THE COIN COLLECTOR'S MANUAL COMPRISING AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF COINAGE, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE COINAGES OF MODERN EUROPE, BY H. NOEL HUMPHREYS, 99 66 AUTHOR OF "THE COINS Of England," 'ANCIENT COINS AND MEDALS,' PREFACE. THE increasing interest, and even importance, of a scientific knowledge of antiquities becoming every day more thoroughly appreciated, and every branch of archæology being now cultivated by a host of earnest admirers, popular and condensed manuals of its various sections are rendered indispensably necessary to those who have not leisure to make each an especial object of study. The knowledge of ancient coins and their associated sources has been justly termed by the celebrated Mionnet 'une magnifique branche d'archéologie;" and it is to this branch (not overrated in the epithet of Mionnet), that the present work is devoted. Since the time of Pinkerton, whose entertaining but now imperfect work has always been read with pleasure, no English treatise has appeared embracing the whole subject, which is not either too scanty to satisfy the curiosity of the educated inquirer, or too technical and voluminous. It has, therefore, been the author's aim, in the present work, to adopt that juste milieu which shall embody informa tion, sufficiently copious and accurate, and yet clear of technicalities and minutiæ. One principal advantage of the present volume consists in its strictly chronological arrangement. Beginning with the first indications of positive coinage among the Greeks, and the development of the art effected by them, directly and indirectly, the student is led to the general state of Greek coinage at the decline of the kingdoms of the Macedonian empire. The Roman coinage follows, and after the fall of the empire, a sketch of that of modern Europe, in full detail as regards England. Indeed, the British coins of every reign, from the Anglo-Saxons to the present period, are adduced seriatim. The principal matter has been so arranged as to present itself in a familiar reading form, instead of in dry catalogues; but, as the latter are essential for reference, they are given in a very complete series of indexes at the end of the volume. Until the student has advanced far enough to require the great work of Eckhel-which contains, in a kind of Lexicon, whatever is known of ancient coins to a very recent period-the present volume will, it is believed, afford him all the instruction, entertainment, and general information, he is likely to require. H. N. H. |