64 DEPARTMENT OF COINS AND MEDALS. [GROUND 
of trade in the Greek and Roman world. For practical 
purposes, the medallist and the art-workman will find this 
series the most profitable as well as the safest guide. The 
artist will not fail to perceive the suggestive value of designs 
which, however small, are essentially large in treatment. 
Case A is divided vertically into four historical compart- 
ments, and Case B into three. These compartments, numbered 
I.-VIL, contain the principal coins current during the follow- 
ing periods : — 
I. circ. B.C. 700-480, Period of Archaic Art, ending 
with the Persian Wars. 
II. circ. B.C. 480-400, Period of Transitional and 
early Fine Art, to the end 
of the Athenian Supremacy. 
III. circ. B.C. 400-336, Period of Finest Art : age of 
the Spartan and Theban 
Supremacies. 
IY. circ. B.C. 336-280, Period of later Fine Art: age 
of Alexander the Great and 
the Diadochi. 
V. circ. B.C. 280-190, Period of the Decline of Art : 
age of the Epigoni, &c. 
TI. circ. B.C. 190-100, Period of continued Decline 
of Art : age of the Attalids, 
&c. 
YII. circ. B.C. 100-1, Period of late Decline of Art : 
age of Mithradates the Great 
and of Roman Dominion. 
Each of the above seven compartments is divided horizon- 
tally into three geographical sections, the upper one (a) con- 
taining the coins of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Syria, &c, and 
Egypt ; the middle one (b) those of Northern and Central 
Greece, Peloponnesus, and the Aegean Islands ; and the 
lowest (c) those of Italy, Sicily, the Southern shores of the 
Mediterranean and Western Europe. 
Each of the seven historical compartments thus offers in 
its three geographical sections a complete view of the coins 
