250 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



are alfo medals that are only fcarce in fome fc- 

 ries, anJ very common in others, as in gold, 

 filvcr, the great, middle, or fmall brafs. 



IX. (3.) According to their efiential qua- 

 lities, and the ufe to which they have been ap- 

 plied : and in this refped they are, 



1. Coins, that have anciently ferved in the 

 commerce of life, but which time has rendered 



medaK 



2. Real medals, flruck in the form of coins, 

 either in gold, filver or brafs, to preferve to 

 pofterity the image of illuftrious perfons, or the 

 memory of fome important action. 



3. Medallions; which are properly nothing 

 more than medals uncommonly large-, and 

 which have been prefented by princes to thofe 

 whom they have honoured with their efteem : 

 or to ferve as public monuments. The Romans 

 named them Mifiilia. There is no feries to be 

 formed of thefe, even if the different magni- 

 tudes and metals be united : and there are not 

 above four or five hundred of them to be found 

 in the richeft cabinets. 



X. (4.) According to the nation by whom 

 they have been made: and in this cafe they 



are, 



i. Hebraic. The common opinion is, that 

 there are no Hebrew medals, and that the Jews 

 learned the knowledge of them from the Ro- 

 jnans, when they invented the art of clipping 



them. 



