2nd s. N« 47., Nov. 22. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



407 



volves a considerable outlay ; the major part, in 

 all probability, confining themselves in the first 

 instance to the purchase of such as may now and 

 then be turned up in their own immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, and then occasionally adding one or 

 two from other sources, to fill up gaps in their 

 series ; or from their engaging the attention on 

 the score of beauty, or historic interest. 



I may refer such as are disposed to ridicule 

 coin-collecting to Addison and others, for a refu- 

 tation of arguments which, after all, only arise 

 from a lack of reading and acquaintance with the 

 subject; but that the study of coins is on the in- 

 crease, the prices realised at the coin auctions of 

 the Messrs. Sotheby will abundantly testify. 



The pecuniary value of the rarer Roman coins 

 has led to the fabrication of counterfeits, as most 

 tyros in coin collecting know to their cost. Few 

 cabinets are without one or two pieces which their 

 possessor suspects, and yet is afraid to banish, bis 

 indecision arising from a want of comparison with 

 similar specimens elsewhere existing : for, of 

 course, two pieces from the same mould or die, 

 and possessing the same counterfeit imperfections 

 and peculiarities, would at once settle the diffi- 

 culty, such a coincidence never occurring with 

 genuine coins. 



These counterfeits may be classed under four 

 general heads : — 



I. Paduan or Dutch Imitations, but not gene- 

 rally copies of the antique. Of these the work- 

 manship is fine ; but they are thinner, rounder, 

 and more regular than the genuine coins ; show- 

 ing generally traces of the file on their edges, and 

 always wanting the fine, hard, glazed, dark green 

 tcrugo, or patina, which so highly enhances the 

 beauty and value of an ancient medal. This is 

 common to all forgeries ; but it is often, though 

 unsuccessfully, attempted. 



II. Cast Coins, mostly from genuine models — 

 though sometimes from the pieces just described — 

 known by their fainter half-melted appearance, 

 wanting the sharp finish of a well-struck-up coin. 

 If touched up with the graver, this may be dis- 

 tinguished with a good glass ; as may also the 

 hollowness of the ground of the coin in places, and 

 sand-marks and cracks, which, instead of being 

 irregular, winding, and terminating in thin threads, 

 are clearly made with the file, and consequently 

 straight and regular. 



III. Altered Coins, perhaps the most deceptive 

 of all : one side being genuine, and the edge 

 indicating no attempt at deception. A Marcus 

 Aurelius is taken and altered on the obverse with 

 a graver into a Pertinax, a far rarer coin. A 

 Claudius of the colony of Antioch is speedily 

 transformed into the much-coveted Otho. Here 

 again the glass will detect the traces of the tool, 

 and the hollowing of the field. 



IV. Re-stimck and Composite Coins, which are 



either first defaced on the reverse, and the other 

 side being laid on a soft substance, a fresh and 

 perhaps unique reverse is stamped on with a die, 

 or else the reverse is carefully hollowed out, and 

 the reverse of another reign artfully grafted in. 

 This is often done with such coins as have a por- 

 trait on either side, as Maximinus and Maximus 

 Caesar. A third method is to saw two commoner 

 coins in half, and transpose the reverses, making 

 thereby two rare and curious. The want of cor- 

 respondence in design and execution of the two 

 faces will detect the first two of these frauds. 

 The thin thread of white solder will appear in the 

 others, under the magnifier, together with the 

 hardly-to-be-defaced marks of the file. 



Now what I am going to propose is, of course, 

 not applicable to the two latter divisions, as the 

 frauds therein described are practised on indivi- 

 dual coins ; but wherever a mould or die has been 

 made for the purpose of forgery, many casts must 

 have been produced to make the speculation pay. 



May I solicit the favour, therefore, of opening 

 the pages of " N. & Q." to lists of known for- 

 geries of Roman coins, with their reverses, 

 legends, and peculiarities, if any. A collector 

 of Roman coins may then compare these descrip- 

 tions with the coins he suspects in his own cabi- 

 net, and be enabled to eject at once those pieces 

 which as they are, are only a subject of annoy- 

 ance. I have already occupied too much space, 

 but I am ready to begin with a small list of such 

 forgeries as have fallen in my way. 



E. S. Tatlok. 



Ormcsbj'- St. Margaret. 



Miliar ^attS, 



Locke : Akenside. — Locke is said to have written 

 some part of his Essay on the Human Understaiid- 

 ing at Bothal Castle, in Northumberland. Is 

 there any foundation for this tradition ? 



Akenside wrote part of his Pleasures of the 

 Imagination at Morpeth, in Northumberland, 

 whose " limpid Wansbeck " he apostrophises. 



Heney T. RiiiEr. 



The Boomerang : probahly an early allusion to 

 it. — The following words in Pliny's Natural His- 

 tory, b. xxiv. c. 72. appear to me not improbably 

 to bear reference to the Boomerang, with which, 

 as we learn from recent discoveries, the people of 

 the East were acquainted. See Bonomi's Nineveh, 

 p. 136. He is speaking of the account given by 

 Pythagoras of the Aquifolia, either the holm-oak 

 or the holly ; and proceeds to state that, accord- 

 ing to that author — 



" Baculum ex ea factum, in quodvis animal emissum, 

 etiamsi citra ceciderit defectu mittentis, ipsum per sese 

 cnbitu propius adlabi; tarn pr^ecipuam naturam inesse 

 arbori."' 



