CHAP. v. PRECIOUS METALS. 145 



usually performed by means of the balance, 

 which alone serves to verify the bargain or 

 contract 1 ." 



The earliest gold, the darics of Persia, have 

 been already noticed (page 15.) The next to 

 them were of some of the reigns of the tyrants 

 in the island of Sicily ; of Gelo, 491 years be- 

 fore Christ; of Hiero 478, and of Dionysius 404 

 years before that era. Some of them circulated 

 in Rome before any had been coined in that 

 city; specimens of those of Gelo and Hiero are 

 still preserved in modern cabinets ; but none of 

 Dionysius that are free from suspicion 2 . 



There was no gold coin in Greece till Philip 

 of Macedon had put the mines of Thrace in full 

 operation, about 360 years before Christ. They 

 are said by Diodorus to have yielded gold to the 

 value of a thousand talents yearly, which was 

 coined into pieces called Philippi, and became 

 the common name for coins of the same size 3 . 



The most ancient silver coins of Greece are 

 those with an indented mark on one side, and 

 the figure of a tortoise on the other. The ear- 

 liest of all have no letters on them ; but those 

 of a later period have Ain, which Pinkerton 

 thinks means ^Egina, but which other medalists 



1 Pliny, book xxxiii. cap. 3. 



2 Delia Rarita delle Meclaglie Antiche, da Vincenzio 

 Natale Scotti, Firenze, 1809. 



3 Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 105. 



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