148 CONSUMPTION OF THE CHAP. V. 



number, all are worse than ours. The more 

 ancient coins at some periods were far purer. 

 Those of the successors of Alexander in Egypt 

 contain twenty-three carats three grains of gold 

 and only one grain of alloy. Bodin, as quoted 

 by Pinkerton \ informs us that the goldsmiths 

 in Paris, in assaying some gold coins of Vespa- 

 sian, found in them no more than a seven hun- 

 dred and eighty-eighth part of alloy. Consider- 

 ing then the purity of the metal and the short 

 duration and the limited circulation of gold, in 

 the form of coin, we cannot estimate the con- 

 sumption of it by abrasion to have borne any 

 great proportion to the whole quantity in exist- 

 ence at the age of Augustus. 



It does not appear that the same degree of 

 purity was preserved in the silver coined by the 

 ancients. The silver coins of the Greeks are 

 inferior to our standard. Those of the Romans 

 of the earliest period are also inferior to ours, 

 though very slightly so ; but from the reign of 

 Severus very bad silver appears, and continues 

 to the time of Dioclesian. From Claudius 

 Gothicus to Dioclesian, that is, from 70 to 

 284 A. D., during which eight emperors reigned, 

 the silver coins are very scarce ; but they seem 

 all to have degenerated gradually. Usurpers 

 arose in Spain, from whence most of the silver 



1 Pinkerton, vol. i. 



