interesting to note thai, as early as tiic 1 87()s, an 

 American nuniismalist, Sylvester S. Clrosby — ccr- 

 tainh nnaware ol' hnhcjof-Bknner's new metliods — 

 had tried, in his work The Eurly Coins of America 

 (1875). to establish a chront)lonical arrangement in 

 early American coins liv studyino; their die combina- 

 tions. At the present time, die-studies are the 

 common procedure in Greek numismatics and 

 attempts have been made recently to apply it to 

 Roman as well as modern coinatjes. 



Inspired by Thcodor Mommsen's idea of creating 

 an extensive work on Greek coins as a companion to 

 the "C:orpus of Latin Inscriptions," the Prussian 

 .\cadeniy of Sciences in Berlin assiirned to Imhoof- 

 I51umer the direction of Die Aniiken Miin.ien Nnrd- 

 (hiechenhitids. .Such a corpus was intended to super- 

 sede all publications on the subject by describing 

 every known coin t\ pe of each city or province within 

 a chronological .sequence, with full attention given to 

 all av<iilahle source material. 'I'his dream of a 

 corpus of all ancient Greek coins .seems to have 

 haunted numismatists since the early 16th century, 

 when Wolfgang La/ius first proposed such a work. 

 But it pro\ed too ambitious e\cn for the late 18()0s, 

 and despite competent scholars, this gigantic German 

 work progressed very slowly imtil it Inially came to a 

 halt in the late 1930s.'-'' 



In 1939 new plans were made to proceed on a 

 basis of international coopcrati(jn. Under the direc- 

 tion of Prof. Gerhard Rodenwaldt, scholars such as 

 Paul ]M. Strack. .Xchim Hundt, Theodor GerassiniolT, 

 and Madimir C^lain-Stefanelli were assigned to con- 

 tinue the work, biu the enterprise died out during 

 World War II. 



At the turn of the century France began producing 

 noteworthy numismatic works. .Almost single-li.ind- 

 edly, Ernest Babelon ( lS54-l')24),'-'< director of the 

 Gabinet des Medailles in Paris and author of many 

 authoritative works on Greek numismatics, under- 

 took the task of publishing comprehensive works 

 on the coinages of the eastern Greeks with such titles 

 as Les ran dc Syrie (IS'Tl) and Les I'ersrs Adiemeindcs 

 (18')3). But his greatest work, Iraile des inimnaies 

 nrecqiies el ruinuinei (in li\c \olumes, ])ublished between 

 the years I'XIl and l'*32), in which he tried lo ch.il- 

 lenge the largest publications, unfortunately remained 

 only a torso. 



'-' For complete, incli\ iihi.il titles, .see litor.itiirc ritcd. See- 

 also iMHoor-BLiiMER, "lierielu iiber das Ci ieeliische Miiii/weik 

 dcr Prciissisehcn Akadeiiiie" (I'MO). 



'-^ DlI-aUifiNNE, Vntinir tnunnnitiliijue in-'mest Hnhihin {1''24). 



Fig. 37. — Erni:st Babklon (1854-1^24), di- 

 rector of the Cabinet des Medailles and 

 author of many outstanding works in 

 numismatics (photo courtesy .-Xnierican 

 Numism.ilie .Society). 



.•\t the British Museum a group of first-rate numis- 

 matists established what was to fiecome a wnerable 

 tradition in the field of ancieiU nuniisniatics: Reginald 

 Stuart Poole (1832- 1894), keeper of the coin e.ibinel: 

 iVrcy Ciardner (184()--1937); George F. Hill (1S67- 

 rM8), who published a series oi excelleni works, 

 Himdiiimk (if dreek and Rinnan (',(nn\ (18')')), lli^lmieal 

 (■'reek (Jiins (1 ')()(■)), llislmnal Rinnan Cnuu (I'Kl')); .md 

 especially Barcl.iy V. I lead (18 14 I') 14), Poole's 

 successor at (he Museum.'-"' With his Ili^lmia 

 luuniniirntn (1887), I lead piodneed, in compact but 

 excellently doctimented form, an itidispensabk- gttide 

 book otl ( ireek coin.iges. lie described his |)urp<)se: 

 "( )ne of the dislineti\c leatures ol the preserU work 



I-'' For .iddilion.il iuliJi uMliim, si-e I h. id's ol)ilil.u\ in '^1 U- 

 silnij! jni MiiiiuMiKilil. (r'I'>). 



PAPER 32: NUMISM.^TICS AN ANDIF.NT SCIKNCF; 



43 



