SUCCESSIVE FORMS OF THE HOLLOW REVERSE IN ANCIENT GREEK COINS.

The name under each Coin is that of the State or City by which it was issued.

"The whole of the Coins in this Plate are SILVER

perhaps, have to do so again in another place. The course of disappearance of the national character of the coinage was gradual-first, the appearance of the dots or globules, denotes the extinction of the native standards and their forced accordance with the value of the Roman as; the next step was the disappearance of the gold and silver; and, eventually, even of the copper, by the issue of a central coinage exclusively Roman; this, however, did not take place fully and finally till after the reigns of the three or four of first Cæsars, and, in some few cases, still later.

CHAPTER V.

THE PROGRESS OF THE ART OF COINING, FROM THE PERIOD WHEN THE PUNCH-MARK OF THE REVERSE BECAME SYMMETRICAL IN FORM, TILL THE PERIOD OF ITS DISUSE, AND THE ADOPTION OF A PERFECT REVERSE.

IN former chapters, I have endeavoured to trace the variations in the earliest modes of fabricating coined money. I shall now endeavour to follow its progress from the time when the punch-mark of the reverse first assumed a somewhat regular form, to the period when the mode of executing both sides of the coin with equal perfection and elaboration was achieved.

From the great variety of early methods described in the preceding chapter, it will be seen that it would be impossible to follow the separate progress of each; and I can only just hint at the curious fact, that in some of the towns of Magna Græcia they passed at once from the curious incused * method, to that of producing perfect reverses, while in other places the progress from the square punch-mark to the perfect reverse, appears to have been much more gradual, as will be shown by the series of examples about to be described.

It was probably about the year 550 B.C., or rather earlier,

See coins of Sybaris, &c., chap. iv.

that the degree of symmetry exhibited in the punch-mark of the coin, No. 1, Plate IV., was attained. It is a coin of Abdera, in Thrace. Abdera, as related by Pomponius Mela, owed its origin to Abdera, sister of Diomedes, who, according to the fable, fed his celebrated Thracian steeds on human flesh, and was slain by Hercules. Being abandoned, after a hostile invasion, Abdera was, eventually, re-colonised by Asiatic Greeks, Teians, of Ionia, who, dreading the increasing power of the Persians, abandoned their native town, and fled to the more distant ruined town in Thrace, which they restored. The striking resemblance between the money of Teos and Abdera * is a strong and valuable evidence of this emigration, both having for principal type the griffon. The character of the punch-mark, and the archaic treatment of the griffon, would seem to prove that this rare coin must have been one of the first struck by the new inhabitants of Abdera. The antique spelling of the name, with the P formed like the Roman P, marks a degree of antiquity at least equal to that here assigned to this coin. The griffon was sacred to Apollo, a divinity highly venerated at Teos, the parent state.

Before passing to the next example, the student should carefully observe the obverse and reverse of this rare monument of a peculiar phase of ancient art, in order to better appreciate the importance of the next step in advance.

No. 2, Plate IV., is a Macedonian coin, which, in its mode of fabric, has considerable affinity with those of the neighbouring country of Thrace. The punch-mark is similar to that of Abdera; but the important addition of a name, and that, too, of a prince, the period of whose reign is well known, makes it a most important numismatic monument. The name is that of Alexander I., King of Macedonia, who reigned from about the year 500 to 454 B.C. The inscription stands AAEZANAPO, in the dative case, in the ancient manner, with o instead of . It was till recently thought that this was probably the first coin struck with an inscription on the reverse, as other coins of precisely similar type and fabric in other respects, and evidently of the same epoch, have the same punch-mark without inscription like the coin of Abdera, described above.

*See chapter on Greek types.

The celebrity of the horses of Thrace and Macedonia ed, no doubt, to the adoption of the horse as a principal type on early Macedonian coins, generally accompanied by a warrior, wearing on his head, what has been termed the Macedonian hat. On later coins of this state, the warrior is mounted, and eventually, this early type was abandoned altogether. The coin just described is the earliest regal coin known of a prince mentioned in history, and it consequently makes a most interesting monument in numismatic chronology.

The recently-discovered coins, however, of a Getas, king of the Edoneans, a prince whose name has only been recovered by means of the coins alluded to, bear a strong affinity, in style, to those of Alexander I. of Macedon, and have in addition to the name, as on the coins of Alexander, the title of king, and the name of the people over whom he reigned.

Such an inscription would, according to numismatic theory, place the fabrication of these coins at a much more recent period; but the style of art (unless it be a barbaric imitation by later workmen, of Macedonian coins of an earlier period) at once stamps them of the period of Alexander I. They are considered, by numismatists of high authority, to be genuine coins, and hence become most important and interesting monuments in that science. The Edoneans appear to have possessed that range of country on the borders of Thessaly, in which the abundance of silver ore in the mountains, caused mines to be worked by several Greek nations at a very early period, who established colonies there for that purpose. That the Edoneans were in the possession of great monetary wealth is evidenced by these coins, which are of unusually great weight, being octodrachms, or pieces of eight drachms, double the size of the highest class of silver coins common in other states of that period. The inscriptions are found in two different dialects, running sometimes ΓΕΤΑΣ ΗΔΩΝΑΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ (of the King of the Edoneans, Getas) in the Doric, with Basileus in the genitive case; and sometimes, ΓΕΤΑΣ ΕΔΟΝΕΟΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ, in the Ionic, with Basileus in the nominative case.

Coins of the neighbouring tribes of the Osseans of similar character, are known, but only with the name of the people,