66 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



than to all others may we attribute the failure of French anticipa- 

 tions in the building up of a glorious empire in Ameri^ca." 



It is perfectly astonishing to others than coin collectors, what 

 enormous prices are sometimes paid for a rare coin, and the 

 value is occasionally run up at sales when two or three wealthy col- 

 lectors are vieing with each other for some unique specimen or 

 piece which they eagerly desire to possess. The greatest sale on 

 record, by public auction, was the collection of Lord Northwick in 

 1859 and i860. The former consisted of Greek coins only, and 

 reaUzed ;^8,568 ; the latter, of Roman and later pieces, realized 

 _;^3,32o. A Greek coin of Camarina was bought there by the 

 British Museum for ^52, and a coin of Agrigentum brought ^159. 

 One Syrian coin, viz : " Cleopatra," Queen of Syria, was bought by' 

 the British Museum for ^240. Lord Northwick, who lived to a 

 great age, had spent his life collecting, and from 1790 to 1800 he 

 spent these ten years in Italy collecting antiquities, with the assist- 

 ance of Sir Wm. Hamilton, then ambassador at Naples. Since his 

 sale there has been nothing to approach it. 



Were it not for continually new discoveries in Europe of hidden 

 treasure, the resources for collecting would soon pass into the hands 

 of the few. But excavations and building operations frequently 

 bring to light new finds, and very often in the most unexpected 

 places. From the beds of rivers, around old foundations, on the 

 site of Roman camps, and in the East Indies especially, where 

 hoarding is to this day largely the practice, coins are constantly pro- 

 cured, and, as in olden times treasure was hidden at the approach 

 ot an enemy, or when its owner was anxious for its safety, pestilence, 

 sudden death, or the carrying off into bondage of the owner without 

 his return, caused the hiding place to remain unknown for centuries, 

 and a vast amount of ancient wealth doubtless lies buried away for 

 discovery in future ages. 



And now I want to say something about the wealth of the an- 

 cients, those who lived in what was really the " golden age." We 

 use the term to-day, " money king," but the wealth of our million- 

 aires fairly pales before some of the recorded amounts of the old 

 Greeks and Romans. History tells us that Ptolemy Philadelphus of 

 Egypt, 283 B. C., amassed a sum equal to $1,000,000,000 of our 

 money. Cicero, like all literary men, was impecunious, yet he gave 

 $150,000 for a villa ; Clodius, his bitter enemy, paid $550,000 for 



