130 



With respect to the letter Aleph, it must either signify the 

 date of the period \vlien it was struck, or have some other allusion. 

 It cannot, in my opinion, be a date ; for, supposing it to be so, it 

 must express the number one, or one thousand. The latter of these 

 significations will scarcely be contended for ; since, besides that there 

 is no point to the Aleph, such as is attached to it when it stands 

 for 1000, this construction would bring us to fix, as an aera for the 

 stamping of the medal, the commencement of the eleventh century, 

 which was the centre of the darkest age, when ancient arts were 

 no more, nor had they as yet commenced to revive ; a period, when 

 a medal like this could not have been executed. If then the Aleph 

 signify a date, it must be that of one year ; and this, either from 

 the Incarnation or the Resurrection. The former is the more pro- 

 bable of these two (although I reject them both,) because the In- 

 carnation of our Saviour is the subject of the inscription ; but the 

 jera called " Anno Domini," which was dated from the birth of 

 Christ, was first used in the sixth * century at the earliest. So 

 that, if the Aleph mean the year one of the vulgar aera, the medal 

 must have been the manufacture of later years, and the date an 

 imposition. It may be said to relate to the Resurrection, and to be 

 stamped in commemoration of the anniversary of that great event ; 

 but, besides that the inscription upon the other side of the medal 

 does not justify this supposition ; besides, that the indulging of it 

 must lead us necessarily into much vague conjecture ; I think the 

 following fact will induce any candid inquirer to give to this letter 



By one author the omission of the Hajin is insisted on as a proof of forgery ; with another 

 it adds to the probability of the medal being both genuine and antique. — Rowland's Mona 

 Ant. restaur, p. 318. Morinus and others, as quoted hereafter. 



* See O'Conor, Kerum Hiber. Scriptores. Epis. Nuncup. p. ciii. note 1. 



