it was yet derived from a foreign source, and not coined by any Greek state. This was the famous Macedonian coinage of the Philips, so called from the name of the prince by whom they were issued.

This coinage is generally considered Greek, as Philip eventually obtained the privilege of being considered a Greek sovereign, and admitted as such to the sacred games, &c. Therefore from this time, Greek money is not invariably spoken of as silver, but the term xpvolov, or gold money, is occasionally used without defining of what nation, or denomination, as previously, the Darics or Cyzicenes, or other foreign gold coins, had been described.

But, as has been stated, previous to this period foreign gold circulated freely in Greece, and some of the islands, and especially Samos, appear to have had at an early period a gold coinage, for the tyrant Polycrates is said to have imposed upon the Lacedæmonians by paying to them gilded coins upon a certain occasion, instead of the true gold coin which they expected. There are gold coins of an early period which are supposed to belong to the island of Siphnas, where rich gold mines were worked in the time of Croesus. But the gold chiefly circulating in Greece was, first, that of Lydia, the coins of which were long known as Crosians; secondly, that of Cyzicus, where gold continued to be coined till the close of the Roman empire, known as Cyzicenes, of which, in a depreciated form, the later zechines. or sequins of Venice are supposed to be imitations both in name and value; and thirdly, the Darics, which, however, disappeared after the age of Alexander, the great bulk of them being recoined by that conqueror in the form of the well-known staters of his reign. The Daric, when it passed for twenty Attic drachmæ, was (according to the few

*

*The Cyzicenes would appear to have had a larger circulation beyond the boundaries of their own state than any other Greek gold previous to the issue of the celebrated Philips-a fact attested by the numerous imitations of them by other states, as was afterwards the case with the Philips. This sort of imitation of the coins of one state by another, has its analogy in modern, or rather mediæval Europe, the gold florins, taking their name from Florence, the first city of modern Europe to issue gold in quantity, having been copied by many other states, not only in name but even in the device of the Florentine liiv their principal type.

specimens preserved) four grains short of the weight of the Attic didrachm, being only about 128 grains instead of 132; and the exchange with Athens proves gold, say about 400 B.C., to have been a little more than ten times the value of silver. The value of the Daric in our money is about 16s. 3d. Barthelemy states that they are twenty-three karats (ths) fine, if so, they are 4th finer than our gold. The stater of Phocea was also in circulation in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ; but being of baser metal than the Cyzicene, or Daric, it never circulated so widely, and fell earlier into discredit.

It has been seen that the gold attributed to Sardis, the capital of Lydia, the gold of Cyzicus, and the Darics, formed the principal gold circulation in Greece Proper prior to the time of Philip of Macedon. But the Sicilians, especially the Syracusans, had a gold coinage as early, if not earlier, than 400 B.C., as had also some of the cities of Southern Italy (Magna Græcia), among which the gold coins of Tarentum may be cited as the most plentiful, and the most remarkable for their beauty. For while the primitive gold coinages of the Greek colonies in Asia are more remarkable for their curious antique workmanship, the gold of Sicily and Magna Græcia, most of which belong to the finest period of the monetary art among the Greeks, is celebrated for its fine workmanship; but it is rivalled by cotemporary gold of the Spartan colony of Cyrene in Africa, and by the late gold of some Greek cities in Asia, especially that of Clazomene.

THE GOLD COINAGE OF PHILIP II. OF MACEDON, ALEXANDER THE GREAT, AND OTHER GREEK DYNASTIES.

*

The gold of Philip II., issued in large quantities from his Thessalian mines, soon nearly superseded all other gold coin, and became so celebrated for its full weight and purity, and so extensively known from its abundance, that it was immediately copied in Sicily, with the addition sometimes of a national type, or symbol, to distinguish it, and afterwards by other Greek states, and even by barbaric nations for

* See coins of the Kings of Macedon.

centuries after the time of Philip; still, however, bearing the original name which these staters soon acquired, of Philips. Some of these coins remained in circulation in remote provinces bordering on Asia and Europe to times very near to our own. The staters of Philip II. were coined according to the Attic standard of about sixty-six grains to the drachm, though the old Macedonian standard resembling that of Ægina, but still heavier, was continued in the silver coinage till the reign of Alexander the Great, when the Attic standard was adopted for that metal also. The ancient standard of Macedonia may be taken at 108 grains to the drachm, which perhaps was the same originally as that of Egina, derived through Phidon of Argos, and which in inland Macedonia, remained uninfluenced by the innovations of active commerce, while in the commercial island of Ægina the decrease from ninety-six to eighty-two grains subsequently took place; after which the coinage of that island assumed the firm standard from which it did not again depart.

The Ptolemies, in establishing their sway in Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great, adopted the ancient Macedonian standard for their money-a fact to be spoken of hereafter.

Alexander coined gold after the same standard as his father Philip, and the quantity minted in Asia was enormous, nearly all the Darics and other staters being recoined in the Alexandrian form.*

The gold staters of Philip and Alexander were of the highest purity; in fact, without alloy. The mere particle of silver which they contain being considered present merely because it could not be separated; therefore, as containing 133 grains of fine gold, while our sovereign contains 123 grains 22 carats (or 12ths) fine, the stater of these reigns is equal to 11. 3s. 6d. of our money; but calculated according to its relative value in silver at the time, (namely, twenty drachms,) it is only worth 16s. 3d., gold having been less valuable in proportion to silver then than now.

Of the successors of Alexander, Lysimachus, who obtained possession of the Thracian and Thessalian gold mines, issued

* For types of gold of Alexander and Philip, see coins of the Macedonian Dynasty.

the greatest quantity of gold money,-that of Lysimachus still existing in great abundance, and occasionally in large pieces, even of the weight of eight or ten drachms. The octodrachms, or eight-drachm pieces, of the Ptolemies are celebrated and well-known; and being coined according to the ancient Macedonian standard, were long a puzzle to numismatists as to weight and denomination. Only a few nearly unique gold coins occur in the money of Syria and in the dynasty of the Seleucidæ, and the same may be said of the Parthian coinage of the Arsacidæ, till the revolution of Ardishir, who established the Persian supremacy, after which gold was coined in accordance with the weight of the Roman aureus.

In the mean time some of the lesser Greek dynasties in Asia had coined gold, such as the Kings of Pontus, of Pergamus, of Bythynia, and also the Sicilian family of Hiero, King of Syracuse, where the Attic standard had been adopted for the gold coinage. The gold coinage of the Kings of the Cimmerian Bosphorus belongs perhaps more to the Roman than the Greek period.

GREEK COINS OF ELECTRUM.

The metal termed by the ancients electrum is a mixture of gold and silver, which is of a pale straw colour, instead of the rich deep yellow of pure gold. The earliest known coins of the metal are among those now attributed to Sardis in Lydia, the metal of which is supposed to have been a natural amalgam, found in the sands of the Pactolus, which flowed near the Sardian capital; and probably in other places also, as later Greek coins, both autonomous and regal, are known of this metal. At a late period it was artificially imitated, and Pliny mentions in detail the relative proportions of gold and silver made use of, which was sometimes a fifth, and occasionally even a third of silver. There are Sicilian coins of Agathocles in this metal, of the kings of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and also of the Gaulish and British chieftains or princes, previous to the Roman invasion.

OF THE GREEK SILVER COINS, THEIR WEIGHTS,
AND VALUES.

SILVER COINAGES OF THE ÆGINETAN STANDARD.

I have in this work accepted the theory that the Greek silver coinage was copied from the gold ones of Lydia and Hellenic Asia, and that the weights and values adopted were also founded on the Asiatic ones.

The earliest Greek silver, that of Ægina, appears, as stated in the previous chapter, to have corresponded with the earliest gold of Asia, especially that of Cyzicus. *

The largest silver coin of the Æginetans appears to have been the didrachm, † or piece of two drachms, weighing from 182 to 196 grains, but they had the triobolus or half drachma, the diobolus, or piece of two obols, which were the third of a drachma-obols, and, even half obols, all o silver.

The following is a Table of their proportion and value :—

It will be seen by the above table that the drachma divided into seventy-two half obols, forms the original type upon which our shillings and pennies would seem to be founded, though the Roman Denarius, derived from the

* Mr. Millingen, a great authority, appears to consider the staters of Cyzicus among the earliest, if not themselves the earliest, of all gold coin,

†The tridrachm or piece of three drachms, the tetradrachm or piece of four drachms, ani the decadrachm or piece of ten drachms, are rarely found in the carly coinages, except in the Macedonian series.