ISLAND OF PATMOS. ' 53 
sometimes happens, in the hands of trading CHAP. 
antiquaries and ignorant pretenders to a know- 
ledge of antiquity, when the most absurd and 
exorbitant prices are set upon them. The 
usual rate of selling them, among the poor arti- 
ficers in gold and silver found in almost all the 
towns, is this: for gold medals, twice their 
weight in Venetian sequins; for silver, from two 
piastres to five, or six, according to the size; 
and for bronze 2 , about a parti for each medal. 
Hence it must be evident, that, with the excep- 
tion of the silver (which are generally of the 
highest antiquity, and always estimated below 
their present price in England}, the medals of 
Greece-, may be purchased cheaper in London 
than in the Lei-ant. Indeed, the Grecian copper 
coinage is now considered as being of such 
modern date, that it is little valued by collectors 
of Greek medals 3 . Roman copper is found in 
great abundance; and among this may be easily 
obtained many rare and valuable coins, illus- 
(2) The author has generally used the word Irottze, instead of bras*, 
as applied to Grecian antiquities ; and for this reason : antknt 
bronze consists of copper containing about ten per cent, of tin, and 
therefore differs from brass, which is a compound of copper and 
zinc. 
(.1) It has been sold in London, for a price equivalent to the weight 
of the metal. 
