3^4 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



COINS AND MEDALS, 



Coins and medals furnish most valuable historical evidence, 

 and present perfect examples of emblems and symbolic repre- 

 sentations. We find, to use heraldic language, that the owl is 

 the crest of Athens, and appears upon all her coins ; a pegasus, 

 of Corinth ; a wolf's head, that of Argus ; and a tortoise, the 

 badge of the Peloponnesus. A glance through Dr. Smith's 

 larger " Classical Dictionary," Humphrey's " Coin Collector's 

 Manual," or the fine series of ancient coins in the Free Library 

 will show the immense use made of symbolism in the coinage 

 of ancient Greece and Rome ; not one figure in the whole series 

 of monetary types but has its appropriate meaning, and would 

 be readily understood by the communities using it. Modern 

 coinage more frequently adopts the national heraldry of the 

 State, with the portrait of the reigning sovereign. The whole 

 history of Louis XIV. and that of his great adversary William 

 III. are represented in the splendid series of medals that were 

 struck to commemorate the leading events of their reigns, and, 

 although outrageously untrue to nature and reality by the 

 adoption of the Roman costumes and classic symbols, they serve 

 as records of remarkable occurences. Many of our later war 

 medals also err in having modern heroes and events depicted as 

 if of 2,000 years ago, a species of anachronism analogous to that 

 of the Dutch painter of representing Scriptural personages dressed 

 in the costumes of his own time, and in scenery essentially 

 Dutch. 



HERALDRY. 



Heraldry throughout employs the language of emblems. It 

 is, says an eminent writer, the picture history of families, of 

 tribes, of nations, of princes, and of emperors. Many a legend 

 and many a strange fancy may be mixed up with it which 

 demand almost the credulity of simple childhood in order to 

 obtain our credence ; yet in the literature of chivalry and 

 honours, there are enshrined abundant records of the glory that 

 belonged to mighty names. About the time of the Crusades, 



