DEPARTMENT OF COINS AND MEDALS. 83 



Melitaea in Thessaly. — A fine and very rare fourth century 

 bronze coin, having on the obverse a head of Zeus, and on 

 the reverse MEAI and a Bee (MtAtrra) a " type parlant " in 

 illusion to the name of the city. 



Plio/rsalus in Thessaly. — A bronze coin of the first half of 

 the fourth century, B.C., and of a type new to the Museum. 

 Obverse, head of Athena Itonia, with a figure of Skylla on 

 her helmet, and the letters T H beneath. Reverse, <1)APZ 

 Thessalian rider brandishing a whip. 



Fheneus in Arcadia.— A beautiful and apparently unique 

 ^silver coin of early fine style. Obverse, Ram ; reverse, 

 Naked Hermes with petasos hanging behind his neck, seated 

 on a stone pedestal. Hermes was the god chiefly worshipped 

 •at Pheneus, and festivals in his honour, called Hermaea, were 

 beld there. 



Cyzicus in Mysia. — -A rare electrum stater, having on the 

 obverse a bearded figure of Herakles naked, kneeling and 

 holding club over right shoulder, and the horn or cornu- 

 copiae of Pluto on his left arm. This type of Herakles hold- 

 ing the horn has been only recently elucidated (cf. Roscher, 

 Lejcihon, p. 2187). Presented by H. Weber, Esq., m.d. 



Ionia and Caria. — A very interesting hoard of lo gold 

 Philippi discovered in the lower Maeander Valley, the adjunct 

 symbols of which prove that they must have been struck at 

 various Asiatic cities more than a hundred years after Philip's 

 death, B.C. o3G. This "find" of Asiatic gold Philippi, a class 

 of coins hitherto quite unknown, sheds an entirely new light 

 on the very fragmentary history of the Greek cities of 

 Western Asia Minor during the first half of the second 

 century B.C. The existence of Ionian, Carian, and other West 

 Asiatic imitations of Alexander's silver tetradrachms, dating 

 from the third and second centuries, B.C., has long been 

 recognised, but that late imitations of the gold Philippi were 

 issued at cities of Asia Minor concurrently with the silver 

 Alexandrine tetradrachms is now for the first time re- 

 vealed. 



Caria. — A tetradrachm of Hekaton\nus, the father of 

 Mausolus, Satrap of Caria. The only other known specimen 

 of this coinage is in the Royal Coin-cabinet at Berlin. It was 

 first published by the late M. Waddington (Revue Numis- 

 matique, 1856, p. GO). On the obve7se, is a lion and the 

 inscription EKATOM ; and, on the reverse, a standing figure 

 of the Carian Zeus Labraundos, carrying a double-axe 

 (Labrys) over his shoulder, and resting upon a long spear. 

 This coin vras struck by Hekatomnus between B.C. 395 an I 

 377 at the city of Mylasa, the original residence of the 

 Satraps of Caria. 



0.97. F 2 Chalcetor 



