MEDAL. 
M combined with copper, though there are 
some whicli are supposed to be of gold and 
silver. Philip of Macedon cau.sed the gold 
used for coining in his dominions to be 
made of the utmost purity, and in this par- 
ticular he was imitated by Alexander the 
Great, and others nearly his contemporaries. 
The Romans profiting by the experience 
of ages, and perceiving that the purity of 
the metal improved the beauty of the im- 
pression, determined to use it in as perfect 
a state as possible ; the silver coins of that 
people were less ptire,,and became at length 
greatly debased. 
The pure brass medals, and the red, or 
copper, called by the ancients Cyprian 
brass, were generally covered by platina. 
The best mixture was electrum, composed 
of one fifth of silver, and the remainder of 
gold : in some instances this was a natural 
combination, in others artificial. Pinker- 
ton says, the earliest Lydian coins, and 
those of particular states of Asia Minor, are 
of this description, as are those of the 
Kings of the Hosphoriis Cimmerius, dur- 
ing the imperial ages of Rome. The Egyp- 
tian coins, made when that country was 
under the dominion of Rome, were at first 
of good silver, but degenerated afterwards ; 
indeed lead, and even tin, have been used 
for the purposes of money. 
The shapeless coins of very great anti- 
<}uity were mere fragments of metal, the 
value of which was regulated entirely by 
weight, and this method extended to the 
comparatively worthless substance, brass. 
The silver coins of Greece, first known as 
bearing marks, are those with a tortoise on 
one side, and indented on the other ; it is 
extremely doubtful when these coins were 
made, but they are supposed to have been 
from the celebrated mint of vEgina, where, 
according to some writers, the first coinage 
of money took place by command of Phi- 
don, King of the Argi'^es. Herodotus as- 
serts, that the Lydians invented the art of 
impressing figures on their coins, whetlier 
correctly or not, cannot now be decided. 
Phidon is said to have lived about eiglit 
hundred and fifty years before the Cliris- 
tian sera, and the tortoise is known to be 
the badge of the Peloponnesus. 
The drachma, or eiglith part of an ounce, 
was the leading denomination of the Gre- 
cian money, and their coins were generally 
named from their weights, though some- 
times the case was reversed ; the silver 
drachma was equivalent on a medium to 
nine-pence sterling, and the Romans con- 
sidered their denarius as of the same value 
with the drachma. Tlie didrachm of silver 
was double the amount of the drachma ; 
the tridrachm was three drachmas, and 
the tetradrachm, the laigest of Greek silver 
coins, except the tetradrachm of the Egi- 
nean standard, is equivalent to five shillings 
of our money. 
The silver drachma was divided into 
several denominations, as the tetrobolion 
worth a modern sixpence; the hemidrachm, 
or triobolion, the diobolion, the obulus, the 
hemiobolion, the tetartobolion, and the 
dichalcos ; the latter was worth about a far- 
thing and a half. Very few of those minute 
silver coins have reached us, and others are 
mentioned by Greek writers, which were 
still less, and are consequently entirely de- 
cayed, or have been overlooked or neg- 
lected for the larger species. 
It may be proper in noticing these coins, 
to mention the figures impressed on some 
of them, for instance, Pallas and Proser- 
pine on tlie tetradrachm, and the troizene ; 
the cistophori had the mystic chest of Bac- 
chus, with a serpent rising out of it ; but 
the Athenian coins were the most nnmer- 
ous, though the execution of them was 
indifferent. The first copper coins extant 
are Syracusan ; those of Greece are the 
chalcos, originally of very inconsiderable 
value. It does not appear that gold was 
used for this purpose in Gieece before the 
reign of Philip of Macedon, and Athens 
was destitute of this description of money 
at the commencement of the Peloponnesian 
war ; Sicily had set the example in this re- 
spect, the government of whicli island liad 
issued gold coins four hundred and ninety- 
one years before Clirist. The Xf-jo-o;, or 
Philippus was a didrachm, the common 
form of gold coins of very remote times, 
and was equal in value to one pound ster- 
ling. The Philippus was divided into four 
parts, and there were still smaller coins of 
this precious metal. The Ai^pocrof of Alex- 
ander and Lysimachns was of greater value 
than the Philippus, and is said to have been 
worth forty shillings of our money. Some 
of the Egyptian monarchs quadrupled the 
Xfuo-of, consequently their coins equalled 
four pounds. 
Tlie Romans estimated their money by 
w'eight, as the Greeks had done before, 
but they differed from that people in adopt- 
ing silver for tlieir coins, as they tised cop- 
(ler, not in preference, but fi om necessity. 
The Roman pound was twelve ounces, con- 
sisting of four hundred and fifty-eight 
