By G. F. Hill. 129 



We may, however, settle our doubts by a different calculation. 

 The larger coins in this hoard are of the denomination which is 

 with most probability identified with tlie miliarense of -— pound, 

 or 4*55 grammes (70"22 grains) normal.^ If it is true for this time 

 that the miliarense was equivalent to If siliqua,^ then the normal 

 weight of the siliqua must have been 2'60 grammes (40-12 grains). 

 This is the weight accepted by M. Babelon as normal. It by no 

 means squares with what we may call his test of proportional 

 representation. But it does more or less square with the rule that 

 the highest weight is the normal, for it is rarely exceeded by actual 

 specimens. We may, therefore, accept it as correct : a conclusion 

 the more satisfactory, since it confirms the otherwise accredited 

 rule of the highest weight, as against the other rules which we 

 have tested and found wanting. 



M. Babelon further distinguishes between the siliqua and the 

 half-siliqua. The silver coins, he says, fall into two classes, the 

 one ranging from 2'50 to 2-08 grammes, the other from 143 to 

 1'18 gramme. Other writers have also distinguished these "con- 

 ventional quinarii " from the higher denomination. I confess that 

 anyone who expected to receive two of these so-called half-siliquae 

 in exchange for one of the siliquae of slightly higher weight (the 

 types and sizes of both " denominations " being, we must remember, 

 indistinguishable) must often have been disappointed. In Missong's 

 little collection of coins, the weights ranged from 2-27 to 1'38 

 grahimes so gradually as to defy division into two groups. Similarly 

 the curve constructed, as described above, for the coins of the mint 

 of Trier, is quite gradual in its ascent or descent, but for a slight 

 interruption between 28 and 25 grains (ISl and 1"62 gramme) ; 

 and this interruption is insufficient to justify the division of the 

 coins into two denominations. It would seem, therefore, that the 

 only denominations of silver coins in use at this time were the 

 siliqua and miliarense, and an exceptional denomination of 



> Babelon, Traite, i. 570. 

 - Hid., 576. 

 VOL. XXXV. — XO. CVII. 



