On Coins a7id Medals. 285 



I have given to this subject has been misspent, if any thing that 

 I have done may contribute to the advancement of an art to 

 which I have been professionally devoted during the whole of 

 my life. 



London, March, 1839. 



Art. XV. — On Coins and Medals, with a notice of the Medal 

 which has been recently struck to commemorate the settlement 

 of New Haven, Connecticiit. Communicated at the request 

 of the editors, by Mr. John Allan of New York. 



As to the question, at what period of the world the study of 

 coins and medals commenced, or at what precise time they were 

 first fabricated, we are ignorant, although several writers have 

 endeavored to trace their origin to a very remote antiquity. The 

 states of Italy were the first, after the revival of literature and 

 the fine arts, to commence the study and striking of coins and 

 medals ; and the modern governments of Europe have all, more 

 or less, followed their example. 



Medals have been admired by many of the wisest and best of 

 ancient and modern times ; by Pliny, Alfred, Petrarch, Cambden, 

 Selden, and others ; for they have beauties inherently their own, 

 which being founded on the immutable principles of human na- 

 ture, must ever afford delight to the human mind. 



Novelty, beauty and sublimity are the three great sources of 

 moral and intellectual pleasure, and the incitements to these are 

 well supplied by medals. 



They display the usages of society, and the habits and forms 

 of persons, with whom history having made us acquainted, we 

 long to see the faces on which their minds and characters were 

 impressed. From a similar feeling we are delighted with the 

 exhibition of the battles, edifices, religious rites, costumes, and 

 innumerable other interesting circumstances belonging to the age, 

 or illustrating the characters and actions of eminent individuals. 



Hence Greece and Rome, the noblest states in ancient times 

 were most distinguished for their attachment to, and production 

 of coins and medals. A vast number of. these have been spared 

 by the destroyer time, to attest the pains and success with which 

 they were executed, thus evicning the high importance attached 

 to them in those ages, not only as commemorating passing 



