Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/689

Rh GREEK COINS.] N U M I S M A T I C S 631 arranged chronologically, the civic commencing with the oldest and ending with those bearing the effigies of Roman emperors. The gold coins of each period take precedence of the silver and the silver of the copper. The larger denominations in each metal are placed before the smaller. Coins of the same denomination and period are arranged in the alphabetical order of the magistrates names, or the letters, &c., that they bear. 2. Roman Coins. All coins issued by the Roman commonwealth and empire, whether struck at Rome or in the provinces. The arrangement is chronological, or, where this is better, under geo graphical divisions. 3. Mediaeval and Modern Coins of Europe. All coins issued by Christian European states, their branches and colonies, from the fall of the empire of the West to the present day. This class is arranged in a geographical and chronological order, as similar as possible to that of the Greek class, with the important exception of the Byzantine coins and the coins following Byzantine systems, which occupy the first place. The reason for this deviation is that the Byzantine money may be regarded not only as the principal source of mediaeval coinage but as the most complete and important mediaeval series, extending as it does without a break throughout the Middle Ages. The regal coins usually precede the civic ones, as being the more important ; and the medals of each sovereign or city follow the coins. 4. Oriental Coins. All coins bearing inscriptions in Eastern languages, excepting those of the Jews, Phoenicians, and Cartha ginians, which are classed with the Greek coins from their close connexion with them. These coins should be arranged under the following divisions : Ancient Persian, Arab, Modern Persian, Indian, Chinese, and coins of the far East. This method of arrangement will be found to be as uniform as it can be made, without being absolutely mechanical. It differs in some important particulars from most or all of those which have previously obtained ; but these very differences are the result of the consideration of a complete collection, and have therefore an inductive origin. A general uniformity is no slight gain, and may well reconcile us to some partial defects. These defects may be remedied in large collections by the use of &quot;cross-references&quot; from one cabinet to another, and by the formation of independent series to illustrate the general one. A series illustrative of Greek art, and another of Giwco-Roman, might be formed. A series of portraits, and another of reverse types, would be equally valuable. Others might be made to show the changes of the coinage in relation to the condition of a state, with careful indications of the weight and composition of the examples, and others to illustrate the history of a particular country or city. Thus, the Byzantine copper coinage exhibits the success or disaster of the imperial arms, and the financial state of the empire in its fluctuations, while nothing can be more interesting than to see at one view the numismatic history of a great city. We have coins of Rome under the commonwealth and the empire, under the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, the mediaeval senate, and the popes. The series of London would be not the least curious. It would begin with the Roman coins issued by the mint of Londinium at the time of Diocletian and his colleagues, comprising those of the usurpers Carausius and Allectus ; then, having not long after ceased for a time, it would recommence with the Saxon pennies, including a specimen of those of King Alfred, which have for their reverse type the monogram of the city s name ; and, continuing through the mediaeval period, it would con clude with modern tokens and medals, among the latter of which might be placed a copy of that famous one of the first Napoleon, with the inscription &quot; F rappee a Londres, which was intended to commemorate the success of the Boulogne expedition. I. GREEK COINS. There are some matters relating to Greek coins in general which may be properly considered before they are described in geographical order. These are their general character, the chief denominations, with the different talents of which they were the divisions, their devices and inscriptions, their art, and the mode of striking. The period during which Greek coins were issued was probably not much less than a thousand years, commencing about the beginning of the 7th century B.C. and generally ending at the death of Gallienus (268 A.D. ). If classed with reference only to their form, fabric, and general appearance they are of three prin cipal types, the archaic Greek, the ordinary Greek, and the Graco- Roman. The coins of the first class are of silver, electrum, and sometimes gold. They are thick lumps of an irregular round form, bearing on the obverse a device, with in some cases an accom panying inscription, and on the reverse a square or oblong incuse stamp (quadratum incusuni), usually divided in a rude manner. The coins of the second class are of gold, electrum, silver, and bronze. They are much thinner than those of the preceding class, and usually have a convex obverse and a slightly concave or flat reverse. The obverse ordinarily bears a head in bold relief. The coins of the third class are, with very few exceptions, of bronze. They are flat and broad, but thin, and generally have on the ob verse the portrait of a Roman emperor. It may be observed that the common division of Greek coins is into autonomous and im perial, the former comprising all except those of the Roman period which have the effigies of emperors. The different monetary systems of the Greeks grew out of the use Mone- of different standards of weight ; in other words, their coins were tary sys- dmsions of various talents. To investigate the origin of these terns, monetary systems would demand a complete examination of Greek metrology, which could not be attempted in the present article. It will be well, however, to state in a few words the theory of Dr Brandis, at once the latest and the most satisfactory, though it cannot be said to completely solve the hard series of problems which the documents set before us. The source of the Greek systems of weight has been referred to Babylonia, no link having been established with the different metrology of Egypt, a circumstance which may make us pause before finally accepting the results of the inquiry. The Babylonian weights had a twofold form, the heavy talent, sometimes called the Assyrian, and the light talent, sometimes called the Baby lonian. The heavy talent is the double of the light. Their weights and those of their divisions are thus stated by Dr Brandis on the evidence of the inscribed weights found at Nimrud, the ancient Calah, in Assyria (see NINEVEH), which are now in the British Museum. The result is approximately true, but it has been shown by a careful reweighing of the objects that the maximum weights rise somewhat higher and the minimum fall somewhat lower than is indicated in the table. Grammes. Grains Heavy Talent C0,600 = 936,000 ; iiina 1,010 = 15,600 ; s i Mina 16-83 = 260 ; Light Talent 30,300 =468,000; Mina 505 = 7,800; e VMina 8 415= 130; known range 02,400 to 57,600 grammes. 1,040 ,, 960 17-33 16 ,, 31,200 27,600 ,, 520 460 8-66 7-66 The heavy talent is supposed to have found its way to Greece by sea from the Phoenician coast-towns, the light talent by land through Lydia. In adopting the Babylonian weights the Phoe nicians and Greeks made an important deviation. They accepted the sixtieth of the mina as their shekel or stater, but allowed only fifty instead of sixty of these units to their mina, retaining the sexagesimal division in counting sixty minse to the talent. Thus the Phoenician and Greek talents contained 3000 shekels or staters, not 3600 sixtieths of the mina. Two talents thus arose, that by which the earliest Phocaic gold money was struck, derived from the heavy Babylonian, with a stater having a maximum weight of 256 grains, and the Euboic talent, derived from the light Babylonian, with a stater of 130 grains or a little more. The Phocaic was a modification of the Babylonian heavy talent, the Euboic of the light, each having the same stater as the parent weight, but a lower talent. The relation of gold to silver in the earliest days of coined money, about 700 B.C., and for long after, was 13g to 1 ; consequently it was inconvenient to use the same standard for the two metals. Two systems for silver money are supposed to have arisen from this necessity, and it is here that the most brilliant but least conclusive part of the theory of Dr Brandis begins. The sixtieth of the heavy Babylonian mina weighed 260 grains, its sixtieth again weighed 4 - 3 ; this multiplied by 13 3 gives us the Phoenician drachm of 57 grains, introduced into Greece, and the basis of the so-called Graeco-Asiatic or Phoe nician silver standard. Four of these drachms produced the Phoe nician stater at its maximum of 230 grains. JV.ms fifteen staters were equal to one gold sixtieth (230 x 15-f-13J = 258f, nearly 260). Dr Brandis therefore calls this the fifteen-stater system. The Lydians, on the other hand, are supposed to have originated a silver stater by multiplying the sixtieth of the light mina, 130 grains, by 13 3 and dividing this by ten, so as to obtain a silver stater of about 170 grains, current long after in Asia Minor. Ten of these staters would thus be equal to one gold sixtieth. This, therefore, is called the ten-stater system. The monetary standards of the Greeks (expressed in grains) may be referred to the two original talents in the following manner : Phocaic talent 780,000 Phoenician 690,000 Macedonian ,, Ptolemaic ,, ^ginetic HEAVY TALENT. Normal. Actual. 768,000 ; 600,000 ; used for gold in Asia Minor. ,, gold and silver. silver. ,, gold and silver. silver. silver. gold and silver. gold and silver. silver. 582,000 ; LIGHT TALENT. Persic 518,000; (Euboic 405,000; 1 Attic 405,000; J Corinthian 270,000 ; The following table exhibits the weights of the principal denomi- Denomi nations of the Greek systems. The Corinthian talent is excluded nations, as simply a differently divided variety of the Attic, the Rhodian as a degraded Attic. In the subsequent account of Greek money the metrology of each class will be carefully noted.