also:Altar (Pl. II. fig. 16). The coinage of the See also:Troad is interesting from its traditional allusions to the Trojan War. Of See also:Abydos there is a fine gold Troas. stater, with the unusual subject of Victory sacrificing a ram, and the eagle, which is the most See also:constant type of the silver money. One of the few imperial coins commemorates the See also:legend of See also:Hero and Leander. The late tetradrachms of See also:Alexandria Troas bear the head of Apollo Smintheus, and on the reverse his figure armed with a bow. There is a long series of the town as a colonia, of extremely poor work. Ilium Novum strikes late Attic tetradrachms with a head of Athene, and on the reverse the same goddess carrying See also:spear and See also:distaff, with the inscription AOHNAE IAIAAOE. On the autonomous and imperial bronze we notice incidents of the See also:tale of See also:Troy, as See also:Hector in his See also:car, or slaying Patroclus, or fighting; and again the See also:flight of See also:Aeneas. The island of Tenedos is represented by very early coins, and others of the fine and late periods. The usual obverse type of all the silver pieces is a See also:Janus-like See also:combination of two heads, presumably some primitive god and his See also:consort; this double type is balanced on the reverse by the double-See also:axe, which played an important part in the primitive cults of Asia Minor and the Aegaean. In See also:Aeolis the most noteworthy coins are the late tetradrachms of Cyme and Myrina, both of the time of decline, yet with a certain strength which relieves them from the general weakness of the work of that age. Cyme has the head of the See also:Amazon Cyme, and a horse within a laurel-wreath; Myrina, a head of the Grynean Apollo and his figure with lustral See also:branch and See also:patera. See also:Lesbos is remarkable for having coined in base as well as pure silver, its early billon coins being peculiar to the island. This base coinage, which was probably common to Mytilene and Methymna, ceases about 450 B.C., when the Mytilenaean silver begins. Methymna has very interesting archaic silver coins, with the boar and the head of Athene. But the most important coinage of Lesbos is the beautiful electrum coinage (a unique stater, P1. II. fig. 14, and innumerable sixths) which was issued from about 48o to 350. Phocaea in See also:Ionia issued similar coins, distinguished by a See also:seal (the badge of the city), and a convention regulating the weight and quality of the two coinages, andarranging for the two mints to work in alternate years, is still extant. The types vary accordingly, as at Cyzicus and Lampsacus. There is a long and important series of Mytilene of the imperial time, including very interesting commemorative coins, some of persons of remote history, as See also:Pittacus and See also:Sappho,, others of benefactors of the city, as See also:Theophanes the friend of See also:Pompey, from whom he obtained for this his native place the privileges of a free city. The usual style for these persons is hero or heroine, but Theophanes is called a god, and Archedamis, probably his wife, a goddess. The money of Ionia is abundant and beautiful. For the first century and a half (c. 700-545) the chief coinage is of electrum. To the 7th century belongs the remarkable coin in- Ionia. scribed 4 AENOE EMI EHMA (" I am the badge of the See also:Bright One " or " of Phanes "), with a See also:stag, which was perhaps issued at Ephesus. From 545 to the Ionic revolt (494) there is considerable diminution in the coinage; silver attains more importance. Thenceforward, the course of the coinage is fairly See also:uniform until the period 301-190, when there is a general cessation of autonomous issues. After the battle of Magnesia there is a great revival, tetradrachms of Alexandrine and also of local types being issued in vast See also:numbers. After the constitution of the Roman province of Asia (133), the cistophori See also:supply the silver coinage. The imperial bronze coinage is numerous, with many interesting local types. Of the coins of the various cities the following demand mention. At See also:Clazomenae in the 4th century there are splendid coins, having for types the head of Apollo, three-quarter face, and a See also:swan. The chief pieces, the gold drachm and a half or octobol, and the silver stater or tetradrachm See also:present two types of the head of Apollo, very See also:grand on the gold and the silver, with the See also:signature of Theodotus, the only known Asiatic engraver, and richly beautiful on the other silver piece. These coins are marked by the intense expression of the school of western Asia Minor. See also:Colophon. has fine severe coins of the 5th century with the head of Apollo and the See also:lyre. The money of Ephesus is historically interesting, but very disappointing in its art, which is limited by the small range of subjects and their lack of beauty. The leading type Ephesus. is the See also:bee; later the stag and the head of Artemis appear. Thus the subjects relate to the worship of the famous See also:shrine. The oldest coins are electrum and silver, both on the Phoenician standard. The type is a bee and the reverse is incuse. The silver coinage continues with the same types, unbroken by the Persian dominion, until in 394 B. c. a remarkable new coin appears. When See also:Conon and See also:Pharnabazus defeated the Lacedaemonian See also:fleet and liberated the Greek cities of Asia from Spartan tryanny a federal coinage was issued by See also:Rhodes, See also:Cnidus, Samos, Ephesus, Iasus and Byzantium with their proper types on the reverse, but on the obverse the See also:infant Heracles strangling two serpents; these are Rhodian tridrachms. About this time the Rhodian standard was introduced, and a series of tetradrachms began with the bee, having for reverse the forepart of a stag looking back, and behind him a date-palm. The head of Artemis as a Greek goddess begins to appear in the 3rd century. Other series of coins follow with types associated with Artemis, Rhodian and Attic standards alternating; there are also Alexandrine tetradrachms and of course cistophori. The connexion of the city with Lysimachus, who called it See also:Arsinoe, after his wife, is commemorated by coins inscribed APEI. The Ephesian form of Artemis, as the cultus figure of a nature-goddess, first appears as a See also:symbol on the cistophori, and then on gold coins struck during the revolt of 87-84, when Ephesus took the side of Mithradates. The imperial money provides many representations of the temples of the city, including that of the famous shrine of Artemis, which shows the bands of sculpture on the columns, as well as many other remarkable subjects, particularly the Zeus of See also:rain seated on See also:Mount See also:Pelion, a shower falling from his left hand, while below are seen the temple of Artemis and the See also:river-god Cayster; on another coin the See also:strange Asiatic figure of the goddess, frequent in this series, stands between the personified See also:rivers Cayster and Cenchrius. The money of the Ionian Magnesia begins with the issue of See also:Themistocles, when he was dynast under Persian See also:protection. The ordinary silver coins (350-190 B.C.) representing a cavalryman and the river-god Maeander as a bull are common. After rqo B.c. we have spread tetradrachms of the decline of art, more delicately executed than those of Cyme and Myrina, with a bust of Artemis and a figure of Apollo standing on a maeander and leaning against a lofty See also:tripod, the whole in a Mlletus. laurel-wreath. The great city of Miletus is disappointing in its money. The period of its highest prosperity is too early for an abundant coinage, yet in the oldest electrum issues we see the lion and the sun of Apollo Didymeus. In the early 4th century the Carian dynasts issued coins from Ephesus. To about 350 B.C. belong the beautiful coins bearing the head of Apollo facing and the lion looking back at a sun, with the inscription El' AIAYMf1N IEPH (scil. Spaxµil), showing that this was the " sacred " money of the famous temple at Didyma. The types of the head of Apollo in See also:profile and the lion with the sun continue through a series of various standards with very rare Attic gold staters of the early and century. Phocaea is represented by two very interesting currencies; an electrum series of hectae, characterized by a seal, the badge of the town, beneath the type, struck in convention with Mytilene (see above); and also a widespread early silver coinage, apparently common to the western colonies of the city. The autonomous money is wholly anterior to the Persian conquest. Smyrna Smyrna. issued in the 4th century a very rare coin with the head of Apollo and a lyre, of Colophonian style. Among the earliest coins of New Smyrna are some showing that Lysimachus named it Eurydicea after his daughter. After rqo B.c. it strikes Attic tetradrachms, with the turreted head of See also:Cybele or the city or the Amazon Smyrna (Pl. II. fig. 15), and an See also:oak-wreath sometimes enclosing a lion. A rare silver coin and common bronze coins present on the reverse the seated figure of See also:Homer. A gold coin issued by the Prytaneis of the Smyrnaeans probably belongs to the time of the Mithradatic revolt against See also:Rome (87-84). The imperial coins have numerous types, among others the two Nemeses appearing to Alexander in a See also:vision. Of Teos there are early Aeginetic didrachms, bearing on the one side a seated See also:griffin and on the other a quadripartite incuse square. Thos. These ceased at the moment when the See also:population left the town, destroyed by the Persians, and fled to See also:Abdera, where we recognize their type on the coinage of the time. There are much later coins of less importance. See also:Chios and Samos, islands of Ionia, are represented by interesting currencies. Chios struck electrum and abundant silver. The type Chios. was a seated See also:sphinx with curled wing, and before it stands an amphora, above which is a bunch of grapes; the reverse has a quadripartite incuse. The coins begin before the Persian conquest (490 B.c.). The coinage of Samos is artistically disappointing, but as a whole has many claims to interest. The earliest money included electrum. Samos. The silver begins before 494 B.C. The types are the well- known lion's scalp and bull's head. The Athenian See also:con-quest (439 B.C.) is marked by the introduction of the olive-spray as a constant symbol on the reverse and the occasional occurrence of Attic weight. The Samians, having joined the See also:anti-Laconian alliance after Conon's victory in 394 B.C., struck the coin with Heracles strangling the serpents already noticed under Ephesus; the Rhodian weight is here introduced. The long series of imperial money is not without interesting types. The most remarkable is the figure of the Samian Hera, which clearly associates her with the group of divinities to which the Ephesian Artemis belongs. Very noticeable also are the representations of See also:Pythagoras, seated or standing, touching a globe with a wand. The money of See also:Caria does not present any one great series. Autonomous silver coins are not numerous except at Cnidus, Carla. and rarely of good style. Antiochia and Alabanda have tetradrachms in the and century. The imperial coins of Antiochia and of Aphrodisias are worthy of notice. Cnidus is represented at first by archaic coins of Aeginetic weight, some as early as the first half of the 7th century, with a very rude head of Aphrodite. The head of the famous statue of Aphrodite by See also:Praxiteles is not reproduced, but the whole statue figures on imperial coins. Among the imperial types of See also:Halicarnassus the head of See also:Herodotus is noteworthy. There is late silver money of Iasus with the head of Apollo, and a youth See also:swimming beside a dolphin around which his See also:arm is thrown. Idyma has silver pieces of fine style on which the head of Apollo is absolutely facing; the reverse type is a fig-leaf. On imperial coins of Mylasa the figure of the Zeus of Labranda holding double-axe and spear is represented. Of Termera we have the rare coin of its tyrant Tymnes, dating about the See also:middle of the 5th century and struck on the Persic system. The Carian satraps prove their See also:wealth by their series of silver coins, which bear the names of Hecatomnus, See also:Mausolus, Hidrieus and Pixodarus. The weight is Rhodian; the types are the three-quarter face of Apollo, and Zeus Labrandeus standing, holding the labrys or two-headed axe. Pixodarus also strikes gold of Attic weight. His silver is the best in the series, and clearly shows the Ionian style in its quality of expression. Among the islands of Caria, Calymna begins in the 6th century or earlier with curious archaic Persian didrachms bearing a helmeted male. head and on the reverse a lyre. The series of See also:Cos begins with small archaic pieces, the type a crab and the reverse incuse. Next come fine coins of transitional style and Attic weight, with the types of a discobolus before a tripod, and a crab. 'Ihe break so common in the coinage of this coast then interrupts the issue, and a new coinage occurs before the time of Alexander. The weight is Rhodian, the types the head of Heracles and the crab. After Alexander there is another currency which ceases about 200 B.C. It is resumed later with the new types of the head of Asclepius and his serpent. This continues in Roman times. The bronze of that age comprises a coin with the head of See also:Hippocrates and on the reverse the See also:staff of Asclepius. See also:Xenophon's head likewise occurs, and the portrait of See also:Nicias tyrant in Cos (c. 5o B.c.) on his bronze. Imperial money ends the series. The island of Rhodes, great in commerce and art, has a See also:rich series of coins. The want of variety in the types—at the city of Rhodes almost limited to the head of Helios and the Rhodes. See also:rose—is disappointing, but happily the See also:principal subject could not fail to illustrate the movements of art, one of which had here its centre. The city of Rhodes was founded c. 408 B.C. on the abandonment by their inhabitants of the three chief towns of the island, Camirus, Ialysus and Lindus. The money of Camirus seems to begin in the 6th century B.C. The type is the fig-leaf, the weight Aeginetic, later degraded. The coins of Ialysus, of the 5th century, follow the Phoenician standard. Their types are the forepart of a winged boar and an eagle's head. The money of Lindus, apparently before 480 B.C., is of Phoenician weight, with the type of a lion's head. The See also:people of the new city of Rhodes adopted another standard, the Attic, and very shortly abandoned it, except for gold money, using instead that peculiar weight which has been called Rhodian; this they retained until the last years of their See also:independent coinage, when they resumed the Attic. The types are the three-quarter face of Helios and the rose. There is a grandeur and noble outlook in the earlier heads of Helios which well befits his character, but the pictorial style is evident in the form of the hair and the expression, which, with all its reserve, has a dramatic quality (see Pl. II. fig. rq). Towards the end of the 4th century the radiate head is introduced; the Alexandrine tetradrachms, which were issued after the battle of Magnesia, find a place in the Rhodian mintage. During the age after Alexander there is an abundant bronze coinage, with some pieces of unusual See also:size. The series closes with a few imperial coins ranging from See also:Nerva to See also:Marcus Aurelius. The early coinage of See also:Lycia introduces us at once into a region of Asiatic mythology, art and See also:language, raising many questions as yet without an See also:answer. The standard of the oldest Lycia. coins (beginning about 520 B.c.) is See also:low Persic, and it falls perhaps under Athenian influence, until it is often indistinguishable from the Attic. The Lycian character belongs to the primitive alphabets of Asia Minor, which combine with archaic Greek forms others which are unknown to the Greek See also:alphabet, and it expresses a native language as yet but imperfectly understood. The art is stiff and delights in See also:animal forms, Calymna and Cos. sometimes of monstrous types, which recall the designs of See also:Phoenicia and See also:Assyria. The most remarkable symbol is the triskeles or tetraskeles symbol, an See also:object resembling a See also:ring, to which three or four hooks are attached. It is supposed to be a See also:solar symbol like the swastika. The oldest money has a boar or his fore-part and an incuse. This is succeeded by a series with an animal reverse, and then by one in which the hooked ring is the usual reverse type. The See also:fourth series bears Lycian in- scriptions, which give the names of dynasts and places. A fifth the See also:priest-kings of Olba are also full of interest. series is characterized by the type of a lion's scalp. This coinage reaches as late as Alexander's time. It is followed by silver and bronze money of the Lycian League before Augustus and under his reign, but ceasing in that of See also:Claudius—the usual types of the chief silver piece, a hemidrachm, being the head of Apollo and the lyre. The districts of Cragus and Masicytus have coinages, as well as the individual cities. Besides this general currency there are some special ones of towns not in the League. The imperial money rarely goes beyond the reign of Augustus, and is resumed during that of See also:Gordian III. There is a remarkable coin of See also:Myra of this emperor, showing the goddess of the city, of a type like the Ephesian Artemis, in a tree; two woodcutters, each armed with a double axe, hew at the trunk, from which two serpents rise as if to protect it and aid the goddess. Phaselis is an exceptional town, for it has early Greek coins, the leading type being a galley. The coinage of See also:Pamphylia offers some examples of good art distinctly marked by the Asiatic formality. See also:Aspendus shows a remarkable series of Persic didrachms, extending from ll 1Dp6y- about Soo B.C. to Alexander's time. The oldest coins have the types of a warrior and the triskelion or three legs, more familiarly associated with Sicily; it is probably a solar symbol. These coins are followed by a long series with the types of two wrestlers engaged and a slinger. The main legend is almost always in the Panphylian character and language. There are also very curious imperial types. The money of See also:Perga begins in the and century with Greek types of the Artemis of Perga. Her figure in a remarkable Asiatic form occurs in the long imperial series. Bronze coins earlier in date than the silver money with the Greek types have the Pamphylian See also:title of the goddess, FANAEF,AE IIPEIIAE, " of the See also:Lady of Perga." Side has at first Persic didrachms of about 48o B.C., their types the pomegranate and dolphin and head of Athene; then there are money with an undeciphered Aramaizing inscription of the 4th century and figures of Athene and Apollo, and late Attic tetradrachms, their types being the head of Athene and Victory. These were carried on by Amyntas, king of See also:Galatia, when he made his mint in Side (36 B.C.). The pomegranate (aiSrl) is throughout the badge of the city. The money of See also:Pisidia is chiefly imperial. There is a long series of this class of the colonia Antiochia. The autonomous coins of Selge have the wrestlers and the slinger of Ptsldia. Aspendus in inferior and even barbarous copies. Of Bc. See also:Isauria and See also:Lycaonia a few cities, including Derbe and the colonies of See also:Iconium and Lystra, strike coins, chiefly of imperial time. Cilicia, for the most part a coastland, is numismatically of high interest. To Aphrodisias is assigned an interesting series Cilicia. of archaic coins with a winged figure and a pyramidal fetish-stone; in the 4th century Aphrodite is represented in human form seated between sphinxes; the Parthenos of Pheidias is also represented. Celenderis has a coinage beginning in the 5th century, with a horseman seated sideways on the obverse, and on the reverse a goat kneeling on one knee. Mallus has a most interesting series of silver coins, some with curious Asiatic types. Of Nagidus there are Persic didrachms of good style, one interesting type being Aphrodite seated, before whom See also:Eros flies crowning her, with, on the other side, a standing Dionysus. See also:Soli has silver coins of the same weight, the types being an See also:archer or the head of Athene, one variety imitated from remote See also:Velia, and a bunch of grapes. The coinage of See also:Tarsus begins in the 5th century with Persic staters representing a Cilician king on horseback, and a hoplite kneeling. In the 4th century it was the mint of a large series of satrapal coins, issued by Pharnabazus, Mazaeus and other governors (Issus, Mallus and Soli also sharing the cost of minting). The chief type is the See also:Baal of Tarsus. The autonomous bronze of the Seleucid age shows the remarkable subject of the pyre of Sandan, the local form of Heracles; and there is a long and curious imperial series. The coinage of See also:Anazarbus (imperial, showing rivalry with Tarsus), See also:Seleucia on the Calycadnus, See also:Mopsus, and The coinage of the great island of See also:Cyprus is, as we might expect from its monuments, almost exclusively non-Hellenic in character. The weight-system, except of gold, which is Attic, is Cyprus. Persic, save only in the later coins of some mints, struck on the reduced Rhodian standard, and a solitary Attic tetradrachm of See also:Paphos. The art is usually very stiff down to about 400 B.C., with types of Egypto-Phoenician or Phoenician or of Greek origin. The inscriptions are in the See also:Cyprian syllabic character and the earliest coins resemble the early See also:Etruscan in being one-sided. The prevalent types are animals or their heads, the chief subjects being the bull, eagle, See also:sheep, lion, the lion seizing the stag, the See also:deer and the mythical sphinx. The divinities we can recognize are Aphrodite, Heracles, Athene, Hermes and Zeus See also:Ammon. But the most curious mythological types are a goddess carried by a bull or by a ram, in both cases probably See also:Astarte, the Phoenician Aphrodite. The most remarkable symbol is the well-known See also:Egyptian sign of life. The coins appear to have been struck by kings until before the age of Alexander, when civic money appears. The mints to which coins are ascribed with certainty are Salamis, Paphos, Marium, Idalium and See also:Citium. The coins of the Salaminian See also:line are in silver and gold. The earlier, beginning with Evelthon about 56o B.C., have Cyprian, the later Greek inscriptions, the types generally being native, though after a time under Hellenic influence. They are of See also:Evagoras I., Nicocles, Evagoras II., Pnytagoras and Nicocreon, and the coinage is closed by See also:Menelaus, See also:brother of See also:Ptolemy I. The Phoenician kings of Citium, from about 50o to 312, strike silver and in one case gold, their general types being Heracles and the lion seizing the stag. Bronze begins soon after 400 B.C., and of the same age there are autonomous pieces in silver and bronze. There is Greek imperial money from Augustus to See also:Caracalla (chiefly issued by the Koi.v6s). The most remarkable type is the temple at Paphos, represented as a structure of two storeys with wings. Within the central portion is the sacred stone, in front a semicircular See also:court. The earliest coinage of Lydia is no doubt that of the kings, already described. The next currency must have been of Persian darics (gold) and drachms (sit ver), followed by that of Alexander, Lydia. the Seleucids, and the Attalids of Pergamum, and then by the cistophori of the province of Asia. There is an abundant bronze coinage of the cities, autonomous from the formation of the province, and of imperial time, but mostly of the imperial class. The largest currencies are of See also:Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira and Tralles. The art is not remarkable, though good for the period, and the types are mostly Greek. The coinage of See also:Phrygia has the same general characteristics as that of Lydia, but the workmanship is poorer. Among noteworthy types must be noticed Men or Lunus, the Phrygian moon- Phrygia. god. There are curious types of Apamea, surnamed Kibotos or the See also:Ark, and more anciently See also:Celaenae. One of See also:Severus represents the legend of the invention of the double See also:pipe, a type already described. Of the same and later emperors are coins bearing the famous type of the ark of See also:Noah and the name See also:NILE. The town of Cibyra is remarkable for a silver coinage of the 1st century B.c., of which the large pieces have the weight of cistophori. Galatia has little to offer of interest. See also:Trajan issued bronze imperial coins for the province, and there is imperial money of See also:Ancyra, See also:Pessinus and Tavium. The only remarkable regal issue Galatia. is that of Amyntas, See also:Strabo's contemporary, who struck tetradrachms at Side in Pamphylia. With the coinage of See also:Cappadocia we bid farewell to Greek art and enter on the domain of See also:Oriental conventionalism, succeeded by inferior Roman design coarsely executed. There is one largeimperial imperial series, that of Caesarea, intended for general dada, Bc. circulation in the province. The issues range from Tiberius to Gordian III., and are in silver and. bronze. The most common type is the sacred Mount Argaeus, on which a statue is sometimes seen—a remarkable type curiously varied. There are scanty issues of a few other towns. There is an interesting series of coins of the kings of Cappadocia, beginning with Ariarathes I. (c. 332–322 B.C.), who struck Persic drachms at Sinope and Gaziura, and continuing with other kings, called usually Ariarathes or See also:Ariobarzanes, who struck Attic drachms and occasionally tetradrachms. The rare tetradrachms of Orophernes, a successful usurper (158–157 B.C.), bear a fine portrait. The coins of See also:Archelaus, the last king set up by Antony (36 B.C.–A.D. 17), have a good head on the obverse. Of See also:Armenia there are a few silver and bronze coins of late sovereigns. The great series of Syrian money begins with the coinage of the Seleucid kings. of Syria, only rivalled for length and abundance by that of the See also:Ptolemies, which it excels in its series of portraits, though it is far inferior in its gold money Syria and wants the large and well-executed bronze pieces which make the Egyptian currency See also:complete. The gold of the Seleucids is scarce, and their main coinage is a splendid series of tetradrachms bearing the portraits of the successive sovereigns. The reverse types are varied for the class of regal money. The execution of the portraits is good, and forms the best continuous history of See also:portraiture for the third and second centuries before our era. The reverses are far less careful. The weight is Attic, but the cities of Phoenicia were ultimately allowed to strike on their own standard. Many of the coins of the earlier kings were issued in their Bactrian or See also:Indian dominions. Seleucus I. (312—280 B.C.) began by striking gold staters and tetradrachms with the types of Alexander the Great. The same king, like his contemporaries, then took his own types: for gold staters, his head with a bull's See also:horn, and on the reverse a horse's head with bull's horns; for tetradrachms, his own head in a helmet of hide with bull's horn and lion's skin, and Victory crowning a trophy, or the head of Zeus, and Athene fighting in a car drawn by four or two elephants with bull's horns. Antiochus I. (293—261), like his See also:father, first struck tetradrachms with Alexandrine types, and then with his own head, Apollo on the`omphalos occupying the reverse. The portrait of Antiochus has a characteristic realism. Antiochus III. (222—187) is represented by a fine and interesting series with a vigorous portrait. He alone of the Seleucids seems to have struck the great octadrachm in gold in rivalry of the Ptolemies. Coins dated by the Seleucid era (312 B.C.) first appear in his reign. The portrait of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (175—164) is extremely characteristic, marked by the mad obstinacy which is the See also: With Alexander I. Balas (152—144), See also:Tyre and See also:Sidon begin to strike royal tetradrachms on their own Phoenician weight. Tarsus also first strikes coins for him with the type of the pyre of Sandan. The money of See also:young Antiochus VI. presents the most carefully executed portrait in the whole series, which, despite its weakness, has a certain See also:charm of sweetness that marks it as a new type in art. The same artist's hand seems apparent in the fine portrait of the cruel usurper Tryphon, and also in the picturesque spiked Macedonian helmet with a goat's horn and cheek-piece which occupies the reverse. Antiochus VII. (138—129) continues the series with, amongst other coins, the solitary bronze piece of See also:Jerusalem, bearing the See also:lily and the Seleucid See also:anchor. Alexander II. Zebina (128—123) is represented by a unique gold coin (P1. II. fig. 18), as well as by silver and bronze. The empire closes with the money of the Armenian See also:Tigranes (83—69), bearing his portrait with the lofty native See also:tiara, and for reverse See also:Antioch seated, the See also:Orontes swimming at her feet (a copy of the famous group by See also:Eutychides). There is a See also:copper coinage of the Syrian koinon under Trajan; also of the cities of Commagene, See also:Samosata and Zeugma, and less important mints. The money of the kings of Commagene is in bronze (c. 140 B.C. to A.D. 72). Cyrrhestica has bronze coins of a few cities, nearly all imperial, Cyrrhes- the chief mints being Cyrrhus and Hieropolis. Hieropolis ma in the time of Alexander the Great issued some remark- able silver coins in the name of Abd-See also:Hadad and Alexander himself, with figures of the Syrian goddess Atergatis, who also appears on its imperial coins. Of Chalcidene there are bronze coins of Chalcis and of the tetrarchs, Chalci- and Palmyrene shows only the small bronze pieces of See also:dens, etc See also:Palmyra, the money of See also:Zenobia and the See also:family of Odenathus being found in the series of Alexandria. In Seleucis and Pieria. the four cities of Antioch, Apamea, Laodicea ad Mare and Seleucia Pieria issued a See also:joint coinage inscribed AAEA4'flN AHMSlN about the middle of the 2nd Antioch. century B.c. But the bulk of the money of this territory is of the great city of Antioch en the Orontes. The coinage is bothautonomous bronze before•and of Roman times, and imperial silver, base metal and bronze. Other mints (as Tyre and Sidon) in this same province issued silver of the same class as Antioch, with different symbols. A large series of coins was issued bearing on the reverse the letters S.C. (Senatus consulto), showing that the coinage was under the See also:control of the Roman See also:senate. Both Latin and Greek inscriptions are used until the reign of Trajan. The city is first called a See also:colony on the coins of Elagabalus. The earliest coins are dated by various eras (Seleucid, Caesarian, Actian) ; later the emperor's consulships are used to date the silver. The leading types are the figure of Antioch seated, the river Orontes swimming at her feet, from the famous statue by Eutychides, and the eagle on a thunderbolt, a palm in front. Under Hadrian the eagle is represented carrying an ox's See also:leg, a reference to the story of the See also:foundation of the city when an eagle carried off part of the See also:sacrifice and deposited it on the site which was consequently chosen. There are few other types. The series (which, strictly speaking, was not the local coinage of Antioch, but an imperial coinage for the province) is very full and includes money of the Syrian emperor Sulpicius Uranius See also:Antoninus (who also struck bronze at Emesa and gold of the Roman imperial class). It ends with See also:Valerian, though it begins anew in the Roman provincial money of the reform of See also:Diocletian, to be noticed later. Of the other cities of this See also:district, Emisa presents the type of the sacred stone of Elagabal. The imperial money of Gabala shows the veiled cultus-statue of a goddess flanked by sphinxes. Laodicea has an important series. It begins with bronze money of the later Seleucids. The autonomous tetra- drachms of the 1st century B.C. have a turreted and veiled female bust of the city, a favourite Syrian and Phoenician type. From 47 B.C. its title is Julia Laodicea; from Caracalla downwards it is a colonia; the inscriptions become Latin; then, very strangely, Greek on the obverse of the coins and Latin on the reverse. Seleucia has a similar regal autonomous and imperial currency, but does not become a colonia. A shrine containing the sacred stone of Zeus Casius, and the thunderbolt of Zeus Keraunius resting on a See also:throne, are among the types. In Coele-Syria, See also:Damascus issues coins from the 3rd century B.C. (beginning with Alexandrine tetradrachms) onwards; the city becomes a colonia under Philip I. The imperial money of See also:Heliopolis (See also:Baalbek), a colonia, shows a great temple (of syr~a, etc. the Zeus of Heliopolis) in See also:perspective, another temple containing an ear of corn as the central object of worship, and a view of the Acropolis with the great temple upon it, and steps leading up the rock. The coinage of Phoenicia is a large and highly interesting series. The autonomous money is here important, and indicates the ancient wealth of the great marts of the coast. The Paoenkia. earliest coins were struck about the middle of the 5th century and usually bear Phoenician inscriptions. The coinage falls into three main periods; the first pre-Alexandrine; the second, that of Alexandrine, Ptolemaic and Seleucid rule; the third, that of the empire. In the first period Aradus strikes silver, usually on the Babylonian standard, staters with a head of Melkarth and a galley, and smaller denominations. All the other cities use the Phoenician standard. The regal silver coins of Byblus have a galley as obverse type; on the reverse, a See also:vulture standing on a ram, or a lion devouring a bull Here and at Sidon and Tyre portions of the types are represented incuse. Sidon has a large and important series of silver octadrachms and smaller denominations; on the obverse is a galley (at first with sails set, then without sails, first lying before a fortress, afterwards alone). On the reverse is the king of Persia in a See also:chariot, or slaying a lion. These coins were issued by the kings such as Strato I. and II. and Tennes, and by the See also:satrap Mazaeus. The early silver of Tyre has as reverse type an owl with a crook and See also:flail over its See also:shoulder; on the obverse a dolphin, or Melkarth See also:riding on a sea-horse; a common symbol is the See also:purple-See also:shell (Pl. II. fig. 20) . In the second period, besides Alexandrine silver and regal coins of the Ptolemies and Seleucidae, there are certain large and important issues of autonomous or semi-autonomous silver tetradrachms and smaller denominations, as at Aradus (head of the City, and Victory; also drachms with types copied from Ephesus: obv., bee, rev., stag and date-palm), Marathus (head of the City, and nude figure at Marathus seated on a See also:pile of See also:shields), Sidon (head of the City, and eagle), Tripolis (busts of the Dioscuri, and figure of the City holding cornucopiae) and Tyre (head of the Tyrian Heracles, Melkarth, and eagle). Tyre also issued a gold decadrachm with the head of the City, and a double cornucopiae. On these and other coins Sidon and Tyre claim the rights of See also:asylum. Berytus first See also:Comma-gene. Apamea, etc. coins in this period, sometimes under the name of Laodicea in See also:Canaan. See also:Ace-Ptolemais (See also:Acre) was an important mint under the Ptolemies; for a time, under the Seleucidae, it was called Antiochia in Ptolemais. Besides the Seleucid era autonomous eras are in use at some of the cities, as at Aradus (259 B.C.), Sidon (II B.C.) and Tyre (126 B.C.). Under the empire there are some very large coinages of bronze, besides a certain amount of silver resembling that of Antioch. The quasi-autonomous silver of Tyre was also issued as late as A.D. S7. Berytus (a colonia) has types relating to the cults of Astarte and Poseidon; Astarte is also prominent at Sidon (a colonia from Elagabalus onwards; a common type represents the wheeled shrine of the goddess) and Tripolis. At Byblus a temple is represented with a conical fetish. Tyre has many interesting types: See also:Dido See also:building See also:Carthage; the Ambrosial Rocks; See also:Cadmus fighting the serpent or See also:founding Thebes, &c. Ptolemais issued coins as a colony from Claudius onwards. In Trachonitis, the only city of importance is Caesarea Panias, with a famous grotto of Pan, perhaps represented on an imperial coin. Several cities in See also:Decapolis issued imperial coins, See also:Palestine. among them See also:Gadara and See also:Gerasa. In See also:Galilee the coins struck at See also:Tiberias by its founder, See also:Herod Antipas, may be mentioned. See also:Samaria has money of Caesarea, both autonomous and imperial, the last for the most part colonial, and also imperial of Neapolis, among the types of which occurs the interesting subject of Mount See also:Gerizim surmounted by the Samaritan temple. The coinage of See also:Judaea is an interesting series. The money of Jerusalem is of high interest, and more extensive than appears at first sight. Here was struck the coin of Antiochus VII., with the native lily as a type, the series of the Maccabaean princes, that of the Roman procurators, and the bronze coins countermarked by the tenth See also:legion, quartered by See also:Titus in the ruins of the city. One of these bears the remarkable symbol of a See also:pig. After the reduction of Judaea in the reign of Hadrian, Jerusalem was rebuilt as a colonia with the name Aelia Capitolina. The earliest coin commemorates the foundation. The coinage lasts as late as Valerian. See also:Ascalon strikes autonomous silver and bronze, including remarkable tetradrachms with the portraits of Ptolemy Auletes, of his See also:elder son Ptolemy XIV., and of his daughter See also:Cleopatra (see Pl. II. fig. 21). There is also money of See also:Gaza of some importance; the earliest coins are Attic drachms, &c., of barbarous style, inspired by Greek, especially Athenian See also:models; on its imperial coins the god Marna, and Minos and Io are named. The independent Jewish coinage begins with the famous shekels. They have been assigned to various periods, but the preponderance of evidence would class them to See also:Simon Jewish Maccabaeus, to whom the right of coining was granted coinage. by Antiochus VII. The series is of shekels and half- shekels, of the weight of Phoenician tetradrachms and di-drachms. The obverse of the shekel bears the inscription " the shekel of See also:Israel," and for type a sacred See also:vessel of the temple, above which (after year 1) is the letter indicating the year of issue and the initial of the word year. The reverse reads " Jerusalem the See also:Holy," and the type is a flowering branch (Pl. II. fig. 19). The half-shekel differs in having the inscription " half-shekel " on the obverse. The types are markedly peculiar; the obverse inscription is equally so, for the regular See also:formula of the neighbouring cities would give nothing but the name of the city; but the reverse inscription is like that of Tyre and Sidon, for instance, " of Tyre sacred and inviolable." This agreement is confirmatory of the See also:assignment to Simon Maccabaeus. This coinage bears the dates of years 1, 2, 3, 4 (rare), and 5 (very rare). There has been much discussion as to the date. It is best reckoned from the See also:decree of Antiochus VII. granting the right of coinage to Simon (139-138 B.c.). The coins of the fifth year were then struck by See also: 58-59, the latest period of their See also:administration being as yet unrepresented. These are followed by two classes, the money of the first revolt (A.D. 66-70) and that of the second (suppressed A.D. 135). Both risings caused the issue of native coinage, some of which may be assigned with certainty to each. Of the first revolt are bronze pieces of years 2, 3 and 4. Of the second revolt are restruck Antiochene tetradrachms and Roman denarii, usually with the name of Simon, which appears to have been that of the See also:leader surnamed See also:Bar Cochebas. The obverse type of the tetradrachms or shekels is the See also:portico of the temple; on the reverse are a bundle of branches and a citron, symbols of the feast of See also:tabernacles. Besides this native currency there are coins struck in Palestine by See also:Vespasian, Titus and See also:Domitian. Of Roman Arabia there are bronze imperial coins of Bostra and less important mints; the kings of Nabataea also issued silver and bronze coins from See also:Aretas III. (c. 87-62 B.c.) to Rabbel H. Arable, (A.D. 75-101). From S. Arabia comes a remarkable silver coinage issued by the Himyarites, beginning in the 4thMeso- century B.C., and imitated originally from Attic tetra-drachms p°temla, (both of the old and new style). In See also:Mesopotamia BabyIonta the colonia of Carrhae deserves notice, and the city of See also:Edessa, which issues imperial money as a colonia, and has a series of coins of its kings, striking with Roman emperors in silver and bronze. Curiously, this and the colonial issue are long contemporary. The colonial coinages of See also:Nisibis and of Resaena, which became a colonia, close the group. See also:Babylon was probably a mint of Alexander the Great and of many of the Seleucid kings, certainly of the usurpers Molon (222-220) and Timarchus (162 B.c.). See also:Africa. The coins of Africa are far less numerous then those of the other two continents, as Greek, Phoenician and Roman See also:civilization never penetrated beyond Egypt and the See also:northern Egypt• coast to the west. The series of Egypt is first in See also:geographical order. As yet no coins have been here assigned of a date anterior to Alexander. The old Egyptians kept their gold, electrum and silver in rings, and weighed them to ascertain the value. During the Persian rule the Persian money must have been current, and the satrap Aryandes is said to have issued a coinage of silver under See also:Darius I. With Alexander a regular Greek coinage must have begun, and some of his coins are of Egyptian mints. A rare bronze coin was struck at See also:Naucratis, probably during his lifetime. With Ptolemy I. the great Ptolemaic currency begins, which lasted for three centuries. The characteristics of this coinage are its splendid series of gold pieces and the size of the bronze money. The execution of the earlier heads is good; afterwards they become coarse and careless. At first the fine pieces were issued by the Phoenician, Cyprian and other See also:foreign mints, the Egyptian work being usually inferior. While the Seleucids were still striking good coins, the Ptolemies allowed their money to fall into barbarism in Egypt and even in Cyprus. The obverse type is a royal head, that of Ptolemy I. being the ordinary silver type (see Pl. II. fig. 22), while that of Arsinoe II. was long but not uninterruptedly continued on the gold. The head of Zeus Ammon is most usual 0n the bronze coinage. A type once adopted was usually retained. Thus Ptolemy I., Arsinoe II., Ptolemy IV., Cleopatra I., have a See also:kind of commemoration in the coinage on the See also:analogy of the priesthoods established in See also:honour of each royal pair. The almost universal type of reverse of all metals is the PtoIemaic badge, the eagle on the thunderbolt, which, in spite of variety, is always heraldic. For art and iconography this series is far inferior to that of the Seleucids. The weight after the earlier part of the reign of Ptolemy I. (who experimented with the Attic and Rhodian standards) is Phoenician for gold and silver.; the_..metrology of .the bronze is obscure. • The chief coins are octadrachms in gold and tetradrachms in silver, besides the abundant bronze money. Ptolemy I. appears to have issued his money while See also:regent for Philip Arrhidaeus (323-318); it only differs in the royal name from that of Alexander. He then struck money for Alexander IV. (317-311) on the Attic standard with the head of Alexander the Great, with the horn of Ammon in the See also:elephant's skin and Alexander's reverse. He soon adopted a new reverse, that of Athene Promachos. This money he continued to strike after the young king's See also:death until he himself (305) took the royal title, when he issued his own money, his portrait on the one side and the eagle and thunderbolt with his name as king on the other. This type in silver, with the inscription " Ptolemy the king," is thenceforward the regular currency. He also issued gold staters (reverse, Alexander the Great in an elephant-car). Ptolemy II. (Philadelphus, 285-247), the richest of the family, continued his father's coinage. Philadelphus also began (after the death and deification of Arsinoe II., about 271 B.C.), the issue of the gold octadrachms with the busts of Ptolemy I. and See also:Berenice I., Ptolemy II. and Arsinoe IL, and certainly struck beautiful octadrachms in gold and decadrachms in silver of Arsinoe II., the gold being long afterwards continued. Philadelphus also began the great bronze issues of the system. Ptolemy III. (Euergetes I. c. 247-222) struck gold octadrachms with his own portrait, wearing a See also:crown of rays. His queen Berenice II., striking in her own right as heiress of the See also:Cyrenaica and also as consort, issued a showy currency with her portrait, both octadrachms and decadrachms like those of Arsinoe, and a coinage for the Cyrenaica of peculiar divisions. Under Ptolemy IV. (Philopator, 222-205) the gold octadrachms are continued with his portrait and that of Arsinoe III. Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes, 205-181) still strikes octadrachms with his portrait and with that of Arsinoe, and begins the continuous series of the tetradrachms of the three great cities of Cyprus. The coinage henceforward steadily degenerates in style and eventually also in metal. In the latest series, the money of the famous Cleopatra VII., it is interesting to See also:note the Egyptian variety of her head, also occurring on Greek imperial money and on that of Ascalon. Under the Roman rule the imperial money of Alexandria, the coinage of the imperial province of Egypt, is the most remarkable in its class for its extent and the interest and variety of its types. It begins under Augustus and ends with the usurper or patriot Achilleus, called on his money Domitius Domitianus, overthrown by Diocletian (A.D. 297), thus lasting longer than Greek imperial money elsewhere. In the earlier period there are base silver coins continuing the base tetradrachms struck by Auletes, and bronze money of several sizes. Most of the coins are dated by the regnal years of the emperors, the letter L being used for " year." The types are very various, and may be broadly divided into Greek, Graeco-Roman and Graeco-Egyptian. The Graeco-Roman types have the closest analogy to those of Rome herself; the Graeco-Egyptian are of high interest as a special class illustrative of the latest phase of Egyptian mythology. These native types, at first uncommon, from the time of Domitian are of great frequency. The money of Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus See also:Pius is abundant and interesting. A coin of Antoninus, dated in his sixth year, records the beginning of a new Sothiac See also:cycle of 146o years, which happened in the emperor's second year (A.D. 139). The reverse type is a crested See also:crane, the Egyptian bennu or See also:phoenix, with a kind of radiate nimbus See also:round its head, and the inscription AIf1N. Under Claudius II. (Gothicus) and thenceforward there is but a single kind of coin of bronze washed with silver. In this series we note the money of Zenobia, and of her son Vabalathus. Coins bearing the names and local types of the nomes of Egypt were struck by a few emperors at the Alexandrian mint. Their metal is bronze, and they are of different sizes. Passing by the unimportant coinage of the Libyans, we reach the interesting series of the Cyrenaica, the only truly Greek currency of Africa. It begins under the line of See also:Battus about the middle of the 7th century, and reathes to the Roman rule asfar as the reign of Augustus. The coins were issued at See also:Cyrene, See also:Barca, Euesperides and smaller towns. The weight of the gold always, and of the silver until some date not long after 450 B.C., is Euboic; afterwards it is Phoenician. The ruling types are the silphium plant and its See also:fruit, and the head of Zeus Ammon, first bearded (Pl. II. fig. 23) then beardless. The art is vigorous, and in the transitional and fine period has the best Greek qualities. It is clearly an outlying branch of the school of central Greece. The oldest coins are uninscribed, so that it cannot always be said at which mint they were struck. The money with the name of Cyrene comprises a fine series of gold Attic staters and silver tetradrachms. It was an important mint of the Ptolemies. Barca has a smaller coinage then Cyrene. It comprises a wonderful tetradrachm (Phoenician), with the head of Ammon bearded, boldly represented, absolutely full face, and three silphiums joined, between their heads an owl, a See also:chameleon and a See also:jerboa. The money of Euesperides is less important. Syrtica and Byzacena offer little of interest. Their coins are late bronze, first with Punic inscriptions, then in imperial times with Latin and Punic or Latin. Latin and Greek are used in the same coins at See also:Leptis Minor in Byzacena. In Zeugitana the great currency of Carthage is the last representative of Greek money, for, despite its Orientalism, its origin is Hellenic, and of this origin it is at first not unworthy. Its Carthage. range in time is from about 410 B.C., when the Cartha- ginians invaded Sicily, to the fall of Carthage in 146 B.C. The earliest coins are Attic tetradrachms of the class usually called Siculo-Punic. These, and certain gold coins with similar types, were issued in Sicily down to about 310 B.c. The types owe much to the coinage of Sicilian cities, especially Syracuse; but they show also distinct Punic motives, such as a lion before a palm-tree, or a head of a Punic queen. The Punic inscriptions enable some to be attributed to mints such as See also:Motya, Solus, Eryx; others name " Carthage," " the See also:Camp," " the Paymasters," many, inscribed Ziz, were issued from Panormus. The coinage from about 340 to 242 B.C., perhaps all issued at Carthage itself, is scanty; the types, head of Persephone and a horse, or horse and palm-tree, now come in, and prevail to the end of the independent coinage. The acquisition of the See also:Spanish mines about 241 caused the issue of a large coinage, but the gold and silver soon degenerate into electrum and potin. The metrology of the various series (excepting the Siculo-Punic) is obscure, but the standard seems to be Phoenician. The late silver 12-drachm pieces and some of the bronzes are among the heaviest struck coins of the ancients. The art of the earlier coins is sometimes purely Greek of Sicilian style. There is even in the best class a curious tendency to exaggeration, which gradually develops itself and finally becomes very barbarous. Roman Carthage has a bronze coinage which is in-significant. There are a few other towns which issued money with Roman legends, such as See also:Utica. The denarii of See also:Clodius See also:Macer, who revolted in A.D. 68, are curiously illustrative of his policy, which was to restore the Roman See also:republic. The cities of See also:Numidia and See also:Mauretania have a late bronze coinage; but an interesting series of silver and bronze coins is attributed with more or less certainty to the Numidian kings from 1Yumldta, See also:Massinissa (202-148), to See also:Juba I. (6o-46 B.c.), and to the A:fnm Mauretanian kings from Syphax (213-202 B.c.), to Juba manta II. (who also struck coins with his consort Cleopatra, daughter of Mark Antony and the famous Egyptian queen) and Ptolemy their son, the last of the great family of the kings of Egypt (A.D. 23-40). II. ROMAN COINS The Roman coinage is of two great classes, the republican and the imperial; the first lasted from the origin of money at Rome to the reform of Augustus in 16 B.C., and the second from this date to the fall of the Western empire in A.D. 476. The evidence of the coins themselves as to the origin of the republican coinage is at variance with that of the ancient writers; but the general principles of See also:criticism must be maintained here as in other matters of early Roman story. The tradition which ascribed the introduction of coins bearing types to Servius Tullius must be unhesitatingly rejected. The style and types of the earliest Roman coins point clearly to a date not earlier than the middle of the 4th century. The native copper which the Italians used from primitive times as a sort of See also:medium of See also:exchange, in amorphous blocks (aes rude) was probably not a state-currency, being produced by private enter-prise. It was not until Rome unified See also:Latium and See also:Campania under her rule that central Italy acquired a true coinage. This must have been about 338 B.c. The history of the republican coinage from 338 to 16 B.C. falls into two great periods—the second being marked by the introduction of the denarius system in 269. From 338 to 269 three minor periods may be distinguished, indicating in a striking way the growth of the Roman organization of central Italy. In the period 338–312 Rome consolidated her dominion in Latium and Campania as against her rivals the See also:Samnites. In the second period (312 to c. 290) she finally subdued the Samnites. The system of her coinage is from the beginning based on a double mint, one in Rome and one in See also:Capua (perhaps also she struck in some other cities in See also:south Italy). The weight-See also:units with which she starts are, for bronze, the Osco-Latin See also:pound of 273 grammes, for silver the didrachm of 7.58 grammes (the latter being - of the former and more or less coincident with the Phocaic-Campanian didrachm current in Campania). The relation between silver and bronze was as 1 : 120 or I : 125. The bronze unit was the as of i pound weight, which was divided into 12 unciae. The reverse type of all bronze denominations was a See also:prow, which alluded to the See also:establishment of Roman sea-power (in 348 she concluded her treaty with Carthage, in 338 she subjugated See also:Antium, her chief rival on the Latin coast, and set up the beaks of the Antiate See also:ships in her See also:forum). The denominations are marked by I (the as), S (semis= 1 as) and for the smaller de-nominations a number of pellets indicating the value in unciae. On the obverses appear the heads of deities: Janus on the as (see See also:Plate), See also:Jupiter on the semis, See also:Minerva on the triens (4 unciae), See also:Hercules on the quadrans (3 unciae), See also:Mercury on the sextans (2 unciae) and See also:Bellona on the uncia. These heavy coins were all See also:cast at Rome. The Roman mint at Capua, on the other hand, produced a series of silver coins (chiefly didrachms) and small struck bronze change with the inscription ROMANO (see Pl. II. fig. 24). In the second period (312 to c. 290) the mint at Rome continues to issue cast bronze of the same weights and types. But at Capua the mint becomes much more active, being opened for cast bronze as well as struck silver. The Osco-Latin silver standard is superseded by the Roman See also:scruple-standard (I scruple of 1.137 grammes= 1-+v of the pound of 273 grammes). Silver being to bronze as I : 120, 2 scruples of silver were equivalent to r bronze as of 273 grammes. The first issue of silver in this period consisted of didrachms (six-scruple pieces) with a head of See also:Roma in a Phrygian helmet (alluding to her Trojan foundation), the inscription is ROMANO. Parallel with this is a Capuan issue of libral cast bronze (aes See also:grave) for the use of the Latin territory; the 3-asses (tressis), 2-asses (dupondius) and as all have the head of Roma as on the didrachm, and the reverse type of all denominations is a wheel. (This wheel probably alludes to the completion of the See also:internal routes of communication in Roman territory, especially of the via See also:Appia, which was finished in 312). Finally, to this first issue is attributed one of the See also:quadrilateral ingots generally known as aes signatum ; its types are the Roman eagle on a thunderbolt, and a Pegasus with the inscription ROMANOM. These ingots, according to a plausible but not quite convincing conjecture, were probably not used as money, but only in sacral and legal ceremonies—such as See also:dedication to the gods, venditio per aes et libram, &c.—in which the use of aes rude was traditional. But from this time onward each issue of silver and aes grave from the Capuan mint was, it is supposed, accompanied by a new See also:ingot of this kind. Three further issues of silver from the Capuan mint took place in this period, each accompanied by its corresponding aes grave series and ingot. These heavy bronze pieces are all uninscribed; on the silver and small struck bronze ROMA replaces ROMANO. The evidence of.hoards shows that in this period there must have been some sort of convention between Rome and the autonomous mints of her See also:allies, permitting the circulation, throughout the bronze-using district under Roman control, of all the coins issued from Rome and Capua, on the one hand, and, on the other, all the aes grave issued by the autonomous mints. In the third sub-period (c. 290—269) the silver coinage of the Capuan mint becomes thoroughly Romanized; its inscription is, of course, ROMA; its types are the typically Reiman ones of the youthful head of Janus and Jupiter in his See also:quadriga (these are the nummi quadrigati). There is also a series of struck bronze inscribed ROMA issued from the same mint. The important feature of this period is that bronze is no longer regarded as the most important See also:element in the currency, but is subordinated to silver; the result is that we have what is called the semi-libral reduction, the weight of the as issued from the Roman mint being half the pound. But opinions vary as to whether the pound of which the as represented the half in this period was the old one of 273 grammes or the new Roman pound of 327.45 grammes. As the latter was certainly used for a special series of aes grave issued from the Roman mint for the Latins (see below), we may assume that it was also used for the regular Roman coinage. Now since the a lb as (163'72 grammes) was equated to 1 scruple of silver (1137 grammes), we get a forced relation of silver to copper of r : 144. The as being regarded merely as representing so much silver (r scruple), so Iong as the state guaranteed the See also:cover, there was no See also:reason . why the as, being merely token money, should not fall in weight; and that it does, sinking by the end of this or beginning of the next period to the weight of of the Oscan ors (sextans) of the new Roman pound. We may note the occurrence in this series of the decussis or ro-as piece. Of the two series of aes grave issued in this period for the benefit of the Latin district, both are heavier than in the preceding period; the new Roman pound of 327'45 grammes is used for a series issued from the mint of Rome; a still higher weight (perhaps of 341 grammes) for a series issued from Capua. The relation between silver and copper involved in this standard is not quite clear. In this period also we have ingots corresponding according to the theory above mentioned, to the various series of aes grave; one, with a pair of chickens feeding and a pair of rostra, refers to the augury taken by the Roman imperator before battle. Two other ingots commemorate historical events; one, with a Samnite bull on each side, the subjugation of Rome's great rival; the other, with an elephant and a pig, the alleged rout of See also:Pyrrhus's elephants by the grunting of See also:swine at Asculum in 278. After the introduction in 269 B.C. of the silver denarius (piece of ro asses, marked X, Pl. II. fig. 25) with its half (the quinarius, V) and its quarter (the sestertius, IIS), no changes of obviously great economic importance take place in the coinage until near the close of the republican period. Although it is not true, as is sometimes stated, that the coinage of silver at all local ;Hints in south Italy, except the Bruttian, came to a close with the introduction of the denarius, yet the new Roman coin entirely dominated the currency from the first. Many mints, however, continued to issue bronze coinage down to 89 B.C., and a Roman coinage in various metals is also attributed to certain local mints, such as Croton and Hatria; not to mention the Roman issues which still continued to be made from Capua, though in a less degree than before. At Rome itself the mint was now localized in the temple of See also:Juno Moneta, who probably received her surname from, rather than gave it to, See also:motley. The denarius, being equivalent to 10 asses, and weighing 4.55 grammes, would at the See also:rate of I : 120 (which was now restored) be equivalent to 546 grammes of bronze. The as of the time must therefore have been the one weighing S4•6 grammes, that is -- of the Oscan pound cf 273 grammes, ors (sextans) of the Attic-Roman pound of 327'45 grammes. In other words, the legally recognized as of this period was the as of the sextantal reduction. The bronze coins of this reduction are, like the silver, struck, not cast; the See also:process of striking had already .been introduced for the See also:lower denominations of bronze in the previous period. About 241 B.C. the weight of the denarius, having sunk under the stress of the first Punic war, was fixed at 3.90 grammes. Possibly the reduction of the as to the weight of an uncia, which Pliny attributes to the time of the Hannibalian crisis, may really have taken place at the same time. In 228 B.C. (some critics prefer to say nearly forty years earlier) a new silver extra-Roman coin, the victoriatus, was introduced. It replaced the old Campanian drachm and, wherever it may have been minted, was meant for circulation outside Rome. The quinarius and sestertius at the same time disappeared from the regular coinage, but the sesterce remained the unit of account. Marks of value occur on all the coins from 269 B.C. for some time onward, except on the smallest bronze and the victoriatus. After the reduction of the bronze had been carried far, it became possible to issue large denominations of a circular form; thus circular bronze decusses (equal each to i denarius) are known of various periods, weighing from over 'too to 65o grammes. Gold was not regularly coined by the Romans until the close of the republic; but certain exceptional issues must be noticed. The earliest (some time during the first Punic War) consisted of pieces of 6o (Pl. II. fig. 26), 40 and 20 sestertii; they were issued both from Rome and from some See also:external mint or mints. To the crisis of the second Punic War may be assigned certain electrum coins of 11 scruple weight (types: janiform female head, and Jupiter in quadriga). It is to this time that Pliny attributes the fixing of the as at the weight of an uncia, and the valuation of the denarius at 16 instead of 10 asses (although in estimating the pay of soldiers the denarius continued to be given for to asses). Finally there is some See also:probability in the attribution to the year 20g of the well-known gold coins of 6 and 3 scruples which have on the obverse a head of the young Janus, and on the reverse two soldiers taking an See also:oath of alliance over the See also:carcass of a pig—in allusion to the See also:loyalty to Rome of her Latin colonies (See also:Livy See also:xxvii. 9, so). Without following the fortunes of the various denominations, we may note that in 89 B.C. the lex Papiria suppressed all local mints throughout Italy, ordered the reissue of the silver sestertius, and introduced the semuncial (2 See also:ounce) standard for bronze. This was just after the close of the Social War, which had been signalized by the issue, on the part of the revolted allies, of an interesting series of coins (denarii and—most treasonable of all—a gold piece) chiefly from Italia, as they called See also:Corfinium. These coins bear in Oscan letters the names of the See also:Italian military leaders, such as C. Papius Mutilus. In Sr B.C. the regular bronze coinage came to an end, and the denarius remained for a long time the only coin issued by the Roman mint. Roman generals sometimes, however, issued exceptional coins in their own names, such as " bronze sesterces." We have already dealt with the earliest gold money of the republic. Another exceptional issue was the gold coin bearing the name of T. Quinctius See also:Flamininus, the liberator of Hellas (struck between rg8 and Igo B.C.); but it was minted in Greece and conformed to Greek standards. The earliest Roman aurei proper (those of See also:Sulla) were also struck outside Rome. They weigh , or '6- of a Roman pound. The aurei of Pompeius were 1s-, those of See also:Julius Caesar See also:gib, of the pound. After Caesar's time the weight of the aureus fell to lb, under Augustus. Of the administrative side of the Roman system of coinage little is known but what the coins reveal. The earliest indication of monetary magistrates is found in symbols, which occur on the coins before the close of the first Punic War. Then the names begin to appear, at first abbreviated, then at length. Probably the right of coinage was in the -beginning vested in the consuls, but it would seem that about the time of the second Punic War it was transferred to a special See also:board of magistrates, the tresviri acre argento See also:aura flando feriundo. Whether they were appointed every year, or only when need arose, we do not know; but it is improbable that there was an annual board until the beginning of the 1st century, if then; and even when annually appointed, they cannot all have exercised their right. On the other hand, there were in some years, as 92 B.C., no less than five moneyers; in c. 86 B.c. there were four, two being aediles exercising a specially conferred right. Exceptional issues of this kind were often authorized by the senate, and bear inscriptions indicating the fact, such as P.E.S.C. (Publice ex Senatus consulto). An issue for the purpose of the Apollinarian See also:games, defrayed out of a special See also:treasury, bears the inscription S.C.D(e) T(hesauro). Julius Caesar added a fourth moneyer to the board. The first issue of gold by such a board took place in 43 B.c. ; all previous issues of gold had been made, so far as we know, in virtue of military imperium (in 44 B.C. by the praetors). Augustus, after the troublous period 41–27 was over, returned to the triumviral system; after his reform of 15 B.c. the bronze coinage which he introduced in that year is signed by the triumvirs, although the gold and silver bears no such names. Shortly afterwards, however, he organized the system which will be dealt with under the empire. The types of the Roman republican coins are of great interest, although their art never rises above mediocrity. The chief typesof the period before 269 have already been mentioned. The earliest.denarii, quinarii and sestertii bear a head of the goddess Roma, helmeted, and the Dioscuri charging on horseback, as they appeared at See also:Lake See also:Regillus. The victoriatus has a head of Jupiter and a figure of Victory crowning a trophy. The types of the bronze coins are practically the same as in the earlier period. About Igo B.C. the goddess See also:Diana in her chariot begins to appear on the reverses of some of the denarii. Later, other types gradually encroach on the reverses; first, Victory in a chariot; still later such types as the Juno of See also:Lanuvium in a chariot drawn by goats. This and other types which now begin to relieve the monotony of the series usually have a See also:personal allusion to the moneyer, or to his family history. Thus, on a denarius of See also:Sex. Pompeius Fostlus is seen the shepherd Faustulus discovering See also:Romulus and Remus suckled by the she-wolf. Imaginary or more or less See also:authentic portraits of ancestors, such as Numa, L. See also:Junius See also:Brutus or M. Claudius See also:Marcellus, belong to the same See also:category. An elephant's head on a Macedonian shield, on a coin of M. See also:Caecilius 1Vletellus ((a 94 B.C.), alludes to victories won by Caecilii at Panormus (in 251, over Punic elephants) and in See also:Macedonia (in 148). The cult of See also:Venus by the See also:Julian family is illustrated by a denarius of L. Julius Caesar (c. 90 B.C.) with a head of See also:Mars and a figure of Venus in a car drawn by two Cupids. The surrender of Jugurtha by See also:Bocchus to Sulla is represented on a denarius of Sulia's son Faustus (62 B.c., Pl. II. fig. 2}). The type is probably a copy of the design which we know the See also:dictator used for his signet-ring. M. See also:Aemilius See also:Lepidus (TVTOR REGis) crowning Ptolemy Epiphanes, or Paullus Aemilius erecting a trophy, while King Perseus and his two See also:children, stand before him, are other historical types. A contemporary event is commemorated on a special issue in-scribed AD FRV(mentum) EMV(ndum) EX S(enatus) C(onsulto), coined by L. See also:Calpurnius See also:Piso and Q. Servilius See also:Caepio in 100 B.C. Caepio, See also:quaestor in that year, defeated the proposal of See also:Saturninus to sell corn publicly at a nominal See also:price; but the senate voted a special issue of money to meet the See also:strain of the See also:market. On the obverse is a head of See also:Saturn, from whose treasury the funds for the issue were drawn; on the reverse are Caepio and Piso on their See also:official seat, and two ears of corn. Perhaps the most graphic allusion to a contemporary event to be found on any coin is furnished by the cap of See also:liberty with two daggers and the inscription EID(ibus) See also:MAR(tiis) on coins of Brutus. Representations of a less obviously historical character, as personifications of countries or places (Hispania, Alexandria) or qualities (Honos and Virtus) or mythological figures (Scylla), are all, it would seem, inspired by some personal interest. Many types will only be explained when more See also:light is thrown on the obscure corners of Roman mythology and See also:ritual; but they will all probably be found to have some personal reference to the moneyer. Roman types of the later republic, therefore, though they may be classified externally as " religious," " historical," " canting," &c., are all inspired by some personal See also:motive, The inevitable outcome of this character was that, when once contemporary portraiture was regarded as legitimate on the coins, it speedily became its most important feature. The portrait of Flamininus on his gold coin struck in Greece long remained without a Roman analogy. In 44 B.C., by order of the senate, the head of Julius Caesar was placed on the silver coins (Pl. III. fig. 1; the gold coin bearing his portrait is of doubtful authenticity). After Caesar's death portraits occur on coins issued by men of all shades of political See also:opinion, showing that portraiture on the coins was not then regarded as the monarchical See also:prerogative, which it became from A.D. 6 onwards, when it was limited to members of the imperial family. The history of the imperial coinage is full of metrological difficulties. These arise from the conditions fixed by Augustus (16–15 B.c.), by which the emperor alone coined gold Augustus. and silver, the senate alone bronze. Consequently the senate was wholly at the See also:mercy of the emperor. Augustus struck the aureus at 42 to the pound, equal to 25 denarii at 84 to the pound (Pl. III. fig. 3). He introduced a new coinage in two metals, the sestertius of 4 asses and dupondius of 2, both in fine yellow brass (orichalcum), and the as semis and quadrans in common red copper. This distinction of metals, however, was sometimes ignored, as in the time of See also:Nero,when we have sestertius (PI. III. fig. 2), dupondius and as, all in brass, and of three different sizes. The as is usually nearly equal in size and weight to the dupondius, but is distinguished by its metal and inferior fabric. All this brass and copper coinage bears the letters S.C., senatus consulto. Emperors not acknowledged by the senate are without such money; thus we have no specimens of See also:Otho or Pescennius See also:Niger. Nero reduced the denarius to -hth of the pound, and alloyed its silver with from 5 to to % of base metal. Henceforward the quality of the denarius gradually sank, until under See also:Sept. Severus under later the proportion of alloy was from 5o to 6o%. Caracalla emperors. also issued See also:lead plated with silver and, among his aurei, copper plated with gold. He also introduced a new coin, called after him the argenteus Antoninianus. It was struck at o ,th to 84th of the pound, and seems to have been originally a double denarius struck on a lower standard. The characteristic of this coin is that the head of the emperor is radiate as Sol (Pl. III. fig. 4), that of the empress on a See also:crescent as See also:Luna. Towards the end of Caracalla's reign the weight of the aureus had fallen to is lb. Under Elagabalus the taxes were paid in gold alone; this was ruinous, for the treasury paid in debased silver at nominal value, which had to be used to See also:purchase gold by the taxpayer at real value. Under Gordian III. the silver contained 67 % of alloy; and eventually under See also:Gallienus the " argenteus " frequently contained no silver whatever. See also:Aurelian (A.D. 270–275) attempted a reform of the coinage by which the previous coin was reduced from its nominal to its See also:intrinsic value. The coins were now of bronze with a See also:wash of silver, and we now find them marked with their value as two denarii. These coins replace at once the base silver and the bronze, which now disappear. The moneying right of the senate had become illusory by the depreciation of silver, which had ceased to have any real value. Aurelian entirely suppressed this right; See also:Tacitus and See also:Florian restored it for a few years, after which the S.C. disappears from the coinage. The reform of Aurelian caused a serious outbreak at Rome, but was maintained by him and by Tacitus. Aurelian also suppressed all local mints but Alexandria. It was the work of Diocletian to restore the issue of relatively pure money in the three metals. He made no less than four unsuccessful attempts to regulate the weight of gold. Not later than 290 he restored a pure silver coinage with a piece of lb. His reformed bronze coins are the follis, marked XX, XX•I., K, KA, &c. (all meaning " 2 denarii=the unit ") and the half-denarius of centenionalis. See also:Constantine, probably in A.D. 312 (though some critics attribute the reform to See also:Constantius Chlorus) desiring to rectify the gold coinage, which had long been quite irregular in weight, reduced the chief gold piece to ;12 of the pound, and issued the solidus (Pl. III. fig. 5) , a piece destined to See also:play a great part in commercial history. It was never lowered in weight, though many centuries later it was debased, long after it had become the See also:parent of the gold coinages of Westerns and Easterns alike throughout the civilized world. The letters OB, which are commonly found in the exergue of gold coins from the 4th century onwards mean Obryzum (refined gold), and the letters PS, found on silver coins Pustulatum (refined silver). Under Constantius II. (A.D. 36o) and Julian the silver coin of D}8 lb was suppressed, and the siliqua of ii.tth of the pound (which had already been issued in small quantities before) took its place. From about 36o there was a system of 4 bronze coins (follis, denarius, centenionalis and a centenionalis). The last soon disappeared, and under See also:Honorius (395) only the centenionalis remained. Honorius and his successors issued the silver decargyrus (= to denarii). The bronze coinage of this time was small and mean. It will be seen that a See also:fuller system of bronze was originated by See also:Anastasius, the See also:Byzantine emperor. Under Augustus the Roman monetary system became the official standard of the empire, and no local mint could exist without the imperial See also:licence. Thus the Greek imperial money is strictly Roman money coined in the provinces, with the legends and types of the towns. Many cities were allowed to strike bronze, several silver. The kings of the Cimmerian Bosporus enjoyed the exceptional See also:privilege of striking gold, which, however, became rapidly debased. The silver becomes limited about Nero's time, but lasts under the Antonines, and is also found under Caracalla and Macrinus. It is chiefly supplied by the mints of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Antioch and subsidiary mints in Syria, and Alexandria in Egypt. None of these were strictly city-mints, but served the purposes of the provincial See also:government. The bronze increased in mints and quantity in the 2nd century, but, through the debasement of the Roman silver, one city after another ceased to strike about the middle of the 3rd. The provincial mint of Alexandria, however, continued to strikeuntil the end of the century. From the coins of the ordinary Greek and other cities under the empire must be distinguished the issues of the Roman colonies. In the west these practically ceased in Nero's time; in the See also:east they lasted as long as the other Greek coinage. Purely Roman gold and silver was coined in certain of the provinces, in See also:Spain and See also:Gaul, and at the cities of Antioch and Ephesus. When the base silver had driven the Greek imperial bronze out of circulation, Gallienus established local mints which struck pure Roman types. Diocletian in-creased the number of these mints, which lasted until the fall of the empire of the West, and in the East longer. These mints were (with others added later), Londinium (or See also:Augusta), See also:Camulodunum, Treviri, Lugdunum, Arelate (or Constantina), Ambianum, Tarraco, Carthago, Roma, See also:Ostia, See also:Ravenna, See also:Aquileia, See also:Mediolanum, Siscia, Serdica,' Sirmium, Thessalonica, Constantinopolis, Heraclea, Nicomedia, Cyzicus, Antiochia (ultimately Theupolis) and Alexandria. A few were speedily abandoned. As regards the internal organization of the mints under the empire, we know that, although the names of the triumviri monetales do not occur on the coins after 15 n.c., they continued to exist (with the title Illviri acre argento auro flando feriundo, although their competence was restricted to the first metal) until probably the time of Aurelian, who withdrew the right of coinage from the senate. Officials of the imperial treasury superintended the gold and silver coinage; Trajan placed a See also:procurator monetae See also:Augusti of equestrian See also:rank at the head of the whole system, subject to the emperor's rationales (the chief official of the treasury). The system of procurators was extended and regularized by Diocletian. In the Roman colonies (which were only allowed to issue bronze) the formula D.D. or EX D.D. (ex decurionum decreto) often occurs, corresponding to the S.C. of the Roman mint. At many colonies, especially in the west, the monetary duumviri sign the coins. At Rome the imperial mint itself was situated behind the Colosseum, near the Caelian See also: Sometimes the reverse bears a directly dedicatory inscription to the emperor. The inscriptions on the earlier imperial coins from Tiberius to Severus Alexander are generally See also:chronological, usually giving the current or last consulship of the emperor and his tribunitian year. It must be noted that Christian symbols first made their appearance on coins in an unsystematic, almost accidental way. The earliest instance is at the mint of Tarraco in A.D. 314, when a See also:cross occurs as a symbol on the reverse. In A.D. 320 the Christian monogram is found as a detail in the field at several mints. But the types still remain pagan; these symbols are not introduced by order, although the officials who introduced them doubtless knew they could do so with impurity. As times goes on the Christian emblems become more popular; on a coin of Constantius II. we find Victory crowning the emperor, who holds the standard of the cross; the inscription is HOC SIGNO See also:VICTOR See also:ERIS. Another type of the same reign is the Christian monogram flanked by See also:alpha and omega. Under Julian there is a temporary recrudescence of pagan types; with the revival of See also:Christianity monotony of type sets in. The art of Roman imperial coins, although far inferior to that of Greek, is well worthy of study in its best ages, for its intrinsic merit, for its illustration of contemporary sculpture, and on account of the influence it exercised on See also:medieval and See also:modern art. On the whole the finest work is produced under Augustus, when the portraits still betray a certain refinement of See also:imagination in the artists. Some of it reflects the beauty of Roman monumental sculpture in relief of the time, whether that sculpture be regarded as the work of Greeks or of purely Roman artists. The most vigorous portraiture is perhaps found under the Flavians. Under the Antonines, although still striking and powerful, the portraits lost in subtlety and from the time of See also:Commodus there is a rapid decline. The age of Diocletian and Constantine shows a well-meant but hopeless See also:attempt at revival of art. In spite of its defects, the fact that many of the greatest medallists of the See also:Renaissance See also:drew their See also:inspiration from the art of imperial coins shows that it had many good qualities, of which the chief was an honest directness of effort. The realism in which this resulted is perhaps best seen in the portraits of Nero, the growth of whose bad passions may be seen in the increasing brutality of his features and expression. The medallion series is full of charming subjects, though when they have been treated by Greek artists of earlier ages the contrast is trying; the most satisfactory are the representations of older statues; the purely new compositions are either poor inventions, or have a theatrical See also:air that removes them from the province of good art. The period of the medieval and later coins of See also:Europe must be considered to begin about the time of the fall of the Western empire, so that its length to the present See also:day is about 1400 years. It is impossible to See also:separate the medieval and later coins, either in the entire class, because the time of change varies, or in each group, since there are usually pieces indicative of transition which display characteristics of both periods. The clearest See also:division of the subject is to place the Byzantine coinage first, then to notice the characteristics of its descendants, and lastly to See also:sketch the monetary history of each country. The coinage of the present day, however, having certain definite characteristics, may be dealt with separately. The Byzantine money is usually held to begin in the reign of Anastasius (A.D. 491–518, Pl. III. fig. 6). The coinage is always in the three metals, but the silver money is rare, and Byzan- was probably struck in small quantities. At first both eu,plre. the gold and the silver are fine, but towards the close of the empire they are much alloyed. The gold coin is the solidus of Constantine, with its half and its third, the so-called semissis and tremissis. The Byzantine solidus (See also:besant) had an enormous See also:vogue throughout the middle ages, being the chief gold coin until the introduction of the Italian gold in the 13th century. The chief silver coin was the miliarision, and a smaller coin, the siliqua or keration. Under See also:Heraclius (610–641) the hexagram or double miliarision was first coined. The silver money of the restored Greek empire is obscure. In 498 Anastasius introduced a new copper coinage, bearing on the reverse, at his time, the following indexes of value as the main type: M, K, I and E, 40 nummi, 20, 10 and 5. These coins bear beneath the indexes the abbreviated name of the place of issue. Justinian I. added the regnal year in A.D. 538, his twelfth year. The money of this class presents extraordinary variations of weight, which indicate the See also:condition of the imperial finances. The Alexandrian coins of this class begin under Anastasius and end with the See also:capture of the city by the See also:Arabs. They have two denominations, IB and S, and T or 12, 6 and 3 denarii, and there is an isolated variety of Justinian with A r(33). The Alexandrian bronze never lost its weight, while that of the empire generally fell, and thus some of the pieces of Heraclius, while associated with his sons Heraclius See also:Constantinus and Heraclonas, have the double See also:index IB and M. Under See also:Basil I. the bronze moneyappears to have been reformed, but the absence of indexes of value makes the whole later history of the coinage in this metal very difficult. There was one curious change in the aspect of the money. Early in the 11th century the solidus begins to assume a See also:cup-shaped form, and this subsequently became the shape of the whole coinage except the smaller bronze pieces. These novel coins are called nummi scyphati. The types, except when they refer simply to the See also:sovereign, are of a religious and consequently of a Christian character. This feeling increases to the last. Thus, on the obverse of the earlier coins the emperors are represented alone, but from about the loth century they are generally portrayed as aided or supported by some sacred See also:person-age or See also:saint. On the reverses of the oldest coins we have such types as a Victory holding a cross (other personifications all but disappear), but on those of later ones a representation of Our Saviour or of the Virgin See also:Mary. See also:Christ first appears on a coin of about A.D. 450, where He is represented marrying Pulcheria to See also:Marcian. He does not appear again until the end of the 7th century, when His bust is introduced by Justinian II. It was perhaps this type, so offensive to See also:Mahommedan feeling, that caused the See also:Caliph Abdalmalik to initiate the Mussulman coinage. From the gth century Christ appears in various forms on the coins; about 900 we find the Virgin; a few years later See also:saints begin to appear. A remarkable type was introduced by See also:Michael VIII., See also:Palaeologus, who recovered See also:Constantinople from the Latins in 1261, and issued coins with the Virgin standing in the midst of the walls of the city. The principal inscriptions for a long period almost invariably relate to the sovereign, and See also:express his name and titles. The secondary inscriptions of the earlier coins indicate the town at which the piece was struck, and, in the case of the larger bronze pieces, the year of the emperor's reign is also given. From about the loth century there are generally two principal inscriptions, the one relating to the emperor and the other to the sacred figure of the reverse, in the form of a See also:prayer. The secondary inscriptions at the same time are descriptive, and are merely abbreviations of the names or titles of the sacred personages near the representations or whom they are placed. From the time of Alexius I. (See also:Comnenus) the principal inscriptions are almost disused, and descriptive ones alone given. These are nearly always abbreviations, like the secondary ones of the earlier period. The language of the inscriptions was at first Latin with a partial use of Greek; about the time of Heraclius Greek began to take its place on a rude class of coins, probably local; by the 9th century Greek inscriptions occur in the regular coinage; and at the time of Alexius I. Latin wholly disappears. The Greek inscriptions are remarkable for their See also:orthography, which indicates the changes of the language. In the 11th century we notice a few metrical inscriptions, the forerunners of See also:verse-mottoes on later coins. Of the art of these coins little need be said. It has its importance in illustrating contemporary ecclesiastical art, but is generally inferior to it both in design and in execution. It is noticeable that from the beginning of the Byzantine period the facing representation of the bust begins to be popular, and that from the time of Justinian (6th century) onwards the profile practically disappears from the coinage. The last Byzantine gold coin (a piece of John V., 1341–1391) shows a figure of John the Baptist imitated from the Florentine coinage. Besides the regular series of the Byzantine empire, in which we include the money assigned to the Latin emperors of Constantinople, there are several cognate groups connected
with it,either because of their similarity,or because the cognate groups.
sovereigns were of the imperial houses. There are the
coinages of the barbarians to be next noticed, and the money of the emperors of Nicaea, of Thessalonica and of See also:Trebizond. The last group consists of small silver pieces, which were prized for their purity; they were called Comnenian See also: The Arab silver piece, the dirhem, was almost exactly the double of the denier, and seems to have been widely current in the See also:north. The new coinage spread from See also:France, where it was first royal and then royal and feudal, to See also:Germany, Italy, where the Byzantine types did not wholly disappear, See also:England, Scandinavia, See also:Castile and See also:Aragon. In Germany and France feudal money was soon issued, and in Italy towns and ecclesiastical See also:foundations largely acquired from the empire the right of coinage, which was elsewhere rare. The consequence of the extended right of coinage was a depreciation in weight, and in the middle of the 12th century the one-sided pennies called bracteates appeared in Germany, which were so thin that they could only be stamped on one side. The types of this whole second coinage are new, except when the bust of the emperor is engraved. The most usual are the cross; and the See also: Frederick II. (1215-125o), continuing the Arab coinage, also struck his own Roman gold money, solidi and half solidi, with his bust as emperor of the Romans, Caesar Augustus, and on the reverse the imperial eagle (Pl. III. fig. 7). In workmanship these were the finest coins produced in the middle ages. But the calamities which overwhelmed the Swabian house and threw back the Renaissance deprived this effort of any weight, and it was left to the great republics to carry out the See also:idea of a worthy coinage—a See also:necessity of their large commercial schemes. The famous gold florin was first issued in 1252 (PI. I II. fig.8). The obverse type is the standing figure of St John the Baptist, the reverse bears the lily of Florence. The weight was about 54 grains, but the breadth of the coin and the beauty of the work gave it dignity. The commercial greatness of Florence and the purity of the florin caused the issue of similar coins in almost all parts of Europe. See also:Venice was not long in striking (in 1284) a gold coin of the same weight as the florin, but with the types of a standing figure ofChrist,and the See also:doge receiving the See also:gonfalon at the hands of St Mark (see Pl. III. fig. 9). It was first called the See also:ducat, the name it always bears in its inscription; later it is known as the zecchino or See also:sequin. Though not so largely imitated as the florin, the extreme purity of the sequin was unquestioned to a time within the memory of living persons. See also:Genoa likewise had a great gold currency, and the other Italian states struck in this metal. It is significant of the power of the Italian republics that the later See also:Mameluke sultans of Egypt found it convenient or necessary for their position between Europe and See also:India to adopt the weight of the florin and sequin for their gold money. Many varieties of gold money appear in course of time in France, England and to a less extent in other countries. The need for a heavier silver coinage caused the issue of the large denier (grossus denarius, See also:gros or See also:groat). This coin appears early in the 14th century. The types from the 14th century onwards are very various and distinctly worthy of the art of the time, which as yet is purely decorative and conventional, so that portraits are not possible. The religious intention also is gradually giving way to the See also:desire to produce a beautiful result, and the symbol of the cross is varied to suit the decorative needs of the coin. Heraldic subjects also appear, and in the shield, which is frequently a reverse type, we see the origin of the usual modern reverse of the most important coins. 4, 5. With the classical Renaissance we find ourselves in the presence of modern ideas. The elaborate systems of coinage of the Of clssskalvarious states of Europe are soon to begin, and the Of cias- prevalence of a general currency to become for the time space, and impossible. Silver money now gains new importance with modem. the issue of the thaler or See also:dollar in Germany, in 1518. This great coin speedily became the chief European piece in its metal, but as it was coined of various weights and varying purity it failed to acquire the general character of the denier. A word must be added on money of account. While the denier was the chief and practically the sole coin, the solidus passed from use as a foreign piece into a money of account. The solidus, like the See also:German schilling (See also:shilling), contained Mosey of usually 12 deniers. As there were 20 shillings to the a'xount. pound of silver, we obtain the reckoning by £ s. d., librae, solidi and denarii. The pound as a weight contained 12 oz., and its two-thirds was the German mark of 8 oz. It would be interesting, did space permit, to notice fully the art of this entire class, to examine its growth, and to trace its decline; but, as with that of Greek and Roman coins, we must Art. mainly limit ourselves to the best period. This is a space of about a hundred and fifty years, the age of the classical Renaissance, from the middle of the 15th century to the close of the 16th. The finest works are limited to the first half-century of this period, from a little before 1450 to about 1500, in Italy, and for as long a time, beginning and ending somewhat later, in Germany. The artists were then greater than afterwards, and See also:medal-making had not degenerated into a trade; but with the larger See also:production of the period following the work was more See also:mechanical, and so fell into the hands of inferio, men. The medals of this first period may not unworthily be placed by the side of its sculpture and its See also:painting. Not only have some of its medallists taken See also:honourable places In a See also:list where there was no See also:robin for ignoble names, but to design medals was not thought an unworthy occupation for the most famous artists. There are, as we should expect, two principal schools, the Italian and the German. The former attained a higher excellence, as possessing not merebr a nobler style but one especially adapted to coins or medals. The object which the artists strove to attain was to present a portrait or to commemorate an See also:action in the best manner possible, without losing sight of the fitness of the designs to the form and use of the piece on which they were to be placed. For the successful attainment of this purpose the style of the later pre-Raphaelites was eminently. suited. Its general love of truth, symmetrical grouping, simple drapery and severely faithful portraiture were qualities especially fitted to produce a fine portrait and a good medal. It is to be noted that their idea of portraiture did not depend on such a feeling for beauty as influenced the Greeks. Rather did it set before it the moral or intellectual attainments and capabilities, what the Italians called the virtd, of the subject. The German art, as seen in the medals, is mostly the work of carvers in See also:wood or honestone, or goldsmiths. It excels in vigorous, realistic portraiture, and in decorative treatment of heraldic subjects, but is lacking in breadth of style and in the imagination shown by the best Italian medallists. Both these schools, but especially the Italian, afford the best foundation for a truly excellent modern medallic art. The finest coins and medals of Italy and Germany have an object similar to that which it is sought to fulfil in the See also:English, and their nearness in time makes many details entirely appropriate. Thus, without blindly imitating them, modern artists may derive from them the greatest aid. There are some delicately beautiful Italian medals of the 16th century, too closely imitated from the Roman style. A vigorous realistic school, the only great one of modern times, arose in France before the close of the 16th century and lasted into the next. It was rendered illustrious by See also:Dupre and the inferior but still powerful Warin. From this age until the time of See also:Napoleon there is nothing worthy of note. The style of his medallists is the weak classical manner then in vogue, but yet is See also:superior to what went before and what has followed. It is not intended here to enter in any detail into the various divisions of the subject already treated in its main outlines. The questions that would require See also:consideration are of too complicated and technical a nature to be illustrated within reasonable limits; the principal matters of inquiry may, however, be indicated. We begin with a survey of the transitional coinages in the various countries of the West. They cover the period from the 5th to the 8th centuries, and are of immense historical significance. The types throughout are monotonous: t ranion the bust of a Roman emperor or local ruler, a cross of coinage, some kind, a Victory, &c. The style is quite barbarous. The classification of the earliest servile imitations of Roman and Byzantine money rests solely upon provenance and is uncextrdiai. The following general series are distinguished: (A) The See also:Vandals (in Africa, 428–534) issued gold (?), silver and bronze from See also:Hunneric (477–484) to Gelamir (530'-534); the gold is See also:anonymous. (B) The Suevians (Spain, 409–585) had little but imitations of .1 Byzantine gold; but Richiar (448-456) issued a denarius in his own name. (C) The See also:Ostrogoths (Italy, 489-553) were preceded by the Herulian See also:Odoacer (476-494), who coined silver and bronze; their kings (including See also:Theodoric, 493-526, and See also:Totila or Baduila, 541-552) issued gold, silver and bronze in their own names, from Rome, Ravenna, See also:Milan, &c. (D) The See also:Lombards (Italy, 568-774) had no coins in their own names before Grimoald, See also:duke of Beneventum (662-671); later there are gold solidi and thirds and silver from many mints" Gold was issued for the duchy of Beneventum in the 8th century. (E) The Burgundians (Gaul, to 534) first issued recognizable coins under Gondebald (473-516). (F) The Visigoths ( South Gaul and Spain) had imitative gold thirds in the 5th and 6th centuries; the kings' names appear from See also:Leovigild (573-586) to Roderic (710-711). Sixty-one mints were in operation. (G) The Meroving See also:Franks first issued under See also:Clovis I. (481-51 I) coins recognizably Frankish (solidi and thirds). Royal names first appear on silver and copper under Theuderic of See also:Austrasia (511-534) and See also:Childebert I. of See also:Paris (511-558). The chief Frankish inscribed coinage is, however, of gold solidi and thirds, from Theodebert I. (534-548), who See also:broke down the Roman imperial prerogative and issued gold with his own name in full, to the beginning of the 8th century. The last Merovings issued no coins in their own names, being mere puppets. And from the middle of the 6th century the coins with kings' names are far less numerous than those bearing the names only of mints and moneyers; some Boo places (not only in what is now France, but in Germany, the Low Countries and See also:Switzerland) are thus named (Pl. III. fig. 12). This coinage seems to have been intimately connected with the fiscal organization, though the generally accepted theory that the taxes collected in each place were there and then converted into money is by no means proved. Certain religious establishments also possessed the right of coining in their own name. The close of the Meroving See also:dynasty saw a revival of silver in the See also:saiga, which heralded the introduction of the denier. (H) The Anglo-See also:Saxons began with an imitative coinage similar to the Merovingian, viz. gold, solidi and thirds, and silver sceattas (=treasure, Ger. Schatz) of about 20 grains troy, and stycas (= pieces, Ger. See also:Stuck), first of silver, then of copper. The gold is rare and confined to the south; only two solidi are known, imitations of Honorius, with runic legends on the reverse. The types of the gold thirds, as of the coinage in other metals (which does not begin until the 7th century), are derived more or less directly from Roman. Some of the inscribed sceattas bear the name of See also:London in Roman letters; others, in See also:runes, the names of Epa and Peada (who is perhaps the son of See also:Penda), king of See also:Mercia (d. 655). Sceattas with runic inscriptions were also issued in East Anglia towards the end of the 8th century. But the sceatta was superseded by the penny introduced by Off a (757-796). See also:Offa also struck a gold coin, bearing his name and an inscription copied directly from an almost contemporary Arab coin; but this is quite an exceptional issue, represented now by a unique specimen. The styca, which begins c. 670, was characteristic of the Northumbrian coinage, lasting, long after the introduction of the penny farther south, down to the Danish invasions of the second half of the 9th century. A series was issued by the archbishops of See also:York. Wigmund (837-854) struck a gold solidus inscribed MVNVS DIVINVM, copied from the solidi of See also: The series of Castile and See also:Leon begins with Alphonso VI. (1053) with deniers and obols. Aragon first has coins under Sancho Ramirez I. (ro63). Gold (imitated from spaia. Moorish money) is introduced in the middle of the 12th century. A plentiful coinage was issued after the See also:union of the crowns in 1.479. The Spanish dollar of the 17th and 18th centuries was one of the most widely circulating currencies in the West (see P1. V. fig. 5). The medals of Spain are not important. In 755 See also:Pippin abolished the gold coinage of his Merovingian predecessors and introduced the silver denier (see Pl. III. fig. 10); the coinage became a royal prerogative once more, and France. was confined to a few mints. The denier, which at first
weighed c. 1.28 gramme (194 grains), was for centuries the most important of European silver coins. Under Charlemagne the weight was slightly raised; the See also:Caroline monogram appears, and there are other modifications in the types. Charlemagne also issued money from various Italian, German and Spanish mints, He also introduced the obol, and struck gold (chiefly at Italian mints). Among his types must be noted the temple with the inscription XPISTIANA RELIGIO. Louis he Debonnaire (814-840) was the last Carolingian to strike gold. In the 9th century are perceptible the first traces of the See also:movement which led to the extensive feudal coinage. The See also:advent of the house of See also:Capet made no great change in the system, but the feudal issues now become important. The most widespread denier was that of the See also:abbey of St See also: III. fig. 14), and introducing a gold coinage. Henceforward the coinage increases in complexity; in the 14th century it has great artistic merit (see Pl. III. fig. 17). The See also:French medals are far more interesting than the modern coins. The earliest of artistic importance not by Italian artists show nevertheless strong Italian influence (medals of See also: It soon rose in weight to about 22 grains England. troy (1.42 gramme), at which it long remained. The types were usually, obverse the king's head, or some form of cross or religious symbol; reverse some form of cross, religious symbol or See also:ornament. The inscriptions gave the names of the king and of the moneyer, later also the mint. An important gold coin of Offa was imitated from an Arab dinar of 774, with the addition of the words OFFA REX. The Mercian coinage ends about 874. The pennies of the kings of See also:Kent extend from 765 to 825; the archbishops of See also:Canterbury went on striking to the beginning of the loth century. The East Anglian regal series extends to 890; the memorial coinage of St See also:Edmund circulated largely in East Anglia in the 9th century. The penny appears in See also:Northumbria with the Dane Halfdan (875-877) and continues to the middle of the next century. A coinage of " St See also:Peter " pennies was issued from York c. 920-940. The coinage of Wessex begins with See also:Ecgbert, probably c. 825, when he got See also:possession of the mint at Canterbury (see Pl. III. fig. 15 with the name of London). The coinage marks the See also:gradual growth of Wessex, until England is united under See also:Edgar (957-975). There is hence-forward for a long time no change of great importance in the coinage, which continued to consist of pennies, with rare half-pennies (the pennies were usually cut into halves and quarters along the lines of the cross to make small change). During the reign of See also:Stephen the monotony is relieved by a few issues by barons like See also:Robert, See also:earl of See also:Gloucester. The number of mints is much reduced by the time of See also: The medals of the Tudors are good in medals.
style, and show some excellent portraits, in particular
those by Trezzo and Stephen H. (generally known as Stephen of See also: They are of two periods: the earlier, which are almost always of copper, were issued chiefly at the middle of the 17th century and some-what later; the later, which are mainly of copper, but also sometimes of silver, were struck during the scarcity of the royal coinage in this metal at the end of the 18th century, and during the earlier years of the 19th century. Both were chiefly coined by tradesmen and bear their names. The colonial money of England was. until lately unimportant, but now (except in style) it is not unworthy of the wealth and activity of the dependencies. The " Anglo-Gallic " money struck by the English kings for their French dominions forms a peculiar class. It was begun by Henry II., who struck deniers and half-deniers for See also:Aquitaine. See also:Richard I. (whose name is not found on his English coinage) struck for most of the French domains, but no coins are attributed to John or Henry III. See also:Edward L's coins are of billon; of Edward II. there are none. Gold was introduced before 1337, and there are fine series of gold, silver, and billon of Edward III. (see Pl. III. fig. 19) and the See also:Black See also:Prince. Henry, earl of Lan-
caster, struck silver at See also:Bergerac (1345-1361). The succeeding kings down to Henry VI.(first reign) all issued Anglo-Gallic coins.
There was a temporary revival under Henry VIII. at Tournay (1513-1519). The whole series,' with the exception of the See also:Calais coinage, is French in character.
The coinage of See also:Scotland is allied to that of England, although generally ruder; but it seems to have been more influenced in the early period from England, and towards its close from Scotland. France. The oldest pieces are silver pennies or sterlings, resembling the contemporary English money of the reign of See also:David I. (1124-1153). David II. after 1357 introduced a gold coinage. In the 15th and 16th centuries there is an important coinage, both in gold and silver, not the least interesting pieces being the fine See also:bonnet-piece of See also: See also:Wales has never had a coinage of its own, properly speaking. A unique penny attributed with good reason to Bowel the Wales. Good, a contemporary of Edmund (died c. 950), was perhaps struck at See also:Chester. Various English kings struck coins at Welsh mints such as Rhuddlan, See also:Pembroke. to sign the coins in Edward I.'s reign. Henry III. made an abortive attempt to introduce a gold coinage, which was success-fully established by Edward III. in 1343, with the gold florin, and in 1344 with the gold noble (see P1. III. fig. 20). (The obverse type of the noble, the king in a See also:ship, is generally thought to refer to the victory of See also:Sluys in 1340.) He also introduced the silver groat (4d.) and half-groat. The English coinage, both gold and silver, was now of such high quality and reputation that it (especially the silver See also:sterling) was largely exported and imitated, chiefly in the Low Countries. The gold coinage of Edward III. is perhaps the most successful, from an artistic point of view, in the English series. Subsequent developments of the coinage now become very complicated. Edward IV. distinguished his noble by a rose on the obverse and a sun on the reverse, and introduced a new gold coin, the See also:angel. The Tudor period is distinguished by the splendour, variety and size of the coins; Henry VII. introduced the sovereign of 20s. (240 grains) and the shilling, and on his coins the first serious attempt at portraiture is found (see Pl. III. fig. 21). Under Henry VIII.the quality of the silver money declines, being not effectually restored until the reign of Elizabeth, when an unsuccessful attempt was made to introduce a copper coinage. Private tokens came into use, but the official copper coinage does not begin until the next reign. The use of the mill, as distinct from the See also:hammer, was begun in 1562, but it took just a century to oust the old-fashioned method. In 1613 John, See also:Lord See also:Harrington, obtained a patent for the issue of copper farthings, and private tradesmen's tokens were prohibited. The gold sovereign of James I., from its inscription (FACIAM EOS IN GENTEM VNAM) and the fact that it was meant to circulate on both sides of the Border, was known as the unite. The coinage of Charles I. presents great varieties owing to the civil war. The best workmanship is seen on the milled coins issued by See also:Nicolas Briot. But the majority of the money was still hammered. The scarcity of gold in the royal treasury during the troubles induced the king to coin twenty- and ten-shilling pieces of silver, in addition to the crowns and smaller denominations. Gold three-pound pieces, or triple-unites, however, were issued from the See also:Oxford mint. One of the most remarkable of his pieces is a crown struck at Oxford by Rawlins. It bears on the obverse the king on horseback, with a representation of the town beneath the horse, and on the reverse the heads of the " Oxford See also:Declaration." The so-called "See also:Juxon medal," given by Charles to See also:Bishop Juxonon the See also:scaffold, is really a pattern-piece by Rawlins (see Pl. V. fig. 1). Of equal interest are the See also:siege-pieces of many castles famous in the See also:annals of those days. They are mostly of silver, often mere pieces of plate with a stamp; but See also:Colchester and See also:Pontefract issued gold. The coinage of the Commonwealth is of a plainness proper to the principles of those who sanctioned it. The great See also:Protector, however, caused money to be designed of his own bearing his head. It is not certain that this was ever sent forth, and it is therefore put in the class of patterns. Simon, the chief of English medallists, designed the coins, which are unequalled in the whole series for the vigour of the portrait (a worthy presentment of the head of See also:Cromwell) and the beauty and fitness of every portion of the work. The finest coin produced under Charles II., and technically the best executed piece in the whole English series, is the " See also:Petition Crown " (see Pl. V. fig. 2), a pattern by Simon, to which, however—probably for political reasons—the work of See also:Jan Roettier was preferred.
Maundy money was first struck in this reign, and the name
See also:guinea was now applied to the 20S. piece. In 1672 a true copper
coinage of halfpence and farthings was introduced. Hence-
forward there is a decline in the coinage, although skill is perceived
in the portrait of See also: See also:Worth- 900 The money of Ireland is more scanty and of less importance than that of Scotland. The pieces most worthy of notice are the silver Ireland pennies of the early Danish kings, the earliest being that of Sihtric III. (989-1029), copied from contemporary English pennies. The Anglo-Irish coinage begins in 1177, when John as lord of Ireland received the right of coinage. A copper coinage was introduced as early as the reign of Henry VI. The quality of the Irish coinage was exceedingly poor in the 16th century, especially under Elizabeth. Between 1642 and 1647 various kinds of money of necessity were issued, including the only gold Irish coin, the See also:Inchiquin See also:pistole. After his expulsion from England James II. issued enormous quantities of coins of necessity made of gunmetal or See also:pewter. The latest Irish coins were the penny and See also:halfpenny of 1822. The Isle of Man had a regular copper coinage, beginning in 1709 with pence and halfpence under the See also:Derby family, continued by James, duke of See also:Athol (issue of 1758), and by the English sovereigns from 1786 to 1864. The badge of the island is the three-legged symbol, with the See also:motto Quocunque jeceris stabit. See also:Belgium occupies the next place in our arrangement. Its coinage, which, except for the few mints operating under the See also:Merovingians and See also:Carolingians, does not begin until the rlth century, comprises many pieces struck by foreign rulers, and has little of an independent character in either the regal or the seignorial class. The most important coinages are those of the house of See also:Burgundy and Charles V. and his son, and of the bishops of See also:Liege. In character the coinage of Belgium approximates to the French on the one side, the German on the other. About 1400 the Burgundian school produced a remarkable series of medals representing Roman emperors, of which two (those of Constantine and Heraclius) have come down to us; these form a See also:link between the late Roman medallion and the Italian medal of the Renaissance. The series of Holland is similar in character until the period of the revolt of the provinces. The Dutch dollars of the 16th to the 18th centuries had an immense circulation (see Pl. V. fig. 3). Among the early Dutch medallists must be mentioned Stephen H., generally without reason known as Stephen of Holland (working 1558-1572), whose portraits show great charm. The Dutch historical medals are of great interest, more especially those which were struck by the Protestants in commemoration of current events. There is also a remarkable series of bronze medallets or jettons, which form a continuous commentary on history during the 16th and early part of the 17th centuries. Both are interesting as largely illustrating not only local events but also those of the chief European states. Such are the pieces recording the raising of the siege of See also:Leiden, likened to the destruction of See also:Sennacherib's See also:army, the assassination of William the Silent, and the discomfiture of the Armada, affording striking indications of the zeal, the piety and the confidence in the right which built up the great political structure of the Dutch republic. After this time the medals lose much of their interest. The money of Switzerland illustrates the varying fortunes of this central state, and the gradual growth of the stronghold of European freedom. First we have the gold money swlrzer- of the Frankish kings, among whose mints See also:Basel, land. See also:Lausanne, St See also:Maurice-en-See also:Valais and Sitten (See also:Sion) already appear. The silver deniers, which Charlemagne made the coinage of the empire, are issued by fewer mints; the dukes of See also:Swabia began to strike at See also:Zurich in the loth century, and the empire granted during the loth and to the 13th century the right of coinage to various ecclesiastical foundations, bishoprics and abbeys. See also:Bern was allowed a mint by the emperor Frederick II. in 1218, and other towns and seigneurs subsequently gained the same right. The demi-bracteate appears about the middle of the 11th century, and about 1125 is superseded by the true bracteate, whichlasts until about 1300. The 14th century witnessed the rise of the Swiss See also:confederation, and by degrees the cantons struck their own money. These, together with the coins of some few See also:sees and abbacies, form the bulk of Swiss money of the medieval and modern periods. The separate cantonal coinage, interrupted by the French occupation, was finally suppressed in 1848, when a uniform currency was adopted by the whole[MEDIEVAL AND republic. The monetary systems of the cantonal and ecclesiastical mints were extremely complicated. This was partly due to the variety of coins, partly to the debasement practised by the ecclesiastical mints. See also:Geneva had a peculiar system of her own. Italy, with Sicily, has peculiar features. Here the barbaric coinages were mixed with the Byzantine issues which marked the recovery of the Eastern empire, and left a lasting influence in the north at Venice, and in the south at Modern Beneventum. Later the Arab conquest left its mark Italy and slurry. in the curious Oriental coinages of the See also:Normans of Sicily and the emperor Frederick If., mixed after his See also:fashion with Latin coinage. The earliest money is that of the barbarians, Ostrogoths and Lombards, and local Byzantine issues in Sicily. This is followed by the deniers of Charlemagne and his successors, supplanted by the gold currencies of the Normans and Frederick II. The age of the free cities is marked by the great coinages of Florence, Venice and Genoa, while the Angevin and Aragonese princes coined in the south, and the popes began to issue a regular currency of their own at Rome. The Italian princes of the next period coined in Savoy, and at Florence, See also:Modena, See also:Mantua and other cities, while Rome and the foreign rulers of the south continued their mintages, Venice and Genoa of the republics alone surviving. The Italian monetary systems have already been touched on in the See also:introductory notice. For art the series is invaluable. First in Italy the revival influenced the coins, and in them every step of advance found its record. The Italian medals are without rivals in the works of modern times. Following the geographical order which is best suited to the Italian coinage, we first notice the money of Savoy, which is inferior in art to that of the rest of the country. It begins with Umberto II. (Io8o) ; in 1720 the dukes became kings of See also:Sardinia, and their coinage merged eventually in 1861 in that of the kingdom of Italy. Genoa is the first of the great republics. She obtained the right of coinage from See also:Conrad II. in 1139, and struck gold coins from the time of the general origin of civic coinage in that metal; these are ducats and their divisions, and after a time their multiples also. In the 17th century there are very large silver pieces. In the money of Mantua there are fine coins of Gianfrancesco III. (1484–1519) and Vincenzo II. (1627–1628), these last splendid examples of the late Renaissance, large pieces of gold and silver; the portrait is fine, and the See also:hound on the re-verse a powerful design. The vicissitudes of the story of Milan find their record in no less than ten groups of money—Lombard regal coins, Carolingian deniers, money of the republic (126o–1310), next of the See also:Visconti family (1329-1447), succeeded by the republic (1447–1450) and by the See also:Sforza line, next of Louis XII. and See also:Francis I. of France, of the restored Sforza, of Charles V. by Spanish right and his successors of Spain, and lastly of Austria. There are extremely fine coins of the 15th century, showing great beauty in their portraits (see Pl. III. fig. 22). The money of Florence is disappointing in its art. The Athens of the middle ages had the same reason as her prototype to preserve as faithfully as might be the types and aspect of her most famous coin, the gold florin (see Pl. III. fig. 8), and thus those who expect to see in this series the story of Italian art will be much disappointed. The silver florin was first struck in 1189. It is heavier than the denier, weighing about 27 grains, and bears the lily of Florence and the bust of St John the Baptist. These are thenceforward the leading types, the See also:flower never changing, but the representation of the saint being varied. On the gold florin, first issued in 1252, the Baptist is represented standing, while in the contemporary silver florins he is seated. In the 14th century the arms of a moneyer appear in the field, two such See also:officers have had the right of striking yearly, each for six months. The coins of the duchy from 1532, in spite of their new types, are not a fine series; the best are those of Alessandro, designed by See also:Cellini. Venice as a mint even surpasses Florence in conservatism, and, the early style being distinctly Byzantine, this is the more striking in a great artistic city. We find Venice as an imperial mint issuing Carolingian deniers, but the doges begin to coin, placing their own names on their currency, in the 12th century. Isle of Man. Belgium and Holland. The most famous silver coin, the matapan, was first struck in the brilliant time of Enrico See also:Dandolo (1192–1205). This coin is a grossus weighing about 33 grains, with on the obverse St Mark giving the standard or gonfalon to the doge, both figures standing, and on the reverse the seated figure of the Saviour. The famous Venetian zecchino or sequin(see PI.III. fig. 9), the rival of the florin of Florence, appears to have been first issued under Giovanni Dandolo (1284). On the obverse St Mark gives the gonfalon to the kneeling doge, and on the reverse is a standing figure of the Saviour within an See also:oval nimbus. Niccolo Trono (1471–1473) introduces his portraiton'most of his coins, but this See also:custom is not continued. By the latest part of the 15th century large silver coins appear. The archaic style changes in the beginning of the 16th century, but there is no later movement. The large silver pieces increase in size, and large gold is also struck; the last doge, Ludovico See also:Manin (1788–1797), issued the too-sequin piece in gold, a monstrous coin, worth over f40. The doges of Venice from 1521 to 1797 issued a peculiar silver token or medallet, the osella, five of which they annually presented to every member of the Great See also:Council. They replaced the See also:wild ducks (uccelle) which it had been customary to present at See also:Christmas. Two dogaressas struck similar medallets. Their types are usually allegorical; some are commemorative. The series of the coins of Rome is rather of historical than of artistic merit. The popes begin to strike money with See also:Adrian I. (A.D. 772–795), whose deniers are in a Byzantino-Lombard style. The coins of his successors, with few exceptions, down to See also:Leo IX. (1049) See also:associate the names of See also:pope and emperor. From Leo IX. to See also:Urban V. (1362) there is no papal coinage at Rome. The Roman senate strikes from 1188 onwards. We then see on the silver the style of the senate and Roman people, and ROMA CAPUT MUNDI. Some coins have the figures of St See also:Paul and St Peter, See also:ethers Rome seated and a lion. Charles of See also:Anjou, king of Sicily (1263–1285), strikes as a senator, and Cola di Rienzo (1347–1348) as See also:tribune. The gold ducat of about 1300 imitates the types of the Venetian sequin. St Peter here gives the gonfalon to a kneeling senator. The arms of the moneying senator next appear in the field. 1The papal coinage is resumed at See also:Avignon; and Urban V., on his return to Rome, takes the sole right of the mint. From Martin V. (1417) to Pius IX. there is a continuous papal coinage. The later coins, though they have an interest from their bearing on the history of art, are disappointing in style. There is indeed a silver coin of Julius II. struck at See also:Bologna and attributed to See also:Francia, with a very fine portrait. We have beautiful gold coins of Giovanni See also:Bentivoglio (see Pl. III. fig. 23), lord of Bologna, who employed Francia at his mint, and we know that the artist remained at his See also:post after Julius II. had taken the city. There are also pieces of See also:Clement VII. by Cellini, vigorous in design but careless in execution. There were papal mints at See also:Ancona, Bologna, See also:Piacenza, See also:Parma, See also:Ferrara and other Italian towns; and coins were also struck at Avignon from 1342 to 1700. The papal portraits are highly characteristic and interesting. It is, however, in the fine series of papal medals that we find a worthier artistic record. The coinage of Sicily, afterwards that of the Two Sicilies, or See also:Naples and Sicily, begins with the Normans. Theirs is a Sicily curiously mixed series. It begins with Robert Guiscard as duke of Apulia (1075) and Roger I. of Sicily (1e72). The gold money is almost wholly Arabic, though Roger II. struck the Latin ducat, the earliest of its class; the silver is Arabic, except the great Latin scyphati of Roger IL with Roger III.; the copper is both Latin and Arabic. The gold series (Augustales) of the emperor Frederick II. (1298–1250) shows the first sentiment of reviving classical art, its work being far in advance of the age. These are Latin coins; he also struck small Arabic pieces in gold. Under Conrad and See also:Manfred there is an insignificant coinage, copper only, but with Charles I. of Anjou (1266–1285) the gold money in purely medieval style is very beautiful, quite equal to that of his brother, St Louis of France. After this time there is a great issue of gigliati, silver coins with, for reverse, a cross fieurdelisee cantoned with fleurs-de-lis. These coins acquireda great reputation in the See also:Levant, and were even struck by the emirs of Asia Minor. With Alphonso, the founder of the Aragonese line, we note the old style of the coins, which are in singular contrast to his fine medals. Good portraiture begins on the money of See also: VI.) are next in merit to the works of the Greek die-engravers. Certain small pieces of a medallic character were made in Italy, at See also:Padua, as early as the end of the 14th century, and there existed also large cast and chased pieces representing various Roman emperors (perhaps Burgundian work of the 14th century), which influenced the beginnings of the true medal. This began, and also reached its highest excellence, with Vittore See also:Pisano (Pisanello), the Veronese painter, whose medals date from 1438 (or earlier) to r449. The finest work of Italian medallists is seen in the cast medals of the 15th and early 16th century; with the increase of classicism in the 16th the style declines rapidly. The earlier medals are independent works, marked by simple vigorous truthfulness. The designs are skilful and the portraits strongly characteristic; the expression of character and virtu takes See also:precedence over ideal beauty, especially in the work of the Florentine school. As the art became popular the execution of medals passed into the hands of inferior artists, and by degrees striking became usual for the smaller pieces; at the same time, a slavish imitation of the classical style weakened or destroyed originality and stamped the works with the feebleness of copies. The great medallists of the first age are Pisano, Matteo de' Pasti, Enzola, Boldt , Sperandio, Guazzalotti, Bertoldo, Gambello, Niccolo Fiorentino, See also:Lysippus, Candida, Caradosso. Some of the most beautiful medals, however, are by unknown artists (Pl. VI. fig. 2). In the 16th century must be mentioned Pomedello, Benvenuto Cellini, Leone Leoni, Giovanni Cavino " the Paduan," Pastorino of See also:Siena, Giacomo da Trezzo, Pietro See also:Paolo Galeotto, called Romano, and See also:Antonio Abondio. Incomparably the finest of all Italian medals are the works of Pisano, particularly the medals of Alphonso the Magnanimous, with the reverses of the See also:hoar-See also:hunt and the eagle and lesser birds of See also:prey, those of Sigismondo Malatesta, his brother surnamed See also:Novello (see Pl. VI. fig. 1), Leonello d'See also:Este, John VIII. (Palaeologus), See also:Nicoll See also:Piccinino, Inigo d'Avalos (See also:marquis of See also:Pescara), Ludovico and See also:Cecilia See also:Gonzaga of the same family, the great humanists Vittorino da See also:Feltre and See also:Pier Candido Decembrio. Pisano is great in portraiture, great in See also:composition and design, and marvellously skilful in depicting animals. He alone represents the moral qualities of his subject.in their highest expression and even capability. That he has high ideal power is seen at once if we compare with his portrait Pasti's inferior though powerful head of Sigismondo Malatesta. Pasti's medal of Isotta, wife of Sigismondo, is also noteworthy, likewise the medal by the otherwise unknown Constantius of See also:Mahomet II., the conqueror of Constantinople—interesting works, but lacking Pisano's technical skill and inspiration. An artist of great power is Sperandio of Mantua; but his productions lack the finish necessary to good medallic work, his drawing and composition are careless, and his realism too often becomes brutal or vulgar. The work of Niccolo Fiorentino and of his pupils is astonishingly vigorous in portraiture, but they lack the power of designing reverses (see Pl. VI. fig. 3). In the later age Cavino executed a remarkable series of imitations of Roman sestertii, which have been frequently mistaken for originals. In art these Italian works frequently surpass the originals in spite of a degree of weakness inseparable from copies. A comparison of the Italian with the Roman pieces is thus most instructive. The works of Pastorino of Siena (who had an extraordinary facility in graceful portraiture) are especially charming (see Pl. VI. fig. 4). Historically the Italian Papal Colas. Italian Medals. medals supply the defects of the coinages of Florence and Rome, and in a less degree of Venice. The papal series is invaluable as a continuous See also:chronicle, although artistically, after the earliest period, it is monotonous. The money of Germany is, like that of Italy, far too various for it to be possible here to do more than sketch some of its main features. In the Frankish period mints were in &rn2any' operation at cities in the west, such as See also:Mainz, See also:Strassburg, See also:Spires, Treves, See also:Worms, See also:Cologne. Pippin issued denarii from Strassburg and Mainz; under his successors denarii and obols were also coined at other mints, as See also:Bonn, Cologne, Spires, Treves. After the reign of Louis the Child (910–911) the Carolingian system was continued until the advent of the Swabians with Conrad III. (1138–1152). In the succeeding period, which ends with the introduction of the grossus and the gold coinage under Louis of See also:Bavaria (1314–1347), the uniformity of the currency disappears. In the west (in Lotharingia, including the southern Low Countries, the Moselle and See also:Rhine-lands, in Frisia, Bavaria, parts of See also:Franconia and Swabia) the denier continues; but elsewhere we find the bracteate. The right of coinage is acquired in an increasing measure by the feudatories of the empire. These local coinages entirely dominated the system, so that even the imperial coinage is not uniform, but consists of denarii in the west and bracteates in the east. The earliest imperial bracteate is of Frederick I.; the large fine bracteates last but a short time, reaching their See also:acme about the end of the 12th century (see Pl. III. fig. 18). The fine pieces of the bishops of See also:Halberstadt and the abbesses of Quedlinburg are characteristic of this class. With the introduction of the regular gold coinage (chiefly florins) and the grossus in the 14th century, Germany enters on the modern period. From the 16th century the thaler (so called from Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where the See also:counts of Schlick first struck the coin in 1518) dominates the silver.currency (see Pl. V. fig. 6). The thalers and other large coins of the 16th and 17th centuries are-often good and always vigorous in workmanship. By the convention of 1857 the thaler was recognized as the unit for Berlin and the north, the florin of too kreuzers for Austria, the florin of 6o kr. for the south. The present system, based on the gold reichsmark of 100 pfennigs, was established all over the German empire in 1876. Of particular currencies in Germany we must be content with the bare mention of some of the more important. Among the great rulers we note the dukes of Bavaria, who coined from Henry I. (948–955), and issued fine thalers in the 16th century. The Counts See also:Palatine of the Rhine coined from 1294, their mints being at See also:Heidelberg, See also:Frankfort, &c. The Saxon coinage begins with Duke See also:Bernard (973) and includes a large series of bracteates and thalers, the latter being especially famous. The See also:Brunswick coinage begins in the 11th century; besides its bracteates we note the large miningthalers of the 16th and 17th centuries (up to ten-thaler pieces). There are good bracteates and thalers of the margraves of See also:Brandenburg; from 1701 they coin as kings of See also:Prussia. In Austria there is a ducal coinage from the 12th century; the gold florin of Florentine character appears under See also:Albert II. (133o—1358). The See also:marriage-coin of See also:Maximilian and Maria of Burgundy (a 16th-century See also:reproduction of a medal made by the Italian Candida in 1479) is a striking piece, and in the 16th century there is a large series of fine thalers. The thalers of Maria See also:Theresa had an enormous circulation among See also:savage races, and those of the date 178o were recoined for the purposes of the Abyssinian War of 1867. In Bohemia there is a ducal coinage from the early loth century to 1192; then came the regal bracteates. Wenceslas II. (1278–1305) struck the first German grossus at See also:Prague (see Pl. III. fig. 16). The gold florin appears under John of See also:Luxemburg (1310-1347). In See also:Hungary the regal coinage begins with St Stephen (loco). Charles I. of Anjou (1310-1342) introduced the florin and grossus. Of historical interest is the money of John Hunyady as regent (1441–1452). The abundance of gold about this time and later shows the metallic wealth of the land. The same is true of the rich gold coinage of the Transylvanian princes in the 16th and 17th centuries. Of ecclesiastical coinages the most important are at See also:Munster, Cologne, Mainz, Treves, See also:Augsburg, See also:Magdeburg, Spires, Wiirzburg, See also:Salzburg. The Cologne series of coins is almost continuous from the Frankish period; the archbishops first received the right from See also:Otto I., See also:Bruno (953–965) being the first to coin; from See also:Pilgrim (1021-1036) the series, issued at various mints in the Rhineland, is very complete down to 1802. The series of Treves ranges from Theodoric I. (965–975) to Clement Wenceslas (1794). The archiepiscopal coinage of Mainz begins with Willigis (975) and lasts until 1802; its mints included See also:Erfurt, See also:Bingen and many other places. The Salzburg series (beginning 996) is remarkable for its fine thalers (especially of Mathias See also:Lang, 1519–1540). The patriarchs of Aquileia, who may be mentioned here, acquired the right of coinage from Louis II. in the 9th century, but the first who can be identified on the coins is See also:Godfrey (1184); thence onwards there is an interesting series of denarii and smaller coins down to the early 15th century. Of cities with large coinages it is sufficient to mention See also:Aix-la-Chapelle (from the time of Frederick I. to 1795), Frankfort-on-the-Main, See also:Hamburg (with great gold pieces of the 16th and 17th centuries, up to 10 ducats) and See also:Nuremberg. Lastly, we may mention the coins of the grand-masters of the See also:Teutonic Order, issued in Prussia from 1351 to 1512. German medals perhaps rank next to Italian, although they lack the higher artistic qualities. They are the work of craftsmen —jewellers, wood-carvers, workers in See also:hone-stone— and show great facility of See also:minute workmanship and See also:chasing and .decorative design (the last is especially clear in the heraldic reverses); the faults of these qualities are to some extent redeemed by the native German vigour and directness of the portraiture. The original models from which the medals were cast were in many cases made in hone-stone or See also:box-wood, which did not, like the favourite See also:wax of the Italian artists, give much See also:scope for subtlety. The chief centres of the art were Nuremberg and Augsburg. Many medals have been attributed to Albrecht Diirer; whether he did more than design them is uncertain. Among other medallists may be mentioned Hans See also:Schwarz (working 1516–1527), See also:Ludwig See also:Krug, See also:Friedrich Hagenauer (working 1525–1.546, see Pl. V. fig. 8), Peter Fldtner (c. 1538, although it is doubtful whether this artist, whose plaquettes are famous, made any of the portrait-medals ascribed to him), Mattes Gebel, Hans Reinhardt the Elder, &c. Some other good artists are known only by their initials, or quite unidentified. After the middle of the 16th century the art declines, although we still have skilful artists like Valentin Maier (1568–1593). In this later period striking gradually supersedes casting. The earliest See also:Polish coins are of the loth century; the types are copied from English, German and Byzantine See also:sources. In the 12th and 13th centuries there is a bracteate coinage., The See also:Poland. grossus was introduced about 1300. In later times the town of See also:Danzig, while belonging to the kingdom, issued remarkable gold pieces, thalers, &c., down to its restoration to Prussia (1793). The origin of the coinage of the Scandinavian states: See also:Norway, See also:Denmark and See also:Sweden, is clearly English and due to the Danish conquest of England. The runic alphabet is employed, Scandinthough not by any means exclusively, on many of the avia. early coins of Denmark and Norway. The See also:Norwegian series begins with Hakon Jarl (989–996), who copies the pennies of (See also:Ethelred II. In the second half of the 11th century begins a coinage of small, thin pennies, which develop into bracteates. See also:Magnus IV. (1263–1280) restores the coinage, more or less imitating the English sterlings of the time. Norway and Denmark were united under See also:Eric of See also:Pomerania in 1396. The money of Denmark begins with pennies of Sweyn (985–1014) which are copied from the coinage of /Ethelred II.; the coins of Canute the Great (1014–1035) and See also:Hardicanute (1036–1042) are mainly English in character. With Magnus (1042–1047) other influences, especially Byzantine, appear, and the latter is very strong under Sweyn IEstrithson (1047–1076). Bracteates come in in the second half of the 12th century. The coinage is very difficult of classification until the time of Eric of Pomerania (1396). There are important episcopal coinages at See also:Roskilde and See also:Lund in the 12th and 13th centuries. Sweden has very few early coins, beginning with imitations by See also:Olaf Skotkonung (995) of English pennies and showing the usual bracteate coinage. The money was restored by Albert of See also:Mecklenburg (1363–1387). The thaler is introduced by Sten See also:Sture the younger (1512–1520). The money of Gustavus See also:Adolphus is historically interesting. Under Charles XII. there is highly curious money of necessity. The daler is struck as a small copper coin, sometimes plated. The types include the Roman divinities. At the same time and later there was a large issue of enormous plates of copper, stamped with their full value in silver money as a countermark. The earliest See also:Russian coinage begins with the princes of See also:Kiev as early as the end of the loth century; it shows strong Byzantine See also:Russia influence. The grand princes from the early 15th cen- tury struck curious little silver pieces. The coinage was modernized by Peter the Great, who introduced a regular gold coinage. The large silver and copper coins of his successors are very plentiful. See also:Nicholas I. (1825–1855) introduced a See also:platinum coinage of about two-fifths the value of gold. The Christian coinages of the northern See also:Balkan States are of great interest. They are chiefly (silver See also:grossi, showing a mixture of Balkan Byzantine and Venetian influences. The Bulgarians had States. a regular silver coinage from Asien I. (1186–1196) to John Sismana (1371–1395). The Servian coinage lasts from Vladislas I. (1234–1240) to the middle of the 15th century. There is also a coinage of the Bans of Bosnia (late 13th to 15th century). The modern coinage of the Balkan States is of interest only as a revival. The independent city of See also:Ragusa is remarkable for the bold style of its early copper (13th century, inspired by Roman models of the 4th century) and the richness and variety of its later issues. There is a most interesting class of coins struck during the middle ages within the limits of the present See also:Turkish empire, the money of the crusaders and other Latin princes Latin of the East. The multitude of states thus designated East. have been classed by Schlumberger, the authority on the subject, in the following order, the chief divisions of which are here given: First group, principalities of Syria and Palestine, counts of Edessa, princes of Antioch, kings of Jerusalem, counts of See also:Tripoli, fiefs of Jerusalem, crusaders who struck imitations of Arab coins, kings of Cyprus, lords of Rhodes, grand-masters of the order of St John at Rhodes, to which may be added the later grand-masters at See also:Malta; second group, Latin emperors of Constantinople, Frankish princes and lords of Greece and the See also:Archipelago whose power was due to the crusade of 1204, such as the princes of Achaia, the dukes of Athens, Neapolitan kings who struck money for their Eastern possessions, Latin lords of the Archipelago, the Genoese at Chios, the Gattilusi at Mytilene, the Genoese colonies, the Venetian colonies, the See also:Turkoman emirs of western Asia Minor who struck Latin coins. The most important currencies are the billon and copper of the princes of Antioch (See also:Bohemund I., Iog8, to Bohemund IV., 1201—1232) and the kings of Jerusalem (See also:Baldwin II., 1118, to Conrad, 1243), the silver and copper of the counts of Tripoli (12th and 13th centuries) and the gold imitations of Arab dinars, the currency in that metal of the crusaders of Palestine. These Bisantii Sarracenati, or Saracen bezants, are at first imitations of Fatimite dinars, known to have been struck by Venetian moneyers at Acre, and probably at Tyre and Tripoli also. After these coins had been current for nearly a century and a half they were forbidden on account of their Mahommedan aspect by Pope See also:Innocent IV. The Venetians then issued gold and silver coins with the same aspect but with Christian inscriptions. The kings of Cyprus issued a really good coinage in the three metals and in billon from See also:Guy de See also:Lusignan (1192) to Catherina See also:Cornaro; from 1489 to 1571 the Venetians issued coins for the island. The coinage of the order of St John begins on the con-quest of the island of Rhodes (1309) and the suppression of the See also:Templars; the earliest coins known are of Foulques de Villaret (13o5—1319), and the last of the Rhodian series are of See also:Villiers de l'Isle-See also:Adam, the gallant defender of the island who was forced to capitulate to the See also:Turks and sail for a new See also:home in 1522. The coinage is of fine gold, silver, billon and copper. On the establishment of the order at Malta in 1530 it is resumed there till the capture of the island by the French at the close of the 18th century; it has little interest except as showing the wealth of the order. The other currencies of the crusaders, notwithstanding their great historical interest, are far less remarkable numismatically; the influence of the denier tournois is, however, noticeable on the coinage of the princes of Achaia (1245—1364), and the dukes of Athens (1225—1308). Of the money of See also:America little need be said here. Neither the coinages of the Spanish and Portuguese dependencies, and of the states which succeeded them, nor those of the English coloniesand of the United States, present much that is worthy of note. In style they all resemble those of the parent countries, but, originating in the decline of art, they are inferior in style and work. They are most remarkable in the south for the abundance of gold and silver. The chief coin is the dollar. Some coins are of historical interest, and there are a few rarities, such as the colonial money of Lord See also:Baltimore struck for See also:Maryland, the See also:pine-tree coins of See also:Massachusetts, and the hog-money of Bermuda. IV.—ORIENTAL COINS Oriental coins may be best classed as ancient Persian, Arab,. modern Persian and Afghan, Indian and See also:Chinese, and other issues of the far East. The first place is held by the money of the old Persian empire, the Parthians and the Sassanians. The conquests of the Arabs introduce a new currency, carried on by the Moslem inheritors of their empire. The modern Persian and Afghan money, though of Arab origin, is distinguished by the use of the Persian language with Arabic. The Indian currencies, though Greek, See also:Sanskrit, Arab and Persian in their inscriptions, must be grouped together on account of their mutual dependence. They rise with the Bactrian kings, whose Greek types are gradually debased by the Indo-Scythians and Guptas; these are followed by a group of currencies with Sanskrit legends; next follow the money of Arab conquerors and the great series of the Pathans of See also:Delhi and subsidiary dynasties, with Arabic inscriptions; the main series is continued in the currency of the Moguls, who largely use Persian, and the last series is closed by local currencies mainly with Sanskrit or Arabic legends. The Chinese coinages form the source and centre of the group of the far East, which, however, includes certain exceptional issues. The order throughout is historical, each empire or kingdom being followed by the smaller states into which it broke up, and then by the larger ones which were formed by the union of these fragments. - _ _ The Persian coinage was probably originated by Darius I. about the time that he organized the empire in satrapies. The regular See also:taxation thus introduced made a uniform coinage necessary. Avoiding the complex gold system of Croesus, which was intended to accommodate the Greek cities in commercial relation with Lydia, Darius See also:chose two weights, the gold shekel of 8.4 grammes and the silver drachm of 5.58 grammes. One gold piece was equal to twenty silver. The gold coin was called the daric, the silver the siglos. The metal was very pure, especially that of the daric. Thus not only were the Lydian gold and silver coins of inferior weight thrown out of circulation, but the Persian gold, from its purity, became dominant, and was the chief gold currency of the ancient world so long as the empire lasted. The issuing of gold was a royal prerogative. Silver money was coined not only by the king but in the provinces by satraps, who used local types, and by tributary states. The following classes must be distinguished: (I) regal, (2) satrapal, (3) of tributary states. The art of Persian coins varies according to the locality, from the beautiful purely Greek work of the west coast of Asia Minor to the more formal style of Cilicia and the thoroughly See also:hieratic stiffness of Phoenicia and Persia. The regal coinage is of darics (Pl. IV. fig. 2) and subdivisions in gold and of sigli and subdivisions in silver. The obverse type is the king as an archer, the reverse an irregular oblong incuse. The darics show See also:differences of style, and must extend through the whole period of the empire. The sigli no doubt run parallel with them. Both these denominations are uninscribed. The satrapal coinage is very important and interesting. It belongs mainly to Cilicia. The most remarkable series is that with a bearded head wearing a tiara, with various reverses, struck apparently at Colophon, Cyzicus and Lampsacus, and in one instance bearing the name of the satrap Pharnabazus, but usually the word " king " in Greek. The coin of Colophon shows a splendid portrait, one of the finest instances of Ionian work. It probably represents Pharnabazus (see Pl. IV. fig. I). Of other satrapal issues those of Datames, of Tiribazus and Cilician issues, struck at Tarsus, are specially noteworthy. Their inscriptions are Aramaic. The coinages of the tributary states have been in part noticed in their geographical order. After the fall of the empire, the generals and satraps such as Mazaeus who governed Alexander's newly-acquired dominions issued coins from various mints, especially Babylon. The gold coins were double darics of the same types as their single predecessors. The silver coins were mainly modelled on the coins which Mazaeus had previously issued in Cilicia with the types of Baal-Taro and Lion. Some of them may have been issued as far East as See also:Bactria and North West India. These are followed by the first native coinage, in-scribed below under India. The conquest of Alexander did not wholly destroy the See also:independence of Persia. Within less than a century the warlike Parthians, once subjects of Persia, revolted (249-248 B.C.) against Parthians. the Seleucids and formed a kingdom which speedily became an empire, ultimately the one successful rival of Rome. Their money is Greek in standard and inscriptions, as well as in the origin of types. The coins are silver, following the Attic weight, the chief piece being the drachm, though the tetradrachm is not infrequent; there are also bronze coins, but none in gold are known. The drachm has the head of the king on the obverse, diademed or with a regal head-dress, and on the reverse the founder See also:Arsaces seated, holding a strung bow, the later tetradrachms varying this uniformity. Every king is styled Arsaces, to which many of the later sovereigns add their proper names. The inscriptions are usually long, reaching a See also:climax in such as BAEIAELZE BAEIAEIIN MEI'AAOY APIAKOY DIKAIOY EIIINN+ANOYE OEOY EYIIA TOPOE 4IAEAAHNOE of Mithradates III. (57-54 B.C.; see Pl. IV. fig. 4), where we see the double influence of Persian and Seleucid styles and the desire to conciliate the Greek cities. Very noticeable are the coins which bear the portraits of Phraataces (3 B.C.-A.D. 4) and his mother, the Italian slave Musa, with the title queen (©EAS OYPANIAE MOYEHE BAEIAIEEHE). The last of the See also:Parthian coins are those attributed to Artavasdes (c. A.D. 227). The coinage of See also:Persis, beginning in the second half of the 3rd century B.C., consists of silver tetradrachms and drachms; the Perlis. earliest have fine portraits of the kings, but the style rapidly degenerates. The prevailing reverse type is the Persian See also:fire-altar. The dynasts of Characene, on the lower See also:Tigris, issued coins (silver, bronze and base metal) from the time of the founder, Hyspaosines (c. 124 B.c.), down to the 2nd century A.D. The obverses Characene. of the tetradrachms have portraits of the kings; the usual reverse type is a seated Heracles. The Persian line of the Sassanians arose about A.D. 220, and wrested the empire from the Parthians in 226-227, under the leader- ship of See also:Ardashir or See also:Artaxerxes. This dynasty issued a Sassa- See also:national and thus Oriental coinage in gold and silver. finDS. The denominations follow the Roman system, and there are but two coins, equivalent to the aureus or solidus and the denarius. The obverse has the king's bust, usually wearing a very large and elaborate head-dress, varied with each sovereign, and the reverse the sacred fire-altar (see Pl. IV. fig. 3) ordinarily flanked by the king and a priest. The See also:attachment which Ardashir, the founder, See also:bore to Zoroastrianism established this national reverse type, which endured through the four hundred years of the See also:sovereignty of his line to A.D. 652. The inscriptions are See also:Pahlavi. The Arab coinage forms the most important Oriental group. It has a duration of twelve centuries and a half, and at its widest Caliphates. geographical See also:extension was coined from See also:Morocco to the See also:borders of See also:China. When the Arabs made their great con- quests money became a necessity. They first adopted in the East imitations of the current Persian silver pieces of the last Sassamans, but in Syria and Palestine of the Byzantine copper, in Africa of the gold of the same currency. Of these early coins the See also:Sassanian imitations are very curious with Pahlavi inscriptions and shorter ones in Arabic (Cufic). The regular coinage with purely Moslem inscriptions begins with the issue of a silver coin at Basrah, in 40 A.E. (A.D. 66o), by the caliph 'See also:Ali; after subsequent efforts thus to replace the Sassanian currency, the orthodox mintage was finally established, in 76 A.H. (A.D. 695), by Abdalmalik. The names of the denominations and the weight of the gold are plainly indicative of Byzantine influence. There were three coins. The dinar of gold (Pl. IV. fig. 6) took its name from the aureus or denarius aureus, of which the solidus must have been held to be the representative, for the weight of the Arab coin(about 4.3 grammes)is clearly derived from the Byzantine gold piece. The dirhem of silver (see Pl. IV. fig. 7) is in name a revival of the Greek drachm; it weighs at most about 3 grammes. The copper piece is the fels, taking its name from the follis of the Greek empire. Commercially the gold easily exchanged, and the silver soon passed as the double of the Carolingian denier. For long these were the only coins issued, except, and this but rarely, half and quarter dinars. There are properly no types. There was indeed an attempt in the early Byzantino-Arab money to represent the caliph, and in the course of ages we shall observe some deviations from the general practice of See also:Islam, particularly in the coinage of the atabegs and in Mahommedan coinages not of the Arab group, the modern Persian and that of the Moguls of Delhi. The inscriptions are uniformly religious, save in some Tatar coinages and that of the Turks. In general the coins are for the first five centuries of their issue remarkably uniform in fabric and general appearance. They are always See also:flat and generally thin. The whole of both sides of the coins is occupied by inscriptions in the formal Cufic character usually arranged horizontally in the See also:area and in a single or double See also:band around. Towards the fall of the See also:caliphate a new type of coin begins, mainly differing in the greater size of the pieces. There are new multiples of the dinar and ultimately of the dirhem, and the silver pieces frequently have their inscriptions within and around a square, a form also used for gold. The Cufic character becomes highly ornamental, and speedily gives way to the flexuous naskhi of modern See also:writing. The inscriptions are religious, with the addition of the year by the era of the Flight (A.D. 622), the See also:month sometimes being added, and the mint occurs uniformly on silver and copper, but does not appear on the gold until after the fall of the Omayyad dynasty. Subsequently the official name of the caliph occurs. The religious part of the inscriptions is various, the most usual formulae being the profession of the Moslem faith: " There is no deity but God; Mahomet is the apostle of God," to which the Shi'ites or followers of 'Ali in Persia and Africa add " 'Ali is the friend of God." The Moorish coins give long formulae and religious citations and ejaculations, and they, like the money of the Pathans of Delhi of the Indian class, have occasionally admonitions urging or suggesting the purer use of wealth. As Arab and other dynasties arose from the dismemberment of the caliphate, the names of kings occur, but for centuries they continued to respect the authority of their religious chief by coining in his name, even in the case of the shadowy See also:Abbasids of Egypt, adding their own names even when at war with the caliph, as though they were mere provincial governors. After the fall of the caliphate some new denominations came in, chiefly of heavier weight than the dirhem and dinar, but the influence of the commercial states of Italy made the later Egyptian Mamelukes, the Turks and the later Moors adopt the gold sequin. In more modern times the dollar found its way into the Moslem coinage of the states bordering on the Mediterranean. It can be readily seen that Arab coins have no art in the same sense as those of the Greeks. The beautiful inscriptions and the See also:arabesque devices of the pieces of the close of the middle ages have, however, a distinct artistic merit. The Omayyad coins owe their only historical value to the evidence which the silver affords of the extent of the empire at different times. The first separation of that empire dates from the overthrow of this dynasty (which had its See also:capital at Owayyads. Damascus, A.D. 661-750) by the 'Abbasids (A.D. 750, capital See also:Bagdad) speedily followed by the formation of the rival Omayyad Abbasids. caliphate of the West with its capital at See also:Cordova. The Abbasid money has the same interest as that which it succeeded, but its See also:information is fuller. Towards the fall of the line (which ended at Bagdad in 1258) it becomes very handsome in the great coins, which are multiples of the dinar (see Pl. IV. fig. to). The Spanish Omayyads (756-1031) struck silver almost exclusively. Their rise was followed by that of various lesser lines—the Idrisites (788-985, silver) and Aghlabites (800-909, gold chiefly) in western Africa, the Beni Tulun (868-905, gold), and, after a short See also:interval, the Ikhshidids (935-969, gold), both of Turkish origin, in Egypt. Meanwhile a new caliphate arose (909) in western Africa which subdued Egypt (969), the Fatimid of the line of 'Ali, and for a while the See also:allegiance of the Moslems was divided between three rival lines, the Omayyads of Spain, the Fatimids of Africa, and the Abbasids of Bagdad. The Fatimids introduced a new type of dinar, with the inscriptions in concentric circles, and struck little but gold. In the See also:interim the Persians, who had long exercised a growing influence at the court of Bagdad, revived their power in a See also:succession of dynasties which acknowledged the supremacy of the caliphate of Bagdad, but were virtually independent. These were the Tahirids (820-872), Saffarids (867-903), See also:Samanids (874-999), Ziyarids (928-1042), and Buwoyhids or Buyids (932-1055), who mostly struck silver, but the last gold also. As the Persians had supplanted the Arabs, so they were in turn forced to give place to the Turks. The Ghaznevids formed a powerful kingdom in See also:Afghanistan (962-1186, gold and silver), and the See also:Seljuks established an empire (gold), which divided into several kingdoms, occupying the best part of the East (1037-1194). Of these dynasties the Seljuks of See also:Rum or Asia Minor (1077-1300) first strike a modern type of Arab coinage (silver, Pl. IV. fig. 9). The SelJjak dominions separated into many small states, the central ruled by atabegs or generals (12th-9th cent.), and the similar Turkoman Urtukis (See also:Ito' -1312). The atabeg money and that of the Turks of the house of Urtuk are mainly large copper pieces bearing on one side a figure borrowed from Greek, Roman, Byzantine and other sources. They form a most remarkable innovation (Pl. IV. fig. 11). In the same age the great but short-lived empire of Khwarizm (See also:Khiva, 1150-1231) arose in the far East. The first caliphate to disappear was that of Spain, which broke up (c. 1031) into small dynasties, some claiming the prerogative of the caliphates. They chiefly struck base silver (billon) coins. The Christian kings gradually overthrew most of these lines. In the meantime various See also:Berber families had gained power in western Africa and the See also:Almoravides and the See also:Almohades crossed the straits and restored the Moslem power in Spain. They struck gold money of fine work, and that of the later Muwahhids is remarkable for its size and thinness. At the fall of the Muwahbids the only powerful kingdom remaining was the Arab house of See also:Granada (Nasrids), which, supported by the See also:Berbers of Africa, lingered on until the days of Ferdinand and See also:Isabella (1492). The Fatimite dynasty was supplanted by the Kurdish line of the Ayyubites, the family of See also:Saladin, who from 1169 to 1250 ruled Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia, with a number of See also:vassal states, some governed by princes of their own family, some by the older lines of the atabeg class which they allowed to survive. In Egypt the Ayyubite coinage is of gold, elsewhere of silver and copper. The caliphate of Bagdad, which latterly was almost limited to that town, though its abundant heavy gold coinage at this very time indicates great wealth, was overthrown by the new power of the See also:Mongols (A.D. 1258), who established a group of empires and kingdoms, comprising the whole Eastern world eastward of the See also:Euphrates and thence extending northward and reaching into Europe. The most important of these states for their money are that of the Mongols of Persia (Iz56–I349), founded by Hulagu, the conqueror of Bagdad, and that of the khans of the See also:Golden See also:Horde (1224–1502). Both struck silver, but there is also gold coinage of the Mongols of Persia, who more frequently use the Mongol character for their names and titles than is done under the kindred line. The power of the Mongols was held in check by the Mameluke kings of Egypt and Syria, slave-princes of two dynasties, the Babri (1250–1390) and the Burji (1382–1517), who struck money in the three metals. The Mongol power waned, but was revived by Timur (Tamerlane), who during his rule (1369–1405) recovered all that had been lost. He and his successors (to 1500) struck silver, copper, and brass money (see Pl. IV. fig. 13). The See also:Ottoman Turks, whose power had been gradually growing from 1299 onwards, after a desperate struggle with Timur (defeat of Bayezid I. at See also:Angora in 1402), gradually absorbed the whole Mahommedan world west of the Tigris, except only Morocco, where they had but a momentary dominion. Constantinople fell to them in 1453, Syria, Egypt and Arabia in 1517 Their money of gold, silver, base metal and bronze is devoid of historical interest. In See also:Tunis and Morocco a group of Berber lines long maintained themselves, but at length only one survived, that of the sharifs of Morocco, claiming Arab descent, now ruling as the sole independent Moslem dynasty of northern Africa. Its See also:recent coinage is singularly barbarous. It may be remarked that Tunis and Egypt have long coined Turkish money in their own mints, the more western state latterly adding the name of its hereditary prince to that of the See also:sultan. The coins of the shahs of Persia have their origin with Isma'il (1502). They are struck in the three metals, and are remarkable Persia- for the elegance of their inscriptions, sometimes in flowing Arabic, sometimes in the still more flexuous native character (see P1. IV. fig. 12). The inscriptions are at first Arabic; after a time the religious formulae are in this language and the royal legend in Persian, usually as a poetical distich. The Persian series is also remarkable for the autonomous issues of its cities in copper, the obverse bearing some type, usually an animal. The coins of the Afghan amirs form a class resembling in inscriptions those of the Persians, and equally using Persian distichs. They commence with Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747). The first native Indian coinage consists of primitive pieces (the earliest perhaps of the 4th century B.c.) of silver and copper IndJa. with countermarks (known as " See also:punch-marked " coins). Foreign ccins (Persian and Athenian) circulated in the country from the 5th century; the silver coinage of Sophytes, a con-temporary of Alexander the Great, shows Athenian influence; and there are not a few coins of Indian provenance showing See also:direct imitation or modification of Athenian types (as the substitution of an eagle for the owl). Alexander himself is represented by a coinage of square bronze pieces. Certain tetradrachms and diobols with the name of Alexander and types: head of Zeus and eagle, probably belong to the end of the 4th century. But the coinage which was to have most effect on that of India was the Bactrian (see also under BACTRIA). This is at first a pure Greek coinage, of fine style, beginning with See also:Diodotus (gold, silver, bronze), who revolted from Antiochus II., c. 250 B.C. For about a century the art of these coins, at least as regards portraiture, ranks very high for realism and vigour. The Bactrian rulers seem first to have made incursions into the See also:Kabul valley and north India about 200 B.C., the first Indian con-quests being perhaps made by See also:Euthydemus and Demetrius. Of the latter there exists a bronze coin with the regular Greek types, but of the characteristic square Indian form, with a See also:translation on the reverse into Kharoshthi characters of the obverse Greek inscription. Some of the coins of succeeding kings are very remarkable, as the tetradrachms of See also:Antimachus (see Pl. IV. fig. 5), with a portrait re-minding us of good Italian medals, and the unique 2o-stater gold piece of See also:Eucratides (the largest Greek gold coin known to us, although its genuineness has been questioned). The coinage from about 16o B.C. becomes more and more Indian, the Greek power being definitely transferred south of the Paropanisus in the second half of the 2nd century. The Attic standard which had been used for the silver gradually gave way to the Persian. The Greek princes went on reigning in India to about 20 B.c.; their See also:chronology is very obscure. During the last two centuries B.C. several other coinages existed in north India. (1) The Scythic Sacae or Sakas invaded Bactria and then India; the earliest See also:Saka coinage of north India (that of Maues in the Punjab, c. 120 B.C.) shows Parthian influence; so do the slightly later coins of See also:Vonones and others who reigned in See also:Kandahar and See also:Seistan. (2) Another large and varied group of coins consists of the issues of native states, some of which go back to before 200 B.C. Of these we may note the coins of Eran (See also:Sagar district) showing the gradual development of the punch-marked coin into the coin with a type, made up of a collection of such punch-symbols struck from one die; and the coins of Taxila, the earliest of which are struck with a type on one side only. From these were imitated the copper coins of the Greeks, Pantaleon and See also:Agathocles (c. 190 B.C.), which again inspired the later coins of Taxila with types on both sides.—In the first century of our era the Indo-Parthian dynasty of See also:Gondophares (Gundophorus of the Apocryphal Acts of St See also: IV. fig. 14). The best-known kings are See also:Kanishka, Huvishka and Vasudeva. The types are interesting, combining deities of the Greeks, Scythians, the Avesta and the Vedas and See also:Buddha. The Greek inscriptions become meaningless after c. A.D. 180. The coinage in gold (of Roman weight) and copper, however, continues probably as late as A.D. 425 in the Kabul valley and the Punjab. Of other dynasties contemporary with the Kushanas, the most important are: (i.) The Andhras, a south Indian power, with territory extending across the See also:peninsula from the See also:Kistna and See also:Godavari deltas to See also:Kolhapur. The coins are chiefly of lead, but copper and silver are also known. (ii.) the satraps of Surashtra and See also:Malwa, whose coinage (chiefly of silver) is copied from the half-drachms of the Greek princes of the Punjab; it lasts until the end of the 4th century. (iii) Early in the 4th century the important imperial See also:Gupta coinage begins with Chandragupta, and continues unbroken to the death of Skandagupta, c. A.D. 480. The empire at its greatest extent comprised the whole of north India, except the Punjab. The earliest gold coinage was de-rived from that ofPthe Kushanas (see Pl. IV. fig. 15) ; later there was silver derived from the coinage of the satraps; the copper is more original in style. After c. A.D. 480 the empire broke up into various dynasties which lasted until A.D. 6o6. The Great Kushanas had been succeeded in Gandhara (Kabul valley and Punjab) by the Kidara Kushanas, and these, c. 465–470, were conquered by the 3Iunas (a branch of the See also:Ephthalites or White See also:Huns). The Huna coinage consists almost entirely of imitations of Sassanian, Kushana or Gupta coins. Their power probably broke up c. A.D. 544. Of other ancient and medieval non-Mahommedan coinages in India the following may be mentioned: (I) Various series of dynasties reigning in See also:Kanauj and Delhi, from the 7th to the 12th century. (2) See also:Kashmir—coinage beginning probably as early as Kanishka and continuing with the same types (obverse, king standing, reverse, goddess seated) until the Mahommedan coinage in the 13th century. The coins are very rude; but the succession of the kings from c. A.D. 85o is fairly certain. (3) Later Shahi coinage of Gandhara, especially the " bull and horseman " coins (c. A.D. 86o-95o). (4) Panclya, in the extreme south : this district used first the early punch-marked coins, then coins with a type on one side only, and later double-type coins; these are earlier than c. A.D. 300. There is a later gold coinage (type, fish) from the 7th to loth century. (5) Cola: an earlier coinage, before c. A.D. 1022, with the Cola See also:emblem, a See also:tiger; the later coinage (obverse, king standing, reverse, king seated) influenced the coinage over most of south India. (6) See also:Ceylon: a coinage of the rajas imitated from the Cola coins, from A.D. 1153 t0 1296. (7) See also:Chalukya coinage, chiefly of gold, in west See also:Deccan and in Pallava country between the Kistna and Godavari; the emblem is a boar. They range from the 7th to the 11th century. (8) See also:Vijayanagar: this power preserved the old character of the coinage south of the Kistna long after the Mahommedan conquest had transformed the coinage north of that boundary. The later coinage of South India is too obscure to be dealt with here. The Arabs in the first days of conquest had subdued See also:Sind and founded an independent state on the banks of the See also:Indus, which was ruled by them for nearly two centuries from 711; but it is hard to subdue India from this direction, and the strangers decayed and disappeared. The way into India was first really opened by the See also:campaigns of Mabmud of See also:Ghazni (1001–1024) who annexed the Punjab and gave a See also:raja to See also:Gujarat. The See also:Pathan kings came of the Ghuri stock which rose on the ruins of the empire of Ghazni (1186). Mohammad See also:ibn Sam (d. 1206) made Delhi his capital, and here he and his successors, Pathans or slave-kings, ruled in great splendour as the first exclusively Mahommedan Indian dynasty, latterly rivalled by a line of Pathans of See also:Bengal. Of the Pathans of Delhi (1206–1554) we have an abundant coinage, the principal pieces being the gold See also:mohur of about 168 grains and the silver See also:rupee of about the same weight, besides many pieces of bronze, and at one period of base metal. The coins are large and thick, with the profession of Islam or the style of the caliph on one side, on the other the name and titles of the reigning king. Mohammad ibnTughlak (1324-1351, P1. IV. fig. 8) struck coins with a great variety of inscriptions, some in the name of the shadowy ' Abbasid caliphs of Egypt, whose successors were for a time similarly honoured by later sovereigns. Towards the close of the rule of the Pathans several dynasties arose (about 1400) in central and southern India and struck similar money; the kings of Gujarat, of Malwa and the Bahmanids of the Deccan (1347–1526). The Pathan lines closed with Sher Shah, an Afghan, the last ruler of Bengal (d. 1539). Babar, the See also:Turki, of the family of Timur, seeking a kingdom, adventured (1525) on the conquest of Hindustan; and after long wars with Sher Shah, carried on by Babar's son See also:Humayun, the famous Shah See also:Akbar, See also:grandson of the invader, was at length peaceably settled on the throne of Delhi, and he and his successors, the so-called Moguls of Delhi, practically subdued the whole of India. They retained the existing standard, but used the Arabic and Persian See also:languages like the shahs of Persia. Akbar (1556–16o5)issued a splendid coinage in gold and silver(Pl. IV. fig. 16), far more elegant than that of the Pathans, but the money of his son, See also:Jahangir (1605–1628) is still more remarkable. He issued the famous zodiacal mohurs and rupees, as well as those astonishing Bacchanalian mohurs on which he is represented holding the See also:wine-cup (see Pl. IV. fig. 17). Scarcely less strange is the money of the beautiful queen Nur-Jahan. Under Shah Jahan (1628–1659) there is a visible falling away in the merit of the coins, and an ordinary modern style is reached in the reign of Aurungzib (1659–1707). To the close of the rule of Shah 'Alam, the last See also:Mogul who actually reigned (1759–1806), gold and silver money is abundant. Much of the money of the East India See also:Company is closely imitated from this late Mogul coinage. Latterly, native states coin with Arabic and also with Sanskrit inscriptions. The most important are the kings of Oudh, the nizams of the Deccan, and the kings of See also:Mysore, besides the maharajas of See also:Indore and the kings of See also:Nepal. The coinage of Tipu Sultan (Tippu See also:Sahib) is extremely curious from his innovations in the See also:calendar. Besides these there are a multitude of small states. Most of the Indian princes acknowledged the emperor of Delhi, but some struck independently. At last the English coinage of India has swept away nearly all these moneys, though some native states still issue their own. We must be content with the briefest See also:summary of the strange coinages of China and the Further East. The money of China, more certainly than the square punch-marked coinage of India, may claim an origin independent of the China. Lydian and Greek issues. Although " money " is men- tioned in Chinese literary sources as having been in use from a very early period (3rd See also:millennium B.c.) it is probable that before the 7th century B.C. it consisted either of uncoined metal or of other See also:media, such as See also:silk, tortoise-shell, cowries. The shell-currency indeed played a very important part in China even in later times. It was suppressed in 335 B.C., but the usurper Wang See also:Mang, whose reign (A.D. 9—23) separates the two Han dynasties, made an abortive attempt to revive it. The earliest metal currency of which specimens are extant is, like nearly all subsequent Chinese money, of cast bronze. The gold and silver currency, which appeared sporadic-ally, can never have been of much importance; a See also:kin, or cubic See also:inch, of gold, representing currency of Han times, is preserved in the Paris collection. The bronze coins fall into two main classes. The earlier (as a rule) have the shape of implements, such as spades, knives, &c.; the later are the well-known round " See also:cash " with a square hole in the centre (see Pl. IV. See also:figs. 18, 19). They are carried strung together, and their value is minute. From the earliest See also:knife-money should be distinguished that of Wang Mang; his coins are short and thick, and the plain ring at the end of the handle is replaced by a piece resembling in shape a cash with ring and square central hole. The older knife-currency practically came to an end with the foundation of the Ts'in dynasty in 221 B.C., though it doubtless lingered on in remote. districts. With this dynasty appears the first organized state mintage. Nevertheless the economic history of Chinese coinage continues to be a See also:melancholy record of doubtful See also:financial expedients, debasement and See also:forgery. The value of the coins was supposed to depend on their weight; but the weight inscribed on them was by no means always the true one. The bronze coinage from the reform of Wu-ti in 138 B.C. down to A.D. 622 is fairly uniform; it is chiefly cash of 5 chu (see Pl. IV. fig. 18). Iron money was issued at various periods. The disturbance of the coinage by the usurper Wang Mang has already been noted. The modern coinage may be said in a sense to date from the introduction of the K'ai yuan pattern of 71 chu under the Tang dynasty in A.D. 622. On the reverse of this coin was a mark (supposed to have been made by the empress Wen-teh in touching with her See also:nail the wax See also:model submitted to her) which has been much copied on coins of other countries in the Far East (see Pl. IV. fig. 19). From this time to the present there has been little change. See also:Paper-money was introduced in the 9th century. The modern cash usually bears on the obverse the name of the reign and the words t'ung pao (" current money "), on the reverse the name of the mint. The coinage under the present (Manchu) dynasty has been regular, except during the Taiping See also:rebellion, when some iron coins and copper tokens were issued, owing to the failure of the copper supply. Gold and silver have not been issued by the government until quite recent times (see below), with one or two unimportant exceptions, but circulate by weight. Imitations of Spanish and Mexican dollars, bearing numerous punch-marks placed on them by successive owners, are common. The most interesting Chinese coins are those of small rival dynasties and of rebels, the study of which is important for the elucidation of the obscurities of the history of the country. The Chinese medals are talismans, usually larger than coins, and bear both subjects and inscriptions. They are distributed by Taoist and Buddhist priests of temples. The money of See also:Korea and See also:Annam 'is similar to that of China, and Chinese coins were long the currency of See also:Java, which more recently has issued the money of its Mahommedan princes. The empire of See also:Japan shows in its coinage that Chinese source modified by the influence of native independence which marks all its /apan. institutions. The use of a metallic currency probably began in the 5th century of our era. In character the coins show strong Chinese influence. Amongst the earliest are rude silver pieces, disks of somewhat irregular shape, with a central hole, attributed to the early 5th century; and there are also copper coins of similar character dating from the end of the 7th century. Aregular copper coinage, Chinese in pattern, began with the exploitation of the copper mines in A.D. 708. There was a silver coinage in A.D. 760, and a gradually deteriorating copper currency was issued at various dates down to A.D. 958. The twelve varieties issued in these two and a half centuries are known as the twelve See also:antique sen (see Pl. IV. fig. 20). No copper was issued by the government for six hundred years after this date; but coins of the old patterns in lead or See also:tin circulated down to 1302. The lack of copper was supplied by the importation and imitation of Chinese cash. These imitations were due to the great nobles, who made them on their own domains. At the end of the 16th century (Ten-sho period) a regular currency of gold, silver and copper, and also iron was instituted, which lasted, with modifications, down to recent times (iron coins with See also:wave-pattern reverse being cast as late as 186o). There is a billon coinage of See also:bean-shaped pieces issued at various dates from 1601–1859. Silver also was frequently issued on the same pattern as the copper coinage; but the greater part of it circulated in ingots or plates. The small oblong pieces known as ichi-bu and ni-bu belong to the 19th century (not issued after 1868). Large plates of silver, like the gold coins to be mentioned immediately, were issued in the 16th century by some provinces. Round coins of gold of the Chinese shape were rarely cast (one in A.D. 760, another in A.D. 1599). But from the 16th century to modern times gold circulated chiefly in large oblong plates, with rounded angles, varying from over 62 to s in. in length. These are called o-See also:ban ("large plate " of 10 ryo), ko-ban (" small plate " of I ryo; see Pl. IV. fig. 21), &c. They bore various countermarks, including the See also:mikado's See also:crest, mint-assayer's test-marks, &c.; some bear the attestations merely written in See also:ink (a See also:device of the imperial officials, who charged fees for the attestations, and were not sorry that they should be easily obliterated). Small gold oblong pieces were cast at various times from 1601–1856 (Pl. IV. fig. 22). A European system of currency, with coins in gold (20 yen and under), silver (1 yen and under), See also:nickel (5 sen) and copper (2 sen and under), was adopted in 187o. Japan has also " picture sen " (E-sen) of a magical and religious character like the temple medals already noticed under China. Korea has had a copper coinage of Chinese style from the beginning of the twelfth century during its intervals of independence; but its coins do not become common until 1790. "During Korea. the 19th century it issued an extensive copper coinage from various mints. The earliest coins of Annam were imitations of Chinese coins, but since the loth century its kings have issued a regular coinage bearing their regnal titles as in China. Since 1820 round Aaaam. and oblong silver coins have been struck, the See also:tael and its subdivisions. Peculiar to Annam are the fine series of medals in gold, silver and copper struck since 1841 by its kings for presentation purposes, bearing lucky inscriptions, quotations from the Chinese See also:classics, &c. The peculiar forms of primitive currency characteristic of certain parts of Further India and the See also:Malay Peninsula can only be barely mentioned here. See also:Burma provides silver-money in the Burma, shape of See also:snail-shells (a relic of a still more primitive shell-currency). The earlier Siamese ticals are derived from a See also:pen nsua, ring of silver See also:wire doubled up and countermarked. From Pahang come very curious tin " See also:hat coins," shaped C' like a hollow square See also:pyramid, truncated, with broad, square brim projecting from its base. The peoples of the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf used in the 16th and 17th centuries pieces of silver wire called larins which in Ceylon took the shape of fish-hooks. V. COINS OF THE PRESENT DAY United Kingdom.—The standard of gold and silver has remained unchanged for over two hundred years, and until 1887 the denominations were practically the same as instituted at the great recoinage of 1816. The substitution of a bronze for a copper currency had already taken place in 186o. On the occasion of Queen See also:Victoria's See also:Jubilee in 1887 it was determined to mark the event by a new coinage of gold and silver, and to revise the royal portrait. Two new denominations of five and two pounds were added to the gold series, and the double florin to the silver. For the re- verse type of all the gold and of the five-shilling piece, Pistrucci's design of St See also:George and the See also:Dragon was used, and former types of Anne and George IV. were revived for the double florin, florin, half-crown and sixpence; that of the last was, however, soon abandoned. This new coinage did not meet with general approval, especially as regards the portrait of the Queen, and in consequence a third portrait was Fm. 1.–Sovereign (gold), England: Queen Victoria (obverse by See also:Brock). adopted for the gold and silver in 1893, new reverse types were branch; and for the bronze, the bust of the Republic wearing prepared for the half-crown, florin and shilling, and the issue a Phrygian cap, and on the reverse France seated amidst clouds, of the double florin was discontinued. The portrait of the queen holding a branch and a See also:flag, and accompanied by a See also:genius. was the work of the sculptor Thomas Brock, R.A., who was These coins were not issued simultaneously—the 50 centimes careful to avoid the defects which had been somewhat severely appearing in 1897, and 2 and 1 See also:franc and To, 5, 2 and x centime criticized in See also:Sir J. Edgar See also:Boehm's design of 1887. The new type in 1898, and the 20 francs in 1899. In 1903 a nickel piece of for the half-crown, a See also:spade-shaped shield within the garter, 25 centimes was introduced, since 1904 with a polygonal edge was also executed by Mr Brock; and those for the florin and to facilitate distinction from the silver. The quartering of the shilling, three 'shields placed triangularly, were by Sir Edward franc is a departure from the strictly decimal system, also adopted See also:Poynter. In 1895 a new in Italy. These later coins are characteristic of modern French issue of bronze money medallic art, which has a strong tendency to imitate that of was ordered, when the Italy of the 16th century. queen's bust of 1893 was Belgium.—Of the other states which formed the Latin adopted, and a slight Monetary Union, Belgium had already in 1832 adopted the alteration made in the French decimal and bimetallic system, with the franc as the unit reverse type, the repre- of value. Her accession to the Union, therefore, only entailed sentation of a lighthouse a slight modification of type and denominations, which latter and a ship, which had were the same as in France, except that the only gold coin was been added to the design the 20 francs, the 25 centimes in silver was not issued, and the in 186o, being eliminated. pieces of io and 5 centimes are now in nickel. The gold and The coinage of Edward VII. differed but slightly from that silver coins have for types the head of the king and the royal of Queen Victoria. The denominations were the same; but shield, those in nickel the Belgic lion and mark of value, and those on the obverse the head of the king (by G. W. de Saulles, in bronze the royal monogram and the lion holding the tables engraver to the Mint) was represented bare, the title " Britanni- of the constitution. Some of the silver coins have the inscriptions arum " was changed to " Britanniarum Omnium Rex," the reverse in Flemish. The nickel coinage introduced in 1902 is perforated of the florin showed Britannia standing on a ship, and that in the centre to prevent confusion with silver. of the shilling the royal crest, the lion on a crown, as on the Switzerland.—Like Belgium, Switzerland had before her so-called " lion-shillings " of 1826. The designing of the new See also:adhesion to the Latin Monetary Union adopted the French coinage of George V. was entrusted to Mr See also:Bertram See also:Mackennal. system, with the franc of See also:loo centimes or rappen as the unit of France.—On the establishment of the Third Republic in France value. The denominations in gold and silver were the same as in 187o, the coinage was continued on the same lines as before, issued for Belgium, but no gold was struck before 1883. The the types only being altered. The silver franc of 5 grammes coins of baser metal were the (78 grains) as ordered in 1793 and confirmed by the Latin 20, TO and 5 centimes in Monetary Union of 1865, which included Belgium, Italy and billon, which metal was in Switzerland, and subsequently 1879 changed for the nickel, and in 1868 Greece, has remained in copper the 2 and 1 centime. the unit of value. The de- Certain changes of type have nominations ordered were, in from time to time occurred. gold, the Too, 5o and 20 The first issue of the 20 francs francs; in silver, the 5, 2 in 1883 shows the head of the FIG. 5.-Twenty Centimes (nickel), and I franc, and 5o and 20 Republic and the shield of the Switzerand. centimes; and in bronze, Confederation; but this was changed in 1897 for the head of the lo, 5, 2 and 1 centime. Helvetia above a range of mountains, and on the reverse a The types adopted were those wreath with mark of value. On the silver coins from 1874 which had been used previously — thus for the gold that Helvetia is represented standing instead of seated, and on the of a genius inscribing the tables of] the See also:law, as designed nickel money of 1879 the shield of the Republic is replaced by by Augustin Dupre for the reverse of the constitutional the head of Helvetia. The mark of value and a wreath form the coinage of Louis XVI.; for the silver and copper the head general reverse type of all the silver, nickel and copper coins. of the Republic as executed by See also:Oudine for the money of 1848. Since 1888 a 5-franc piece, similar in type to the 20 francs of Subsequently, in 1871, the type of the 5 francs was changed 1883, has been issued. for that of Hercules leaning on Liberty and Strength, as made Italy.—When Italy joined the Latin Monetary Union in 1865, by Dupre for the First Republic. In 1889 the To francs in gold she adopted as the unit of her coinage the See also:lira of Too centesimi, was added to the list, having the head of the Republic crowned equal to the franc. The coins were of gold, silver and bronze, with corn, the work of Merley for the Republic of 1848; but and of the same de-only a small number of these coins was struck in that year nominations as those struck in Belgium and Switzerland. In 1894 a nickel coinage of 20 centesimi was ordered. The general type for all the coin-age is the head of the king and the royal arms, but on the re- verse of the copper is the mark of value; and the nickel money has on the reverse a crown with a wreath. A new nickel piece of 25 centesimi indicates a departure from the strictly decimal system. The coinages of all the small Italian states, including the Papal, have now passed out of currency. Greece.—A special stipulation was made, when Greece was enrolled in the Latin Monetary Union in 1868, that. all her money should be struck at a French mint. The unit of the coinage and in 1895. No further alteration was made till after 1895, when, in consequence of suggestions that the types should be modified so as to mark the Third Re- public, the artists See also:Chaplain, Roty and See also:Dupuis were com- missioned to execute new designs—the first for the gold, the second for the silver, and the last for the bronze. The types approved were: for the gold 20 francs, the head of the Republic with a Phrygian cap, and the Gallic cock; for the silver 2 and 1 franc and 50 centimes, the sower See also:sowing, with the rising sun in the background; and a laurel is the drachm of too lepta, which, like the lira, is equivalent to the franc. The denominations are—in gold, the too, 50, 20, ro and 5 drachms; in silver, the 5, 2 and i drachm, and 50 and 20 lepta; and in bronze, the to, 5, 2 and 1 lepton. In 1893 nickel was substituted for bronze, and coins of the value of 2o, io and 5 lepta were issued in this metal. The types of the coins of Greece are similar to those of Italy. Crete has had since 1900 a coinage of its own similar to the Greek (silver of 5, 2 drachmae, t and 2 drachma; bronze and nickel of 20, to, 5, 2 lepta and 1 lepton). Germany.—Since 1871 the coinage of the German empire has been entirely remodelled. By a convention in 1857 between the states of Germany, north and south, and Austria a general coinage of a silver standard was established on the basis of the new pound of Soo grammes as sanctioned by the See also:Zollverein. The contracting countries were divided into three sections, North Germany, South Germany and Austria. From the pound of fine silver of 500 grammes the Northern States struck 30 thalers, Austria 45 florins and the Southern States 522 florins; their relation being i North German thaler= IZ See also:Austrian florins= t; South German florins. The free towns of Hamburg, See also:Lubeck and See also:Bremen did not join the convention. The first reform in the coinage of the German empire occurred in 1871, when a new gold money was introduced, which had for its unit the silver mark (a money of account) of too pfennigs weighing 5.555 grammes. The new gold pieces were of the value of 10 and 20 marks, called crowns and double crowns, and the fineness was - pure to A alloy. This new issue necessitated a readjustment of the current values of the various silver coinages in circulation. In 1873 a further step was made by the introduction of an entirely new silver coinage throughout the empire, which was also based on the silver mark, and of a new base metal coinage in nickel and bronze. The silver coins were the 5, 2 and 1 mark and so and 20 pfennigs; those in nickel the io and 5 pfennigs, and in bronze the 2 and 1 pfennig. The silver coins were, like the gold, )' fine, so that go marks were struck to the pound of pure metal. The gold 5 marks was struck in 1877 and 1878, and the 20 pfennigs in silver was replaced by a coin of the same value in nickel in 1886. The reverse type for all the coins is the imperial eagle, but that of the obverse varies; the gold and silver showing the portrait of the reigning king or prince, but the mark, and all lesser denominations, the current value. An exception was made in the case of the coinage of the Free Towns struck at Hamburg, which has the arms of the city instead of a portrait. Each state retained its full rights of coinage, and the various mints throughout the empire with their special marks are: Berlin, A; See also:Hanover, B; Frankfort, C; See also:Munich, D; See also:Dresden (removed since 1877 to Muldner-Hutte), E; See also:Stuttgart, F; See also:Karlsruhe, G; See also:Darmstadt, H; and Hamburg, J. In 1876 a gold standard was proclaimed, and henceforth no person was legally bound to. accept in See also:payment more than 20 marks in silver and the value of r mark in nickel or bronze. The old thalers (worth 3 marks) still circulate. Austria-Hungary.—After the convention of 1857 with Germany (see above), when Austria based her coinage on the silver standard of the florin, two series were issued—(i.) Vereinsmunzen (money of the union), in gold, the crown and half-crown; in silver, the double thaler (= 3 florins) and thaler; (ii.) Landesmunzen (money of the state), in gold, the 4 and 1 ducat; in silver, the double florin and florin; in billen, the 20, zo and 5 kreuzers; and in copper, the 4, 3, r and 2 kreuzer. In 1868 Austria abandoned the convention, but made no change in her money; and in the same year the coinage of Hungary was made uniform with that of the empire, both in standard and denominations. In 1870 the Vereinsmunzen crown and half-crown were discontinued, and their place was taken by 8- and 4-florin pieceswhich were of the current value of 20 and 10 francs. In 1892 the monetary system of Austria-Hungary was entirely reformed on a gold standard, the unit of account being the crown of ro0 hellers. This is a decimal coinage, and the denominations are, in gold, the 20 crowns (of 164 from the kilogramme of fine gold), 10 crowns and ducat (=9 silver crowns 6o hellers); in silver, the crown (= See also:rod.) and half-crown; in nickel, the 20 and 10 hellers; and in bronze, the 2 and 1 See also:heller. The gold ducat was a trade-money (Handelsmunze) of the current value of to francs, and it displaced the 8- and 4-florin pieces of 1870. The types of the Austrian and Hungarian coins somewhat vary. The Austrian gold coins show the head of the emperor and the two-headed eagle,' but those of FIG. 8.–Florin (silver), Austria-Hungary. Hungary a full- length figure of the emperor and the national shield surmounted by the crown of St Stephen held by angels. The silver coins of both series have the head of the emperor and the mark of value under the imperial or royal crown. The nickel and bronze money of Austria displays the imperial eagle on the obverse, whilst that of Hungary has the crown of St Stephen. The legends are respectively in Latin and Magyar. Spain.—The unit of the Spanish coinage from 1864 to 1868 was the silver escudo of 200 grains divisible into to reals. On the dethronement of Isabella in 1868 the provisional government adopted the principles of the Latin Monetary Union and made the See also:peseta the unit of account, this coin being equivalent to the franc. The coins struck during 1869–187o were, in gold, the loo pesetas; in silver, the 5, 2 and t peseta, and the 50 and 20 centimos; and in bronze, the to, 5, 2 and 1 centimo. The obverse type of each metal varied; on the gold Spain is standing; on the silver she is reclining; and on the bronze she is seated. During his short reign (1870–1873) Amadeus I. struck only gold coins of loo and 25 pesetas and silver of 5 pesetas, and there was practically no money issued during the republic which followed his See also:abdication. See also:Don See also:Carlos during the insurrection of 1874–1875 struck 5 pesetas in silver and to and 5 centimos in bronze bearing his portrait and title " Carolus VII." After the restoration of Alphonso XII. the coinage consisted of 25 and 10 pesetas in gold; 5, 2 and t peseta and 50 centimos in silver; and 10 and 5 centimos in bronze. This coinage was continued under Alphonso XIII., but in 1887 the 20 pesetas in gold was substituted for the 25 pesetas, and in 1897 large coins were struck of zoo pesetas. The types show the head of the king on the obverse and the shield with or without the pillars of Hercules on the reverse. Portugal.—A gold standard was adopted by Portugal in 1854, the unit of value being the milreis of moo reis. The coins are, in gold, the crown or lo milreis and the half, fifth and tenth crown or milreis; in silver, the 10, 5 and 2 testoon; in nickel, the too and 50 reis; and in bronze, the 20, to and 5 reis. The general type of the gold and silver is the head or bust of the king and the royal shield; but the bronze varies in having on the obverse a shield and on the reverse the mark of value. Denmark, Sweden and Norway.—Previous to 1872 in Denmark the unit of value was the silver rigsbankdaler of 96 skillings; in Sweden, the rigsdaler of too ore; and in Norway, the speciesthaler of 120 skillings; but in that year a monetary convention was concluded between these countries establishing a decimal coinage, which had for its unit the krone of too ore, and of which the standard was gold. The denominations are, in gold, the 20, Io and 5 kroner; in silver, the 2 and 1 krone, and 5o, 25 and to ore; and in bronze, the 5, 2 and 1 or. The gold and silver money of Sweden and Norway to the 50 ore bears the head of the king and the royal shield; the silver of smaller denominations and the bronze, the monogram of the king and the mark of value. Since the separation of the two kingdoms in 1906, Norway has a coinage of its own in the name of See also:Haakon VII. In Denmark the gold and silver have the head of the king, and, for reverse type, a figure of Denmark, a shield, or the mark of value. The bronze coins are similar to those of Norway and Sweden. Russia.—The Russian coinage previous to 1885 was based on the silver rouble of 278 grains of pure metal; but during the greater part of the reign of Alexander II. (1855–1881) the currency consisted almost entirely of paper money. In 1885 Alexander III. determined to place the coinage on a proper footing, and introduced the rouble of zoo copeks as the unit of account, with a relative value of gold and silver of 1 to 152. The coins issued were, in gold, the imperial of to roubles, and the half-imperial; in silver, the rouble, and the 5o, 25, 20, 15, 10 and 5 copeks; and in capper, the 5, 3, 2, 1, 2 and 4 copek. In 1897 the relative value of gold and silver was advanced to I to 234, thus raising the current value of the imperial to 15 roubles; but no change as made in the weights of the coins, and the silver rouble remained the unit of account. In the same year a piece of 5 roubles, called the one-third imperial, was added to the gold coins. The general types of the gold and silver show the head of the emperor and the imperial eagle; and of the copper, the imperial eagle and mark of value. See also:Georgia, Poland and See also:Finland.—The separate issues of Georgia and Poland were suppressed in 1833 and 1847 respectively; but Finland in 1878 established a decimal coinage of gold, silver and bronze on the principles of the Latin Monetary Union, having the markhaa I franc) as its unit of value. See also:Turkey.—There has been practically no change in the money of the Ottoman empire since the reforms of Abdul-Medjid in 1844, when the piastre, or 4o-See also:para piece, of the current value of std., was made the unit of the coinage; zoo piastres go to the gold medjidieh or pound. The denominations are, in gold, the 500, 250, See also:I00, 50 and 25 piastres; in silver, the 20, IO, 5, 2, I and 2 piastre; and in copper, the 40, 20, 10, 5 and I para. The type in all metals is, on the obverse, the Sultan's tughra, or See also:cipher, and on the reverse, a wreath, and the name of the mint, date, &c. Balkan States.—Since the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire the kingdoms of See also:Rumania and See also:Servia, and the principality of See also:Bulgaria, have each adopted the decimal system of the Latin Monetary Union. In Rumania the unit of account is the leu of too bani; in Servia, the dinar or too paras; and in Bulgaria, the lev of zoo stotinki—each of these units being the equivalent of the franc. In all these states gold, silver, bronze and nickel is current 'money. United States.—In America the most important event connected with the coinage was a change of standard. (See MONEY). Previous to 1873 the standard was silver, having for its unit the dollar of 4122 grains of yea- fine; but in that year a gold standard was adopted, the gold dollar of 25.8 grains and A- fine being the sole unit of value. This change of standard was accompanied by a slight modification of the denominations, which became, in gold, the double-eagle, eagle, half and quarter eagle, three dollars and dollar; in silver, the half and quarter dollar, 20 cents and See also:dime; in nickel, the 5 and 3 cents; and in bronze, the cent. In addition to these a silver piece called the " trade dollar " of 420 grains was struck, not for circulation in the States, but for export to China. The following changes have since occurred: In 1878 the silver dollar of 4122 grains was resumed, and the 20 cents discontinued; in 1887 the issue of the " trade dollar " was suspended; and in 1890 the same See also:fate befell the three dollars and dollar in gold, and the three cents in nickel. The types are—gold, head of Liberty and eagle; silver, head of Liberty, or Liberty seated, and eagle, except the dime, which has the mark of value; nickel, shield (5 cents) and head of Liberty; bronze, head of an Indian, and (191o) bust of See also:Lincoln; with reverse types for either metal, the mark of value. See also:Canada, &c.—The 'currency for the Dominion of Canada, which includes Nova See also:Scotia, New Brunswick and British See also:Columbia, is of silver and bronze, based on the system of the United States. The denominations are 5o, 25, 20, 10 and 5 cents in silver, and the cent in bronze; and they also have a uniform type of the sovereign's head and mark of value. The same system prevails in See also:Newfoundland, which also issues the double dollar in gold: this is the only gold coin issued in a British colony whose standard is not the same as that of the mother country. There is a separate coinage for See also:Jamaica, but of nickel only, and consisting of the penny, halfpenny and See also:farthing. See also:Mexico, &c.—We need not give any detailed account of the coins of Mexico, and of the various states of Central and South America, in nearly all of which there have been See also:radical changes since 187o. Most of them have adopted the decimal system, with a gold, silver or bi-metallic standard; the unit of value in the gold standard being generally the peso of 3.225 grammes, and in the silver also the peso, but of silver of 20, 25 or 27 grammes. India.—As to the coins of the East and Far East, we will limit our remarks to the more important countries. In British India the rupee of silver of 15o grains is still the unit of value. In 1893 the mints were closed to the unrestricted coinage of silver for the public. In 1899 they were opened to the free coinage of gold, the sovereign being declared legal See also:tender. At present £1=15 rupees of Is. 4d.; I rupee =16 annas; 1 See also:anna =4 pice; I pice =3 See also:pie =1 farthing. Persia.—In Persia since 1879 a decimal system in conformity with the principles of the Latin Monetary Union has been adopted, having for its unit the kran weighing 78 grs., thus being equivalent to the franc, but since reduced to 71 grs. or even less. The denominations are: in gold, the 1o, 5, 2, I, 2 and 4 toman (the toman =so krans); in silver, the 5, .2 and i kran (=2o shahis), and the to and 5 shahis; and in copper, the 4, 2 and t shahi (=2 pals), and the See also:pal. Japan.—Since 187o Japan has formed its coinage on the European decimal system in place of the ancient national coins, the obangs and itsibus, the unit being the yen of loo sen. The standard was bimetallic, and the relation of gold and silver stood at 1–16.17. In 1898 a gold standard was adopted, the issue of the silver yen was suspended, and the weight of the gold money was reduced by one-half. The coins issued since that date are, in gold, the 20, 10 and 5 yen; in silver, the 5o, 20 and lo sen; in nickel, the 5 sen; and in bronze, the sen and half-sen. There is one general type for all the silver, nickel and bronze coins, being the dragon on the obverse and a wreath of See also:flowers with mark of value on the reverse. The gold varies in having flags and flowers on the reverse. On the silver and bronze coins the legends are in English as well as in See also:Japanese. China.—In 1890 China followed the example of Japan, but only to a limited extent, and instituted a silver coinage having as its unit a dollar of the same value as the United States silver dollar and the Japanese yen. It is calculated in fractions of the tael, a money of account of the value of 2s. Hid. d. The coins are the dollar, and the 50, 25, 10 and 5 cents, with the Chinese dragon and inscriptions, mint and mark of value in English on the obverse, and on the reverse the mark of value in Chinese and Manchu. They were first struck at See also:Canton and Wei-Chang, but later other mints have been established. These are not', strictly speaking, imperial money, the sole official coinage and monetary unit being the copper cash. A decree of the 20th of See also:November 1905 proposed to establish an official dollar on the basis of the Kuping tael. An See also:edict of May 1910 provides for a standard currency dollar of 72 candareens, with a subsidiary decimal coinage in silver, nickel and copper, for circulation throughout the empire. Korea has had since 1905 a new coinage on the Japanese system, but with the Korean date. Hong See also:Kong.—The only other Asiatic coinage we shall note is that of Hong Kong, where in 1866 was established a coinage, which was also based on the United States standard, having the silver dollar as its unit. The denominations are the dollar and 5o,2oand 5 cents in silver, and the cent and mill in bronze; and, with the exception of the mill, they all have for type the sovereign's head and the mark of value. In connexion with this coinage there was issued in 1895 a " trade dollar " for special currency in the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong in lieu of the Mexican dollar, the scarcity of which was a considerable hindrance of trade. This coin, which was struck at the Bombay mint, shows on the obverse Britannia holding a Roubles (gold), Russia. 910 See also:trident and shield, and on the reverse within an ornamental design the denomination in Chinese and Malay. Since 1903, however, a new special dollar with the king's head has been issued for the Straits Settlements. Egypt.—Glancing cursorily at the coinage of Africa, we may note that since 1885 Egypt has adopted a gold standard with the gold pound of loo piastres as the unit of account. The piastre is no longer divisible into 40 paras, but into Io ochr-el-guerche or tenths. The types are similar to the Turkish money, and though bearing the legend " struck at See also:Cairo " the coins are really made at See also:Birmingham. For some years gold has not been issued. See also:Abyssinia.—In Abyssinia since 1893 there has been a silver coinage, but the Austrian Maria Theresa dollar is still current. The new coins are, in silver, the talari (=dollar, worth about 2s.), zi s and e talari, and in copper, the guerche, and z and i guerche. They show on one side the head of the king, and on the other a lion holding a banner. See also:Zanzibar.—Zanzibar has also issued a dollar of the fixed value of 2 rupees and 2 annas, and a copper coin called a pessa (=136th of a dollar). See also:Sudan.—The See also:African coinages which have attracted exceptional See also:attention .are those of the Sudan and the South African Republic. The former dates from 1885, when the See also:Mandi struck the pound of loo piastres in gold and the 20 piastres in silver, of the same type as the'Egyptian coins, but on the silver piece were placed the words By order of the Mandi," but no mint name. His successor, _Abdullah, struck pieces of 20, 10, 5, 2 and I piastre in silver and Io paras in copper, but no gold. They bear the name of the mint, See also:Omdurman, and the word makbul, i.e. accepted. At first the silver coins were of 6 parts silver and 2 copper, but in a few years they were so debased that they degenerated into mere pieces of copper washed with silver. The last issue is dated 1897 (A.11. 1315). See also:Congo Free State (Belgian Congo).—The coinage issued since 1887 consists of silver of 5, 2, I fr. and 5o centimes, and copper (with central hole) from 10 centimes to I centime. See also:Transvaal.—The first attempt at a separate coinage in the Transvaal was in 1874, when See also:President See also:Burgers issued sovereigns or pounds showing his portrait on the obverse and the shield of the Republic on the reverse. They were struck by Messrs Heaton of Birmingham, but as each piece of the current value of 20s. cost 26s. to strike, only £68o worth was issued, and but few of these passed into circulation, being preserved as curiosities. No further attempt was made till 1891, when President See also:Kruger induced the Raad to order a coinage in gold, silver and bronze after the English standard. The first issue occurred in 1892, and consisted of the pound and half-pound in gold; the crown, half-crown, florin, shilling, sixpence and threepence in silver; and the penny in bronze. They are all of the same type as the pound of 1874, but with the portrait of President Kruger on the obverse. The first issue of the pound, half-pound and crown was minted at Berlin, and a curious See also:mistake was made in the arms of the state, the See also:wagon being represented with two shafts instead of with one. This blunder was soon noticed, and a recoinage took place in the same year at See also:Pretoria. Since the See also:annexation British coins have been legal tender, but a new copper coinage was approved in 1904. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] GREECE |
[next] GREEK ART |