STATER OF PHILIP ©F MACEDON. %J 



M barred between the two inner strokes. Lastly we have Drachma of 

 also a veal drachma of this king, of the precise weight G f Alexander * 

 88 grs, which is distinguished by a monogram, consisting 

 of an H, with a kind of circumflex over the cross stroke. 



Among the tetradrachmas of Thrace in the same cabinet Thracian tetra- 

 there is one, the twelfth in order, heavier than the rest; and " c as ' 

 weighing precisely 14 deo. l6grs. This is a proof of the 

 identity of the weight of the Thracians and Macedonians, 

 which had already been conjectured by others*. 



After having ascertained the weight of the Phil ippus Th e stater as- 

 found at Arrezzo, it was subjected to cupellation, and the aye * 

 process of parting. Its fineness appeared to be the same as 

 found by Patin ; that is 0'979> or 23 carats and a half; con- 

 taining but half a carat, or 0-021 of silver. 



The art of assaying was known in the remotest times, as Artof assaying 

 the Scriptures attest. In the time of Pliny it had reached anaent * 

 such perfection |f)& that the fineness of gold was ascertained 

 from 21 carats* or 0*875, to. 21 carats and 7 twenty-fourths, 

 0*888, and even to 23 carats and 11 thirty-seconds, 0*973, 

 In those days the assay must have been made in the dry 

 way ; first by separating the base metals from the gold by 

 means of lead, and afterwards the silver by means of sul- 

 phur*, or a sulphuret (*). 



- The method of refining gold in large quantities was also Ancient art of 

 known, as Strabo says, by cementing or burning it with an strabof* 

 argillaceous earth, which, destroying the silver, left the gold 

 in a state of purity, Pliny says, that for, this purpose the Pl'ny. 



* The Bcholinst on Nicander says, that the didrachma is the fourth 

 part of the Attic ounce: this ounce then must he 704 Flor. grs. 

 [534*4 grs* Eng. Here, as in the other parts of this paper, 1 have 

 reduced the Flor. grs directly into Eug., agreeably to the values as- 

 signed them by Tillet, in the Mem. of the French Academy of 

 Sciences for 1767 ; paying no regard to the reduction into grammes, 

 made I presume by the French translator, and added in the Ann. de 

 Chim. He gives here 34-496 grammes as equivalent to 704 Fl. grs, 

 which would then, he only 532*8 Eng. C] 



t A manuscript written by one Biffoli, who lived in 1460, which is 

 in the Strozzian library, and of which there are several other copies, 

 fays ; " Parting with aqua fortis was invented about fifty years ago." 



gold 



