Observations on the Purity of Standard Gold, 133 



grounds, however, for thinking that it was used in the state 

 in which it was found. 



Patin assayed a statera of gold of this king (the deno- 

 mination of his coin among the Persians and Macedonians), 

 and found it to he 23 carats and a half, or 0*970. We 

 cannot allow ourselves to believe that the metallurgists of 

 that monarch thought to purify gold by adding to it only 

 a 4Sth part of alloy, but we can easily suppose that the gold 

 was found in this state of fineness. 



If alloys were added to gold from a bad design, or with 

 the mistaken idea of covering the expense of manufacturing 

 it; this has degenerated into fraud, and has no limits; if 

 the alloy was added with the view of ^making the money 

 harder, it was a futile attempt. Neither of these motives 

 could sway with Philip, because he enjoyed abundant mines 

 of gold, and because, as he wished to appear generous, he 

 would have made his coin of pure gold, if he thought it 

 necessary to refine it : or he would have added more alloy, 

 if policy suggested that he should not employ it as it came 

 from the bowels of the earth *. It should seem, therefore, 

 that his mines furnished him with gold at 23 carats and a 

 half (0*979)> as it is found to be in his coins, if there be no 

 error in Patin's analysis : but it might perhaps be interest- 

 ing to confirm this fact by a new experiment. 



Chevalier Fossombroni, an eminent mathematician, in 

 digging the foundation of a house near Arezzo, found a 

 statera of Philip in good preservation, which he was kind 

 enough immediately to give us to be examined by analysis. 



On one side of this piece, as in most of Philip's coins, 

 there is a head of Apollo, and on the reverse a car with two 

 liorses : the name is on the exergue : — on similar coins we 

 see under the legs of the horse a monogram or type indi- 

 cating the mint where the coin was struck. On the piece 

 in question there was a trident, which means Trcezene. 



Fourteen of these coins are preserved in the cabinet of 

 the Florence gallery : the face and the reverse of eleven of 

 them are similar to that of Arezzo ; but they have various 

 distinguishing marks, one only bearing the same mint-mark 



* I transmitted to M. Mongez the analysis of an ancient coin with the 

 effigy of Philip: its examination also proved, that under the reign of that 

 prince alloys were used in the making of money, the composition of which 

 was natural, or at least unknown; for it contained silver 368, gold 184, 

 copper 448. 



It is not likely that so complex an alloy would have been used at a pe- 

 riod when the modes of analysis were so little known, as to fall far short of 

 the degree of exactness which may be attained even by employing the 

 touchstone and prepared acid now in use. 



I 3 with 



