FLOOR.] 
03 
DEPARTMENT OF COINS AND MEDALS. 
The fronts of the two upright cases (A and B) on either side 
of the King's Library contain electrotypes of the finest ancient 
coins in the National Collection, arranged in such a manner 
as to afford a synoptical view, at once historical and geo- 
graphical, of the gold and silver coinage of the ancient world, 
from the invention of the art of coining money early in the 
seventh century B.C. down to the Christian Era. 
The chief value of Greek coins lies in their being original 
works of art,^ not copies as are most of the extant 
sculptures in the round, and in their recording the successive 
phases and local varieties of Greek art, in which respect no 
other class of monuments, sculptures, bronzes, terracottas, 
fictile vases, or gems, can compete with them. If not by 
leading artists in all cases, they certainly faithfully represent 
the sculpture and even painting of many of the great 
masters, some of whom are only known to us by name. 
Thus in no other branch of Greek monuments can the student 
so readily and so thoroughly trace the growth, the maturity, 
and the decay of Greek art, the great art of antiquity. 
For the study of mythology these coins present the local con- 
ceptions of the gods and heroes worshipped in the Greek world, 
with their attributes and symbols. The historian will find a 
gallery of characteristic portraits of sovereigns, almost complete, 
from Alexander the Great to Augustus. The geographical 
student will be able to verify and correct the nomenclature of 
the classical writers as preserved to us in manuscripts. The 
metro! ogist, by comparing the weights specified in the Guide, 
can gain an insight into the various systems of ancient 
metrology in its different standards, and obtain a just view of 
the relative values of the precious metals and the great lines 
