OZENм, an Æolian genitive (of the Osseans), and no name of a prince. The woodcut below of a coin of Getas, in the British Museum, will convey a good idea of the style of this coinage. and of its close resemblance, except in the fulness of the inscription, to those of Alexander I. No. 3, Plate IV., is a coin of Clazomene, which is one of the earliest attempts to place a type similar to the principal one, in the punch-mark of the reverse. The obverse bears one of the principal Clazomenean types, the lion; while, in the hollow of the punch-mark, we find, rudely executed, the winged boar,* another and more celebrated symbol of this place. The general appearance and execution of this would probably induce a numismatist to assign it to a period of antiquity about as high as the coin of Alexander I. No. 4, Plate IV., is an early coin of Syracuse, exhibiting one of the best defined examples of the first introduction of a human head within the four squares of the punch-mark. It is most probably the head of Proserpine, or Koras, as she is commonly styled on Syracusan coins. The outline of the head is harsh and archaic in character, and the hair is formed by a repetition of small round lumps, or dots, to imitate curls, a style common in archaic art of the period to which this coin may, with the greatest degree of probability, be assigned, viz., about 480 or 490 B.C.; as the improved coins attributed to the time of Gelo I., having a perfect reverse, * See description of plate 1, a gold coin of Clazomene. The name under each on is that of the State, City, or Prince by whom it was issued. though still archaic in the style of art (may be dated about 478 B.C.)* The biga, or two-horse chariot, which is here first met with, afterwards became a favourite type upon various coins of Greece and her colonies, and nearly constant on those of Syracuse, having some allusion, it is supposed, to victories in the Olympic Games. The horses, here only stepping, are, on later coins, represented in more rapid action; and were eventually, in the type of quadriga, or four-horse chariot, represented, as we shall see, at full gallop, and with the greatest spirit and beauty. The inscription on the present coin is ETPA, the first four letters of Syracuse. No. 5 is a coin of Maronea, selected only with the view of exhibiting another link in the progress of the fabrication of the reverse. Maronea, in Thrace, according to Mythologic tradition, was founded by Maron, a companion of Osiris, or, according to others, a son of Bacchus. The usual type of Maronea, is a bunch of grapes, which occurs on coins having 'he first letters of the name of the place, ZAP, the м placed in the position of a sigma; and the occurrence of the same type on this coin, the fabric of which is of Thracian character, has caused it to be attributed to that place, although the inscription is only the name of an unknown magistrate (EHNONOX), and consequently conveys no evidence as to the place where the coin was struck. The disposition of the inscription is nearly the same as that on the coin of Alexander I., but the execution is much more finished, both of the reverse, and of the Thracian type, the horse, on the obverse. It may have been struck about 450 B.C.; but, with very few exceptions, such dates are mere hypotheses, and the student must, by comparison and study, work out his own system of chronology for these primitive coins, as it is a branch of numismatics that has not yet seriouly engaged the attention of the most learned int he science. No. 6, Plate IV., is a coin of the Spartan colony of Cyrene, in Africa, selected for the purpose of exhibiting the great advance in the execution and treatment of the head of Jupiter Ammon, introduced in the punch-mark, from the head of Proserpine, on the Syracusan coin, No. 4, in the * These dates tend to show that art in Sicily was more advanced at this time than in Greece and Macedonia plate under description. Battus, of Thera, an island subject to Laconia, founded Cyrene about 640, B.C. The Silphium, a beautiful and valuable plant growing abundantly in that district, was, by the Cyreneans, made sacred to his memory, as the founder of the city, and a branch of the herb was annually carried to the mother country and offered up as a sacrifice in the temple of Delphi. It is this plant which forms the type of the obverse of the coin I am now describing, and continued to form the principal type of the Cyrenean money, long after the subjection of the whole of northern Africa to the power of Rome. The head on the reverse is sharp and spirited in execution, and surrounded by a circular line of dots within the square, leaving space in the angles for the letters KTP, the first three of the name, which, on coins of the Roman period, is found at full length. This coin, though still exhibiting the ancient characteristic of the punch-mark, is, perhaps, not older than about 430 to 450 B.C., or of the time of Pericles, when the art of sculpture was carried to the highest pitch in Athens, by the celebrated Phidias ; but the square mark seems to have been preserved with a sort of veneration, long after the excellence of art displayed on the coins where it is found is sufficient to prove that it could have been dispensed with if desired. No. 7, Plate IV., is a coin of the celebrated city of Athens, and, possibly, as modern as the time of Pericles, though the severe and almost rude archaism with which the head of Athena (Minerva), the tutelary deity of the city, is executed, might incline one to assign it to an earlier period than that in which the great Phidias produced the wonderful metopes of the Parthenon. But it is acknowledged by numismatists that the Athenians paid but little attention to the art displayed on their money, and were surpassed by most cities both of Greece and the colonies in this particular. The reverse has the deep square punch-mark, with the owl, the principal attribute of Minerva, for type; with a spray of olive, sacred to the same divinity, in the corner, and the letters ᎪᎾᎬ. This symbol, the owl, gave rise to the wellknown anecdote of the Athenian miser, the roof of whose house was said to be infested by vast numbers of owls, in allusion to money of the well-known Athenian type being concealed there. Having a few more observations to make |