1879.] ^dd [Phillips. 



its refinement and luxury. From the earliest days of its coinage, when 

 the reverse was simply the rude punch mark, to the last periods when its 

 money was issued , the pieces struck and engraved for this city are worthy 

 of a high rank and possess a great merit. 



The very tirst coins issued by Corinth bear on the obverse Pegasus, with 

 the archaic letter 9 (Koph), which disappeared from the later Greek 

 alphabet. Reverse, the so called key pattern punch mark. The execu- 

 tion of the flying horse is very bold. 



This city was colonized at a very early period by the Phoenicians, and 

 was destroyed by the Romans under L. Memmius, B. C. 146. The present 

 piece was issued about 480 B. C. 



It is interesting to compare the coinage of this city with that of Sybaris, 

 both of infamous renown for the pursuit of pleasure. 



There, are also specimens of what is known as the incused coinage of 

 Magna Grsecia. These pieces were issued by the Grecian colonies settled 

 in lower Italy, and arc probably the most remarkable specimens of the 

 monetary art which have ever been produced. Instead of being thick and 

 hemispherically raised towards the center, they are thin and flat, and bear 

 on the reverse in intaglio the same subject which the obverse bears in alto- 

 relievo. This coinage had been abandoned before the sixth century B. C, 

 and all these coins are of very great antiquity, yet their workmanship is 

 fine and artistic, even when the design is of the simplest. What the object 

 for the adoption of so peculiar a form could have been, has been the sub- 

 ject of numerous conjectures, but as yet none seem satisfactorily to explain 

 this abnormal condition of coinage. 



The specimens which the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society have 

 placed on exhibition are Sybaris and Metapontum. 



The coinage of Metapontum bears on the obverse an ear of corn, on the 

 reverse the same incused. This city was founded about 700 B. C, by a 

 colony from Northern Greece, and its prosperity became exceedingly great, 

 owing to the fertility of its soil, which was especially rich in wheat. The 

 Metapontines sent annually to the temple at Delphi a golden sheaf of wheat 

 and considered Ceres as their tutelary goddess, impressing her emblem, the 

 ear of corn, upon their coinage. 



Sybaris presents, on the obverse, a bull standing and looking backwards, 

 and the same type incused on the reverse, with the inscription YM. being 

 written from right to left in the most ancient manner and with the sigma 

 of an archaic type, resembling a mu. The history of Sybaris and its suc- 

 cessor city, Thurium, is well told by Dr. Cardwell. 



"The people of Sybaris, on the bay of Tarentum were conquered and 

 their city destroyed by the Crotoniats about the year 500 B. C. Fifty eight 

 years afterward the Sybarites endeavored to rebuild their city, but were 

 again driven away six years later by their old enemy. The aid of Athens 

 and the Peloponnese was invoked, which in 444 B. C. laid the foundations 

 of Thurium, near the site of the ancient Sybaris, taking the name from a 

 fountain in its neighborhood. Soon the foreign element prevailed over the 



