19G W. Theobald — Notes on some of the sgmhols found on the [No. 3, 
6. That not two coins are precisely alike, two coins only having 
come under notice with the same symbols on both sides, but the symbols 
were differently arranged with relation to each other. 
So much by way of preliminary remark. 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF SYMBOLS. 
I. A Dot, Sphere or Circle. Fig. I2G. 
The simplest form used to represent the sun, or any planetary 
body is a dot, sphere or circle, such as ocem's in fig. 126, or in composi- 
tion in figs. 128 and 131. It was also c.soterically used no doubt to 
represent the persons of the Godhead in the old religious of Assyria and 
India, as in figs. 153 and 163. 
One of the earliest systems of religion, elaborated by the reflective 
faculties of civilized man, was the worshijj of the reproductive forces 
of Nature, which, under the form of Sivito worship exists in India in 
full force at the present day. Scarcely distinguishable from this cult 
and coeval with it is the worship of the sun, and planets, as the sun 
was regarded not only as the most striking and appropriate symbol 
of Deity, but as directly and physically the source and sustainer of life. 
The ancients were as quick as ourselves in perceiving that without heat 
and moisture life was impossible, and hence originated the philosopliic 
idea of attributing masculine and feminine attributes or functions to 
heat and humidity respectively. No less obvious also was the analogy 
between the headship or fatherhood of the human family, and the 
heavenly Fatherhood of the great Author of all, and the resulting idea of 
unity underlying all religious symbolism, whether represented by a pillar, 
such as Solomon erected in front of the Temple; a round stone, such as 
represents Mahadev (‘the great god’) in every Hindu village, or tho 
more complex symbol of tho -crux-ansata, borne in tho hands of Egypt’s 
deities, or disguised by being turned topsy-turvy and dubbed a “ ball 
and cross," when pressed into tho religious ceremonial of our own land 
at tho coronation of our Kings and Queens ! Similarly the central 
unit of tho celestial system was represented liy a ball, or wheel, or somo 
rayed device which alike represented tho idea of unity and of tho pro- 
gressive motion of the solar orb through the heavens; and as in Pharaoh’s 
dreams the event signified was one, though the symbols Avoro diverse, so 
in ancient religious symbolism, however varied the form, tho idea con- 
cealed beneath was one, the Unity of tho Deity, which then as now 
among so many of ourselves, was not incompatible, with a fourfold or 
threefold conception of Divine picrsons in tho Godhead ! 
Wo moderns are too fond of expressing our pity for such mis- 
guided idolaters as tho Chaldeans of old or the Farsees of to-day, but 
