24, Sf ATER OF PHILIP OF MACEDON. 



sent to the mint, is not known ; but there is reason to be- 

 lieve, that it was employed in the state in which it was 

 found*. 



Assay of his Patin assayed a gold stater of this lung, and found it 23 

 carats and a half fine, or 0979 i »"<*, as it cannot be sup- 

 posed\Nhaf his mintmen would have thought of purifying 

 gold, to add afterward no more than a forty-eighth of alloy, 

 we may presume, that the gold was found native of this fine- 

 ness. 



.Addition of If alloy have been added to gold with a bad design, or 



i io> to go ' . ^.^ ^ erroneous idea of defraying the expense of coinage ; 

 it is a remedy that has degenerated into fraud, and has no 

 limits. If ailoy have been added with the design' of render- 

 ing the coin harder, it is a useless idea. Neither of these 



Philip used his motives cduld have induced Philip to adopt the practice, 

 because the source of his gold was abundant, and he was 

 desirous of appearing generous; so that he would have 

 coined his money of pure gold, if he had thought it neces- 

 sary to refine it; or he would have added more alloy, if 

 policy had suggested to him, not to employ it in the virgin 

 state, as it came from the mine (2). It would appear 

 therefore, that nature furnished him with gold at 23 carats 

 and half, or 0979, » s it is in his coin ; unless there were an 

 errour in the assay of Patin, which deserves therefore to be 

 verified. 



A stater lately The chevalier Fossombroni, a very celebrated mathema- 

 tician; digging the foundations of a house near Arrezzo, 

 found a stater of Philip in very good preservation. No 

 vooner was he informed of the wish to examine the weight 

 and chemical composition of his antique, than he readily 

 sacrificed it to the gratification of this curiosity. 



: <r.ibed. The obverse of this piece, like that of most of Philip's 



coins, bears the head of Apollo ; and the reverse, a chariot 

 with two horses walking. The name is in the exergue. On 

 similar staters under the legs of the horses appears a mono- 

 gram, or some type, to denote the mint where the piece was 

 struck. On this stater it is a trident, the symbol of 

 Trcezene. 



* Pliny hints, that gold was found in the bowels of the earth suf. 

 ficiently pun-, to he melted without any preparation. 



Fourteen 



