Miscellanies. 



157 



2. Coins and Medals; by John W. Draper. — Cuvier, from 

 a minute examination of insnlated fossil bones, deduced the form and 

 structure of antediluvian animals. It was an example of deep inter- 

 est to antiquarians. Records, both oral and written, are subject to 

 dismemberment and falsificatioUj in the remains of science and art, 

 we find, however, faithful witnesses. A soUtary medal, a ruined 

 arch, or a broken sundial, are evidence equally good, as a fossil shell, 

 •era Saurian remain. 



Coins are valuable not only to antiquarians, but also to natural 

 historians, the inscription, legend, and reverse, vouch for their age, 

 and the marks they bear, are too numerous and too plain, for any 

 experienced eye to be deceived in their authenticity- They have, 



w 



however, hitherto been much neglected, it is not more than four 

 hundred years since cabinets of them began to be formed, and as yet 

 they have been only In the hands of hterary men. A m.ere classic- 

 al scholar may decypher their inscriptions, and assign their age, but 

 that is not all the intelligence they contain. It is reserved for the 

 scientific chemist, by a rigid analysis of an authenticated collection 

 of coins, to cast light on many questions, of the geography, history, 

 and arts of the ancients. 



Nor is that all, — general science may receive much benefit from 

 such an examination. It was from an analysis of a silver denarius 

 of the Emperor Trajan, that I first found, that endosmosis of one 

 solid could take place, in lapse of time, through another. This de- 

 narius was brought from Malta, and had thrown off nearly all its al- 

 loy, in the form of purple and green Neapolitan patina. The pro- 

 portion of copper in the coin w^as originally as one to nine. This 



* ^ 



patma was as hard as, or harder than, the metal itself. In the course 

 of ages, the copper had removed from the most internal parts of the 

 coin, and become crystallized on its surface, showing that a slow 

 movement may take place in the substance of the densest textures; 

 the whole amount of copper left in this coin, did not exceed one part 

 in seventeen. Pliny says, that Mark Antony mixed iron with his 

 silver money, and such of it as is extant, is attracted by a magnet : 

 a coin of that description, fell into the hands of Mr. PInkerton ; it 



is however doubtful, whether the Romans of that age, could alloy 

 iron and silver, these coins are, perhaps, a mixture of silver, copper, 



and nickel. 



We have not access to the gold mines of Phillippi in Thrace, but 

 the coins of Alexander can reveal to us their contents. Roman 



