550 



N I'M ISM A Tics 



( Paln-ography ), anil in indicating I In- origin and 

 gradual extension over the civilised woild of tlir 

 ]niiK-i|ial systems ill weighing tin- precious metals 

 ( Metiology >. Historically, coins are of the 

 utmost impoitaiicc as la-ing contem|Kirary and 

 authentic document* furnishing us with in many 

 cases tlir only means of Mmtradai tin- names of 

 olwcure cities and peoples, together with the 

 chronological succession of thc'ir kind's, tyrants, 

 or chief magistrates. Artistically, the\ faithfully 

 reconl the successive phases of art from its earliest 

 beginnings to its culminating point, and through 

 all the stages of its decline, subsequent temporary 

 revival, mid second decadence, to the present day. 



I. tirffl; 'V/M. The use of the precious metals 

 as mediums of exchange may lie traced liack to the 

 remotest ages of which we possess any historical 

 accounts. Thus, for instance, we read that 

 Alirnham wius ' very rich in cattle, in silver, and in 

 gold' (Gen. xiiL 2; xxiv. 35), and in the account 

 of his pun-hose of the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 

 xxiii. 16) it is stated that 'Aliraham weighed to 

 Ephron four hundred shekels of silver rnrroit with 

 the mrrrliiuil.' This use of gold and silver as 

 uncoined money, weighed in the balance, must, 

 however, lie carefully distinguished from its use as 

 'coin,' a word which implies that the ingot or piece 

 of metal is impressed with an official device, mark, 

 or ' type,' serving the purpose of a guarantee of just 

 weight and value. ' so far as we have any know- 

 ledge,' says Herodotus ( i. 94), 'the Lydians were 

 the first nation to introduce the use of gold and 

 silver coin." The adoption of this apparently 

 simple means of facilitating exchanges appears to 

 have lii-en due in the first instance to the custom 

 of depositing treasure for safe custody in the sacred 

 temples of the gods. Ingots or small lumps of 

 gold or silver, committed to the ca_re of the priests, 

 were consecrated to the local divinity by Ix-ing 

 impressed with a badge or symliol, usually the 

 head of some sacred animal. These pieces of metal 

 wen- Mil^cqucnily put into circulation, the sacred 

 badge In-ing known and accepted in the district as 

 a nubble guarantee of value. The earliest Lydian 

 coins which have been handed down to our times 

 belong probably to the reign of Gyges, who 

 ascended the throne about 700 B.C. They are 

 In-all shaped lumps of the native Lydian gold ore, 

 which contained a large admixture of silver, and 

 went by the name of eleclnim or pale gold. The 

 face or obverse of the coin bears the figure of a lion, 

 the sacred symbol of the goddess Cyliele, and the 

 reverse consists merely of the impress of the rude 

 nnengraved punch or nail-head which served to 

 keep the ingot in it- place while it was being 

 struck. The ingot, held in position by a pair of 

 longs, was placed on this square nail-head, and on 

 the Up of the ingot the engraved die was laid 

 while the moneyer struck it with .successive blows 

 of a heavy sledge hammer until the impressions of 

 the engraved die on the obverse and of the square 

 nail head on the reverse were brought into sufficient 

 relief and intaglio respectively. 



The.-e one siiled coins with an intaglio or 'incuse' 

 square on the reverse are characteristic of the early 

 stages of the art of coining not only in Lydia, but 

 in all the Greek cities, for the use of coined money 

 rapidly spn-ad from Lydia over all the coasts and 

 islands of the .Kgcan Sea, each city issuing money 

 tearing the symlml of its local divinity. In Greece 

 proiHT the earliest coins were of silver, and are 

 saiil to have IM-CII struck by I'heidon, king of Aigos. 

 They tear the symliol of a tortoise, a creature 

 sacred to the goddess Apliiodite, in whose temple 

 at /Kgina these earliest Greek coins were issued. 

 On this occasion it is relatiil that I'lieidori hung 

 up in the temple of the goddess Hera at Argim 

 specimens of the cumbrous bronze and iron bars, 



iftt\teiioi, which served the purpose of money 

 before his time, in memory of the old order of 



tilings, l-'rom the ti of I'lieidon onwards the 



coinage of Gn-eee and of the l-'.ast may be clacMtied 

 historically in the following eight periods : 



(i.) 7i 4M> i:.c. I'eiiod of archaic ait. ending 

 with the Persian wars. The art work on iln- coins 

 of these two centuries is characterised at first by a 

 rude strength of style, and afterujinls by a gradual 

 development into clearly -defined forms, which, 

 however, are always distinguishable by their 

 angularity and stillness from the freer work of 

 later times. Thus, for instance, the eye of the 

 human face is always drawn, even when in profile, 

 as if seen from the front; both corners being 1 

 visible, while the mouth wears the fixed and 

 formal smile with which we are familiar on the 

 Egyptian monuments. Towards the end of the 

 jiichaic period a type in relief tegins to appear 

 within the incuse sijuare of the reverses. The coins 

 which circulated most widely were, in silver, those 

 of ./Egina with the tortoise alxjve referred to ; the 

 tetradrachms of Athens, (hut Introduced by Solon 

 690 H.C., obverse, head of Athena, reverse, owl, 

 the sacred bird of that goddess ; and. in gold, the 

 famous Paries, on which the Persian king is 

 represented as a kneeling archer. In the west the 

 chief coins were those of the Greek colonies in 

 Southern Italy, Sybaris, Croton, Tarentum, i\-c., 

 which ditler from those of Greece proper in having 

 the figures on the reverse in intaglio instead of in 

 relief. 



(ii.) 480-400 B.C. Period of transitional and 

 earlv fine art, to the end of the Athenian supremacy. 

 The coins of this period are characterised by a 

 great advance in the technical skill with which 

 the dies were engraved. The name of the city or 

 of the chief-magistrate now occurs frequently on 

 the reverse, usually in an ahhic\iatcd form. 



In Asia Minor Che chief coinage of this period is 

 the electrum currency of the nourishing commercial 

 city of ('\vicus on the Propontis, so often alluded 

 to under the name of Ty/iccne staters ' by Xeno- 

 phon and other historians. In Greece proper the 

 Athenian money was still the chief, though by no 

 means the only medium of exchange, and in the 

 West the Corinthian staters, with the figure of 

 Pegasus on the obvei-e. had a wide circulation. 

 In Sicily Syracuse all'onls a larger variety of types 

 than any oilier Greek city, though the finest speci- 

 mens of 1 the Syracusan monetary art fall into the 

 next period. 



(iii.) 400-336 B.C. Period of finest art, age of 

 the Spartan and Tin-ban supremacies, and of Philip 

 of Macedon. The art of die -engraving attained in 

 this period a higher point of excellence than it has 

 ever since reached. The coin-types are remark- 

 able for sculpt urc.squo reserve, intensity of action, 

 or rich and varied ornamentation, according to the 

 requirements of the subject represented. These 

 are most frciiuentlv ideal heads of divinities on tin- 

 obverses, anil mythological figures on the icxei-cs, 

 or agonistic ty|-s referring to the local games and 

 religious festivals, such OK the victorious naadrig*) 

 on the famous Syraeusiin medallions, which are 



generally n gnis'cd jis the finest and most Ix-anti- 



fully executed coins that have ever been struck. 

 In this age the practice of coining money had 

 become universjil: the number of mints throughout 

 the civilised world was enormous, every little town 

 stiiking its own ' autonomous ' silver or bron/e, 

 and, in some coses, gold currency. In Kuro]>can 

 Greece the gold staters of Philip of Macedon 

 obtained a wide circulation, ami his conquests in 

 Greece gradually put an end to the independent 

 issues in that country. 



(iv.) 336-280 B.C. Period of later fine art ; age 

 of Alexander the Great and the Diadochi, charac- 



