april — sept. 1859.] Ancient and Modern times. 91 



(a kindred crime) were capital offences. However, this fact is 

 perhaps to be considered rather a part of the revoltingly bloody 

 criminal code of England at the period to which I refer, than as 

 a recognition of the principle that the more thoroughly commer- 

 cial a nation is — the more numerous and frequent its pecuniary 

 transactions, both in internal trade and external commerce — the 

 more scrupulously pure should the medium of exchange be pre- 

 served, and the more severely punished every aet likely to create 

 distrust of the country's probity. In the case of the Athenians 

 too it is probable that the national vanity had much to do with the 

 severity of their law against the manufacturers of spurious coin. 

 I have already stated that the Athenians were very proud of the 

 purity of their currency. In proportion to this, pride would na- 

 turally be their resentment at any act calculated to diminish the 

 superiority upon which it was founded. 



How far the central government of Attica retained the exclu- 

 sive privilege of coining is unknown. It is certain that some 

 Attic demes coined, though probably under the superintendence 

 of the government at Athens. 



Amongst the Romans, it was not until a late period under the 

 Empire that the coinage became the exclusive privilege of the 

 governing power. Under the Republic, though the State held 

 the management of the Mint, any family (gens) or any individual 

 was entitled to bring gold or silver, and have it coined at the pub- 

 lic expense. There seems to have been no attempt at ascertain- 

 ing the fineness of the metal thus brought to be converted into 

 coin ; but it is remarkable that so long as the State acted honest- 

 ly, as far as the quality of its currency went, individuals followed 

 the example. It was not till after 90 B. C. when government de- 

 based its silver by the admixture of one-eighth copper, that indi- 

 viduals imitated the profitable fraud and adulterated their own 

 metal. The evil proceeded to an alarming extent. In 86 B. C. 

 no person knew whether the money he held was false or not. At 

 this time the praetor, M. Marius Gratidianus, is said to have dis- 

 covered a method of testing the genuineness of the silver coin. 

 His process is not known. 



Augustus assumed the privilege of exclusively coining gold 



