MONEY OF ATTICA. 



435 



The nummulary expressions in the Greek language have a re- 

 ference to that period of their history, when the metals were 

 weighed* in exchange, and not struck ; thus we meet with 

 o@o\o<rTctT7is, x/Tpa, toIxclvtov, o-TctTrifi. "f Many centuries must have 

 elapsed between the first introduction of money in Greece, and 

 the period when the coins of some of her states received that spirit 

 and form in the design and execution of them, by which they are 

 distinguished. The alterations in the century and half which followed 

 the age of Phidon were numerous, and some of them may be plainly 

 traced by observing different series of coins. " Seven stages of 

 progressive improvement or variation may be seen in the coins of 

 Thebes, prior to the subversion of the city by Alexander the J Great." 

 It is singular, that while the names of the Greek artists who were 

 distinguished as statuaries or vase-manufacturers, or as engravers on 

 gems and stones, are frequently recorded on their works, the names 

 of those who were employed in the mints or ctpyvpok:o7ret'cc of the 

 different republics, and in improving the dies of the money, should 

 be so little known. § It has been supposed that they are sometimes 

 included in the monograms. The giving an impression or type to 

 the coins, signifying the value of them, and thus avoiding the necessity 

 of frequently using the scale, was a change of great importance ; S 

 ^apajcTijp Its8y, says Aristotle, (Pol. 1. i. c. 9.) rou 7To<rou crvj^iTov. Another 

 alteration, of equal consequence, was the use of the pound in tale, as 

 well as the pound in weight ; this is attributed to Solon, who raised 

 the mina or pound, as we learn from Plutarch, (in Solone,) from 

 72 drachmas to 100 |j ; an hundred drachmas were given in payment 



* The word penny and the Hebrew shekel have the same reference to weight. — Clarke 

 on Coins, 391. 



f'la-Txvca signifies appendere, Aristoph. Pac. 717., and in the LXX. Jerem. xxxii. 9., 

 we read e<mjo"a (TtxXov;. 



$ See Mr. Knight's remarks on the Elean tablet. Classical Journal, vol. xiii. p. 118. 



§ In Crete, the coins of Cydonia bear the legend Neuavroj IWoej. — Some of the 

 characters on the coins of Attica probably refer to the different mints established in that 

 counti-y. The people of Marathon and Anaphlystus both struck money. Corsini. F. A. 

 xii. 232. 



]| 'Exarov yap s7ron)<re §p a^fiaiv t>jv ftvav irporepov sffiofiyKovTct xcti Tpicov ovcrav, probably effidfi. 

 gy'o. — See Clarke on Coins, 94. 



3 k 2 



