TIL] INSTITUTE OF BANKERS. 203 



numismatists ascribe these coins to Ezra. The first 

 Jewish coins were apparently struck by Simon the 

 Maccabee, under a grant from Antiochus the Seventh. 



The earliest coinage in the Western world is generally 

 ascribed to Pheidon, king of Argos and ^Egina, who has 

 also the great merit of having introduced the use of 

 weights and measures. According to Herodotus, how- 

 ever, we owe this invention of money to the Lydians, 

 probably in the reign of Gyges, about 700 B.C. The 

 question turns very much on the date of Pheidon, in 

 reference to which there is great uncertainty. Some 

 writers have carried him back to 895 B.C., which seems 

 to be certainly untenable, while others have endeavoured 

 to bring his date down to 660 B.C. The claims of the 

 Lydians have recently been advocated by some eminent 

 authorities, especially Eawlinson, Barclay Head, and 

 Lenormant. Lord Liverpool also, in deference to the 

 authority of Herodotus, inclined to the same opinion. 

 In either case the honour rests with the Greek race. 

 The early coins form an interesting transition between 

 the metallic ingots which previously performed the 

 functions of currency and true money. Those of Lydia 

 (Fig. I., Plate I.) are not round, but oval, with an official 

 stamp indicating their weight and giving their legal 

 value : the ^Eginetan silver staters also imitate the 

 elongated form of the earlier period, and are even more 

 irregular than those of Lydia. Still they possess more 

 of the character of a true coinage, in having been struck 

 on a block. In the following illustrations of ancient 

 coins, a silver coin (Fig. II., Plate II.) in the British 

 Museum, ascribed to Pheidon, is shown. On the one 

 side is the incuse square, or punch-mark, and on the 



