GREEK COIN FOUND AT EWA.RT 301 



If this is a coin of the first Hiero, commonly called Tyrant 

 of Syracuse, it is very old indeed, since the Tyrant began 

 his reign in 478 b.c. ; if, as is more probable, it belongs to 

 the time of the second Hiero, descended from the Tyrant's 

 brother Gelon, it dates from the period of his long reign, 

 from 275 to 216 B.C. The trident, it need hardly be observed, 

 was a three-pronged barbed spear, used in early times for 

 spearing fish, in later Roman times as a weapon in gladiatorial 

 fights. 



That this coin, of more than 2000 years old, should find 

 its way into the gravel of the river Glen is passing strange. 

 That a coin collector, name unknown, should have dropped 

 it on the shores of the Glen between Akeld and the Till 

 seems even more improbable than that it formed part of a 

 miscellaneous currency, introduced by early Roman invaders 

 of Britain. Even in the latter case it would have been a 

 very ancient coin when it came over in Roman money-bags. 

 If it were part of a hoarded sum of money, to be used only 

 on some exceptional occasion, it would have suffered less wear 

 and tear than a modern penny piece, and so might have 

 survived. At the Coins and Medals department of the British 

 Museum there were shown to Mr Butler several similar coins, 

 but none precisely the same, the initials AIG being peculiar 

 to this piece. 



