Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/717

Rh ANCIENT PERSIA.] NUMISMATICS 659 states which succeeded them, nor those of the English colonies and 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 Baltimore struck for Maryland, the pine-tree coins of Massa chusetts, 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 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 Sasanians. The conquests of the Arabs introduce a new currency, carried on by the Moslem inheritors of their empire. The modem Persian and Afghan money, though of Arab origin, is distinguished by the use of the Persian language with Arabic. The Indian currencies, though Greek, 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 Delhi and sub sidiary dynasties, with Arabic inscriptions ; the main series is con tinued 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 ex ceptional 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. .ncient The Persian coinage was originated by Darius I. (Hystaspis) about ersia. the time that he organized the empire in satrapies (516 B.C.). The regular 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 chose two weights, the gold stater of Croesus of 126 grains and the silver drachm of 84. He raised the weight of both, the gold to about 130 grains and the silver to 86. Thus one gold piece was equal to twenty silver. The gold coin was called the daric, the silver the siglus. 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 : (1) regal, (2) provincial with regal types, (3) satrapal, (4) of tribu tary states. The art of Persian coins varies according to the locality, from the beautiful work of the west coast of Asia Minor to the more formal style of Cilicia and the thoroughly hieratic stiffness of Phcenicia and Persia. The regal coinage is of darics and double darics in gold and of sigli in silver. The obverse type is the king as an archer, the reverse an irregular oblong incuse. The darics show differences of style, and must extend through the whole period of the empire. The sigli no doubt run parallel with them. Both these denomina tions are uninscribed. The double darics are of late style, and nearly all bear either Greek letters or monograms or symbols, some times both. They are undoubtedly of the last age of the empire or subsequent to its fall. The provincial coins with regal types appear to be mostly Phoenician ; the most important classes have been already noticed. But they also occur beyond this territoiy, as at Mallus in Cilicia, where the Persian regal archer is combined with the reverse of Heracles strangling the Nemean lion, with the inscription MAA. 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, certainly struck at Colophon, Cyzicus, and Lampsacus, and in one instance bearing the name of the satrap Pharnabazus, but usually the word &quot; king &quot; in Greek. The coin of Colophon shows a splendid portrait, one of the finest instances of Ionian work. It has been held to represent Artaxerxes II. (Mnemon), but has been lately assigned to Pharnabazus on the ground that the head-dress is not the proper regal kidaris. This is an objection, yet it seems inconceivable that the king of Persia would have countenanced the issue of the portrait of a satrap at a time when no Greek dynast dared to place his head on his own coinage. Of other satrapal issues those of Datames, of Tiribazus, and Cilician issues, struck at Tarsus, are specially note worthy. Their inscriptions are Aramaic. The coinages of the tributary states have been in part noticed in their geographical order ; it is difficult to separate them from the provincial issues with regal types. The conquest of Alexander* did not wholly destroy the independ- Par- ence of Persia. Within less than a century the warlike Parthians, thians. once subjects of Persia, revolted (249-8 B.C.) against the Seleudds 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 Arsaces seated, holding a strung bow. the later tetradrachms varying this uniformity. Every kind is styled Arsaces, to which many of the later sovereigns add their proper names. The inscriptions are usually long, reaching a climax in such as BA2IAEHS BASIAEfiN APSAKOY MET^AAOY AIKAIOY EIH-i&amp;gt;ANOYZ 0EOY EYHATOPOS 4&amp;gt;IAEAAH- NO2 of the llth Arsacid, Mithradates III., 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 (14th king) and his mother, the Italian slave Musa, with the title queen (0EAS OYPANIA2 MOY2HS BAZIAI22H2). The Persian line of the Sasanians arose about 220 A.D., and Sasan- wrested the empire from the Parthians in 226-7, under the leadership iaiis. of Ardashir or Artaxerxes. This dynasty issued a national and thus Oriental coinage in gold and silver. 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 on the reverse the sacred fire-altar, ordi narily flanked by the king and a priest. The attachment which Ardashir. the founder, bore to Zoroastrianism established this national reverse type, which endured through the four hundred years of the sovereignty of his line. The inscriptions are Pahlavi. The Arab coinage forms the most important Oriental group. It Caliph- has a duration of twelve centuries and a half, and at its widest ates. geographical extension was coined from Morocco to the borders of China, When the Arabs made their great conquests money be came a necessity. They first adopted in the East imitations of the current Persian silver pieces of the last Sasanians, but in Syria and Palestine of the Byzantine copper, in Africa of the gold of the same currency. Of these early coins the Sasanian imitations are very curious with Pahlavi inscriptions and shorter ones in Arabic (Cufic). The regular coimige with purely Moslem inscriptions begins with the issue of a silver coin at Basrah, in 40 A.H., by the caliph All ; after subsequent efforts thus to replace the Sasanian currency, the orthodox mintage was finally established, in 76 A. H., by Abd al-Melik. The names of the denominations aiid the weight of that of gold are plainly indicative of Byzantine influence. There were three coins. The dinar of gold 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, 66 grains and a fraction, is clearly derived from the Byzantine gold piece. The dirhem of silver is in name a revival of the Greek drachm ; it weighs at most 45 grains and a fraction. 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 Carlovingian 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 Islam, particularly in the coinage of the atabegs and in Mohammedan 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 remark ably uniform in fabric and general appearance. They are always flat and generally thin. The whole of both sides of the coins is occu pied by inscriptions in the formal Cufic character, usually arranged horizontally in the area and in a single or double band around. Towards the fall of the 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 frequentlv 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 writing. The inscriptions are religious, with the addition of the year by the era of the Flight, the 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 Omayvad dynasty. Subsequently the official name of the caliph occurs. 1 he religious part of the inscriptions is various, the most usual formula; being the profession of the Moslem faith : &quot;There is no deity but God ; Mohammed is the apostle of God,&quot; to which the Shi ites or