310 
MEDALS. 
emperors' heads in their several medals. The 
crown of laurel is continually seen : and 
Agrippa appears not only with the rostral 
hut the mural crown. The successors of 
Alexander assumed, by way of distinction, 
different symbols of deity on the busts of 
their medals. A few instances also occur, 
among the Roman coins, of the helmet. 
i he reverses of medals, both among the 
Greeks and Romans, were of infinite variety. 
I hey contain figures of deities at whole length 
with their attributes and symbols; public 
buildings and divers ons; allegorical repre- 
sentations; ceremonies; historical and pri- 
vate events ; figures of antient statues ; sub- 
jects of natural history ; magistracies, &c. 
't he reverses of the Roman coins have more 
art and design than the Greek, though the 
latter have more exquisite relief. In the 
very antient coins no reverse is found, and of 
the antient Greek reverses some are in in- 
taglio. The figures of deities andpersoni-' 
locations on the Roman coins, are commonly 
attended with the names: as, the figure of 
Virtue with VIRTVS AVGVSTI: but on 
the reverse of the Greek coins the figure is 
only accompanied by some certain symbol ; 
as Ceres with her wheaten garland, Mars 
with his armour, or Mercury with his cadu-- 
ecus. T he anchor on iseleucian coins is the 
mark of Antioch ; the owl, of Athens ; the 
labyrinth, of Crete; the horse, of Thessaly; 
and SO' on. 
Of the legends, the early Greek coins 
usually contain the name or the initials of the 
city they belong to; or the name, the first 
character of it, or the monogram, of the 
prince. The earliest coins of Athens have 
only A0E, money of Athens: 'EY, of Sy ba- 
sis; MAS, of Massilia. SYrtAKOYSIflN oc- 
curs at lull length, as well as thlAHinOS for 
Philip of Macedon. And though in after- 
tinies the names of princes were accompanied 
by modest adjuncts, there were others that 
were not a little proud. Of the former were 
AIKAIOY, EYEEBOYS, tJ>IAEAAHNOS . of 
the latter, ©EOTIATOPOS, BASIAEflS BA- 
XIAESIN & c . 
After the Roman empire had swallowed up 
the Grecian, the legends on Greek coins be- 
came as remarkable for length as they had 
before been for brevity. The Greek impe- 
rial coins have a great variety in their le- 
gends. Nor are many of the reverses want- 
ing in adulation. The legends of the Roman 
imperial coins are stilt more deservedly cele- 
brated for their beautiful simplicity. IYDEA 
CAPTA and ASIA SUBACT A are suffi- 
cient instances. 
Of the pieces produced by the antient 
mints, there were some of a size which shew- 
ed them evidently to have been intended for 
something else tlian circulation. Medallions 
were occasionally presented by the emperor 
to his friends; and sometimes by the mint- 
ma >ter to the emperor as specimens of work- 
manship. These are usually known by then- 
weight, which is far greater than that of the 
acknowledged money. Both the Greek and 
Roman medallions appear to have been prin- 
cipally, struck in the imperial periods. Till 
the time of Hadrian they are rare. For a 
ore full account of them, we refer to the 
^'ork of Mr. Pinkerton. 
To dwell longer on the various typ s eithe 
of thertM eeian -or the^omau coins, would be 
superfluous. Their curiosity and elegance 
are infinite. The regal coins of Greece are 
interesting from their portraits ; the coins of 
cities, from their importance to geography. 
On the consular coins of Rome, the names 
and titles of the consuls do not appear fill 
toward the close of the series: the brass 
consular coins are uninteresting. The im- 
perial brass is of three sizes, large, middle, 
and small; the first forming a series of the 
greatest beauty. The imperial silver coins 
are numerous; the gold, of wonderful per- 
fection. For the different abbreviations which 
occur both upon the Greek and Roman 
coins, we shall refer to the "Fables selected 
by Mr. Pinkerton, as it would be impossible, 
in so concise a work as this, to give every 
information which the collector might re- 
quire. The best works upon the Greek and 
Roman coins are probably these: Froe- 
lich's Notitia Eiementaris; Neuman’s Po- 
puli & Reges inediti; the Works of Pelle- 
rin ; the Xummi populorum et urbium 
Magna: Gracia?, bv Dr. Combe; Ilaver- 
camp on the Consular Coins ; and the Ro- 
man Imperial, by Vaillant, edition 1745, by 
Valdini, with the Supplement by Kehl. 
Of the early British coins, previous to the 
arrival of the Romans, we know but little. 
They were probably like the antient Gaulish, 
rudely ornamented, and without inscriptions. 
Those which we usually call British, were 
evidently the work of Roman moneyers. 
Those with CVNO on one side, and GAMY 
on the other, are usually ascribed to Cunobe- 
lin, the king of the Trinobantes. There is 
also one which has a bull on the obverse, 
with V.E.R.V.L.A.M.1.0. for the legend, 
apparently struck at Verulam. The mean- 
ing of taseiu, which is common both to the 
Gallic and the British coins, wants explana- 
tion. 
Of the coins of the Saxon heptarchy, there 
are but two descriptions : the sceatta, or 
penny, and the styca; the latter of which 
seems to have been principally confined to 
the kingdom of Northumbria. Gf the coins 
of the heptarchic princes, the series is very 
far from regular ; and of one or two princes 
unique specimens only are known. Of the 
chief monarchs, Ethelbald and Edmund Iron- 
side are the only two who break the series. 
Of their coinage we have no specimens. The 
obverses of all these bear merely the resem- 
blance of a human bust ; though the reverses 
are occasionally interesting. The inscrip- 
tions also are sometimes peculiar; and we 
have a few specimens in the ninth century of 
archiepiscopal coinage. The best guide to 
the collector of Anglo-Saxon coins will be 
found in the plates of Dr. Iiickes’s “ The- 
saurus;” their rarity and value may be learnt 
from the Essay we have so often quoted. 
The two first kings after the Conquest 
coined only pennies, the types of which are 
different, though in point of weight and good- 
ness they agree with the pennies of the Sax- 
ons: their weight was usually 22 grains and 
a half. The obverse represents sometimes 
the full, and sometimes tiie side face of the 
sovereign, with the name of the mint-master 
and town of mintage on the reverse. To 
pennies, Iienry the First added halfpennies, 
though none of them have reached us. King 
Stephen’s pennies were of the same value as 
those of lus predecessors. There are also 
some extant, which have the name of Eu- 
2 
stack on them, Stephen’s son ; anti one oc- 
curs with the head and title ot Henry bishop 
of Winchester, the king’s base brother. 
Those of Stephen which have the banner, 
are the rarest. The pennies of Henry the 
Second are also scarce ; of Richard the First 
we have only the French penny ; and of John 
no money but what was coined in Ireland ; 
though of theiast there are not only pennies 
but halfpennies and farthings. The first coin- 
age of I ienrv the Third had only on the ob- 
verse HEN RICVS REX, and his pennies 
till within these 30 years were usually as- j 
cribed to Henry the Second. After bis 32d 
year, vve find 111 or '1 ERCI added to the 
title. "Fhe pennies, halfpennies, and far- 
things of Edward the first are all common. 
Such pennies as have EDW. R.ANGL. 
DNS.llYB upon the obverse, are usually 1 
ascribed to Edward the First; those wit li 
EDYVA. or EDW All. to Edward the Se- 
cond ; and those with EDWARD or ED- 
W’AKDYS to Edward the Third. This, 
however, is but conjecture. In the 18th of j 
Edward the Third, the penny was brought 
down to 20 grains ; and in his 27th year, we 
find groats and half-groats coined, in which 
the king’s head was surrounded by a sort of 
double tressure. In the reigu of Edward the 
Fourth, having previously sunk to 15, the 
penny fell to 12 grains. In Edward the 
Sixth’s time, it was reduced to eight, and in 
Elizabeth’s to little more than seven. Of 
the groats, Richard the Third is very rare. 
In 1503, Henry tlve Seventh coined the shil- 
ling or testoon: it resembled the groat, but 
was larger, and weighed no less than 144 
trov-grains. The crown of silver was first 
struck by Henry YI1I. and the half-crown, ; 
sixpence, and threepence, by Edward the 
Sixth. Elizabeth, in 1558, coined three- j 
halfpenny, and in 1561, three -farthing, j 
pieces; but they were disused in 1582.] 
Henry the Eighth was the first of our princes 
who debased the coinage; and in the earlier 
part of Edward the Sixth’s reign, the prac- 
tice was continued: but from , the 43d of j 
Elizabeth, 1601, the denomination, weight, 
and fineness of English silver, have remained j 
the same. From 1561 to 1568, the money] 
of Elizabeth was coined in a better taste, by 
means of a mill and screw; but the artist of 
this money being hanged for counterfeiting, 
coins, the hammering system was again re- 
curred to. "Fill the time of Charles the 
Second, we have little more of the milled 
money. 
The design of a gold coinage appears to 
have been first formed by Henry the Third,, 
the most particular account of which is to be 
found in lord Liverpool’s Letter to the King. . 
The piece ordered to be current was called 
a gold penny ; but being of too great value 
for general circulation, it was in two or three 
years called in, and now but three specimens 
remain. In itself, the gold penny is a beau- 
tiful specimen of the coinage of the time. 
The obverse is much in the manner ot the 
king’s great seal, and the inscription IIenri- 
cus Hex III.; on the reverse, the mint- 
master’s name and place. The three known 
are all of different types : one reads LYNFfe 
another LVNDE, and the third LYN.DEN, 
But it is from Edward the Third that the se- 
ries of our gold coins commences. In 1344, 
he struck the florin, half, and quarter Hor n, 
The florin was current for six shillings, but 
