160 Miscellanies. 



silver, and dissolved completely in nitric acid, making a colorless so- 

 lution. 



A coin of Hadrian weighing 48 grains, was dissolved in strong ni- 

 tric acid, at a boiling temperature, and on cooling, the nitrate of cop- 

 per crystallized out from the silver. It was dissolved in distilled 

 water, and the silver precipitated as a chloride, its weight was estima- 

 ted from the dry horn silver at 40.25, the remaining liquid contain- 

 ed 6 grs. of copper and 1 .4 of lead. 



A Saxon Abbey piece, weighing 26f grs. contained copper 12 

 grs. zinc 9 ? and lead 4. 



A copper coin of Constantinus, was found to be nearly pure, there 

 was however a trace of iron. 



A defaced copper of one of the Ptolemies, contained so much ar- 

 senic, that it was brittle under the hammer, there was also some vol- 

 atile ingredient to a large amount, presumed to be sulphur ; the cop- 

 per being probably an imperfectly reduced sulphuret. 



In this collection there are about forty picked Roman coins, from 

 the date of Caesar downwards ; some Egyptian of the Ptolemies, 

 and a few Greek. The remainder is European and Asiatic money, 

 but chiefly the former, consisting of all kinds that could be met with 

 both public and private, illustrative of a range of about one thousand 

 years. Nearly half the whole collection is silver, the remainder is 

 copper, brass, tombac, pinchbeck, he. — there was at one time a 

 valuable collection of gold, but that has been disposed of, — there re- 

 maining only four or five specimens, consisting of the deep yellow 

 gold of the later Romans, as Honorius, contrasting with the pale gold 

 of Charles the 1st of England. Had the ingenious collector of these 

 curiosities survived, his casket would doubtless have been more per- 

 fect then even now : his enthusiasm may be estimated from some of 

 the medals then destined to destruction. There is the Marengo 

 silver medal of Napoleon, weighing several ounces ; the Dutch me- 

 dal of Admiral Lonk ; a whole series of papal medals, of the first 

 Italian artists ; and above all, Dassier's medal of Charles William, 

 with the Lion on the reverse ; this, of thirty thousand or forty thou- 

 sand coins and medals, I have had an opportunity of inspecting, is 

 decidedly the best executed ; Dassier was a Genevese. 



I intend spending the ensuing winter in Philadelphia, to which 

 city, any communication to me may be addressed. 



Christiansville, Va., Sept. 1, 1835. 



