[ 78 ] 
X, Explication of an inedit ed Coin^ with two 
Legends^ in different Languages^ on the 
Reverfe. In a Letter to Mathew Maty, 
M. Z). Sec, R. S, from the Rev, John 
Swinton, B, D, F. R, S. Cujlos Archive- 
rum of the Univerfity of Oxford, Mem- 
ber of the Academy degli Apatifti at 
Florence, and of the Etrufcan Academy 
of Cortona in Tufcany. 
Good Sir, 
Read Feb. 7, ^ | ^ H E Coin I fliall here attempt to 
explain on one fide (See Tab. III. 
n. I.) prefents to our view the head of Jupiter, 
and on the other the prow of a fliip, which in- 
dicates the place wherein it was flruck to have 
been a maritime town. Above the prow of the 
fhip, we fee two characters, that are either Punic 
(i)or Phoenician. I fay, either Punic or Phoeni- 
cian, becaufe it may not perhaps be fo eafy to de- 
termine whether that town was occupied by the 
(i) From the prefent ftate of the Kabyles we may infer, 
that the ancient Africans, or Indigenae, their progenitors, muft 
have been a-very rude uncivilized people, at the firft arrival of 
the Carthaginians amongft them. It is therefore utterly impro- 
bable, that they ever ufed any alphabetical chara£l:ers, before the 
Phcenician letters were introduced into their country by the 
Carthaginians ; or that any other characters, peculiar to them- 
felves, and different from the Punic, ever afterwards prevailed 
amongft them. I cannot therefore but think, that thofe learned 
men who fuppofe the reality of fuch characters are egregioufly 
miftaken, as they can have nothing to advance in fupport of fuch 
an opinion. Shaw, Travels^ (Sc. p, 288, 289, Oxford, 1738. 
Peller. Suppl, quatr, (S dcrn, p. 55. A Paris, 1767. 
Cartha- 
