Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/49

Rh two silver tetradrachms of Sicyon; and also, it is said, some gold coins of Alexander the Great; but these last were not secured by the Government.

The Athenian tetradrachms in this hoard were of that well-known class which may be called Pseudo-Archaic, having been evidently imitated from the original thick coins of Athens, so celebrated in ancient commerce for the purity of their standard. This original currency was probably as much esteemed in the ancient Mediterranean as the Spanish dollar has been in more recent times, and the imitation of the archaic type and fabric may have arisen from an unwillingness to disturb the old commercial associations connected with these coins.

The twelve Athenian tetradrachms found in this hoard were much worn; on the other hand, the coins of Alexander were fresh as when they left the die. It is evident, therefore, that the Athenian money had been some time in circulation. Again, from the finding of coins of Seleucus Nicator, of Philip Arrhidæus, and of Ætolia, in the same company, it may be inferred that the time of the deposit of this treasure was some time in the third century B.C., and that the Pseudo-Archaic Athenian tetradrachms were circulating down to this late period. They were succeeded, as is well known, by a broad tetradrachm, slightly dished, which is evidently an imitation of the coinage of Alexander and his successors. This hoard was discovered by a peasant at Patras, in a vase. The coins are, I regret to say, still kept in bags, like the tribute of a Turkish Pasha.

In the hands of a jeweller at Athens I saw a