4 
COINS. 
and elsewhere, first from the original, then from copies, and after¬ 
wards imitated from memory as in some British coins, which bear 
scarcely any resemblance to the original design, which however 
can be traced in a series of the coins. In 168 b.c. the Greek King, 
Perseus, was defeated, and Greece came under the dominion ot 
Rome. 
There are a few Greek coins in the Museum. They bear repre¬ 
sentations of their gods, the obverse being occupied with a head 
and the reverse with a subject. Amongst the reverses are depicted : 
a female driving a quadriga whilst Nike (Victory) is flying towards 
her with a wreath (i) ; Apollo seated with two arrows in one hand 
and a bow in the other, Dionysos (Bacchus) standing naked and 
holding a bunch of grapes. On a coin of Lysimachus, King of 
Thrace, Athena (Minerva, is represented resting on a shield ; and 
on one of Alexander the Great, Zeus (Jupiter) is seated (2). There 
is a copper coin ot Ptolomy Sotor, King of Egypt, who was the 
first monarch to exhibit his own head on a coin. A silver Attic 
tetradrachm (3), weighing 260 grains, depicts the head of Athena 
wearing a helmet adorned with Pegasus—the flying horse,—and on 
the reverse an owl standing on an amphora, and the names Dioclis 
and Medeius. Another ‘owl’ reverse is on an early 5th century 
b.c. tetradrachm (4). A small silver coin of Histiaea has on the 
reverse a female sitting on the prow of a vessel. It was found 
amongst the money paid for admission to the agricultural show 
when held in the barrack yard. 
Coins were introduced into Britain from Gaul. Their superiority 
as a medium and measure of exchange over the system of barter 
was gradually recognised, and their use spread northwards. 
I. THE BRIGANTIAN COINAGE. 
The Brigantes, who occupied the land from the Humber to the 
Forth, had a gold and silver coinage. The coins are slightly 
curved and have on the convex side ornament bearing some slight 
resemblance to a laureated head, and on the concave side a 
curious representation of a horse. The earliest coins are unin¬ 
scribed. Subsequently letters appear on the coins ; those on the 
later issues show that the Brigantes had come under the influence 
