TOL. XLVI.3 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTION. 51 



in gold, though there have been counterfeits : as he shows from the account of 

 several authors on such coins. 



In the years 1726 and 1727 he received accounts of one and the same gold 

 medal of Pescennius, as brought from 4 different quarters ; first from Spain, 

 then from Sicily, afterwards from Malta, and lastly from England. But he 

 found it to be false, as all others had done, who had seen it. It had been cast 

 from a silver one of that prince, on the reverse of which is the figure of the 

 goddess Hope ; with the inscription of bonae spei, which is the most common 

 of any. Those in the cabinets of Arschot and Saxe Gotha have likewise the 

 same reverse, and doubtless from the same origin. And the like disappointment 

 attended several other accounts. 



At length in July 1748, Mr. de Boze had fresh encouragement to pursue his 

 inquir}' ; which he did with greater attention, and better success, than before. 

 A barefooted Carmelite of the convent of Paris shewed him a letter, which he 

 had received from one of his own order at Marseilles, who lately arrived from 

 the Levant, where he had been employed as a missionary. His correspondent 

 acquainted him, that he had a gold medal of Pescennius, which the curious at 

 Marseilles were desirous to purchase, and had offered him a considerable sum for 

 it ; but as he hoped to get more at Paris, especially if it was not in the king's 

 cabinet, he desired him to let him know that, as also what value Mr. de Boze 

 put upon it. His answer was, that he would certainly give a good price for it, 

 if it was ancient ; but that he could offer nothing, till he had seen it. The 

 owner therefore brought him the medal, which was fair, well preserved, and free 

 from any thing, which might occasion the least suspicion ; so that he valued it 

 considerably higher, than what had before been offered, and immediately pur- 

 chased it for the king. 



Soon after he shewed it to the greatest connoisseurs and most curious persons 

 at Paris, who were charmed with the sight of so valuable and unexpected a 

 medal in the royal cabinet. And many both natives and foreigners being de- 

 sirous of a draught of it, he ordered it to be engraved ; together with a Greek 

 medallion in silver, no less rare in its kind, of the same emperor, which is also 

 in the same cabinet, having been purchased at London by Mr. Vaillant of Mr. 

 Falkner, father of Sir Everard. A print of both these pieces accompanies this 

 paper. See fig. 3, 4, pi. i. 



The gold medal, fig 10, has on one side the head of Pescennius Niger crowned 

 with laurel, with this legend, imp caes c pesc niger ivstvs avg. And on 

 the reverse, the goddess Concord, represented by a female figure standing, with a 

 diadem on her head, one of her hands elevated, and a double horn of plenty in 

 the other ; and round the figure only the word concordia. For the letters pp 

 placed below in the field, on the 2 sides of the figure, being the usual abbre- 



H 2 



