653 
MONEY. 
are out of die queftion, but whether Greece or Lydia firft 
invented coinage teems dubious. 
Now the Lydians were of the fame origin with the 
Greeks, both being of Thrace; and it is not improbable, 
that with equal ingenuity, and a foil far more propitious, 
the Lydians were the real parents of many Grecian arts. 
The recolleftion that the Etrufcans were a Lydian colony, 
appears ftrongly to confirm this l'uppofition ; yet the rude- 
nefs of the engraving affords no folid invariable criterion, 
either of the antiquity of the coin, or the general ftate of 
art in the country where it was ftruck ; for while the coins 
of Sicily, and even thole of the remote colony which fet¬ 
tled at Cyrene in Africa during the heroic ages, are en¬ 
graven with exquifite (kill, the Athenian coins of the fame 
date are invariably ill executed, though Athens was at 
that time the centre of art and politenefs. 
On the whole, it is probable that the Lydians invented, 
and the Greeks very foon adopted, the art of engraving 
dies and ftamping money. Its great and obvious com¬ 
mercial advantages, and the fnnilarity of the reverfes on 
the coins of both countries, which appears to be intended 
to f'pare the trouble of weighing, by denoting the value 
of the coin, feem to countenance this opinion. Of thefe 
early coins there are eleven on fdver in the late Dr. Hun¬ 
ter’s cabinet, and they are not uncommon elfewhere, 
bearing the tortoile, the badge of the Peloponnefus, in 
cameo, on one fide, and, on the other, thofe remarkable 
indented fquares which correfpond with the reverfes of 
the Lydian money, and which, if they did not mark the 
weight or ftandard goodnefs of the lilver, were perhaps 
only the impreffions of a fort of fmall fquare anvil, 
grooved at right-angles, fo as to keep the bullet of filver 
fleady beneath, and prevent it from flipping, while it was 
ftruck or ftamped from above. See Plate I. of Medals, 
vol. xiv. The earlieft of thefe coins have no legends or 
infcriptions on the fquares ; but it fe'ems to have been foon 
perceived that the reverie, as well as the obverfe, might 
be made to convey information ; and on thofe which were 
ftruck foon after, where the tortoile is executed in a bet¬ 
ter ftyle, a fmall dolphin is engraven on one of the in¬ 
dented fquares, and on two of the others is an infcription 
of four Greek characters, which Mr. Pinkerton fuppofes 
an abbreviation of Egina ; where, according to fome au¬ 
thors, the firft Greek money was ftruck, by Pbidon king 
of the Argives. Phidon’s reign is fixed by the Arundelian 
Marbles, which are themfelves among the molt celebrated 
and valuable of engraven records, at about eight centuries 
before the Chriftian era, or foon after the age of Homer. 
Some have fuppofed that the art of engraving dies was 
known at a much earlier period in Hindooftan : and in the 
numifmatic collection now forming by the Eaft-India 
Company, is a gold coin which was found among the 
treafures of Tippoo Sultan, to which the Hindoos paid a 
fuperftitious homage, and afftgned an antiquity of upwards 
of four thoufand years. It was underftood to have been 
formerly dug up near the royal palace of Myfore; like 
fome of the coins of our own Cunobelin, it is difked, but 
to a much greater depth; and within the concavity is the 
figure of Rama, a lovereign and deity incarnate of the 
Hindoos, who is laid to have reigned forty centuries ago. 
He is reprelented as heated on a throne, with his wife 
Seeta, and attended by Huunoomaun, a fort of familiar 
fpirit who accompanied Rama in the form of a monkey in 
his wars againft Ceylon ; and on each fide of the throne 
are engraven three figures, holding the umbrella and the 
cowtail-fan, the emblems of Hindoo royalty. On the re¬ 
verie, or convex fide of this curious coin or medal, is a 
horofcope, and, in a very ancient Sanfkrit character, the 
name Ndr ay ana Pula; in all probability the horofcope 
and name of the fovereign in whole reign it was really 
ftruck. The whole is engraven in very low relief, and 
the two triangles which form the horofcope are evidently 
done with a fmall fiat lcorper. Though it is in low relief, 
its concavity, its being of gold, and the veneration which 
has been paid this coin, has preferved its workmanfhip 
tolerably entire; and, from, a manufcript of major Alien, 
Vol. XV. No. ion- 
which accompanied it from India, we learn, that other 
coins of the fame kind, though not all imprefled from the 
fame die, have fometimes been feen in Hindooftan ; but 
they are very rare, and, like the penates or houfehold-,gods 
of moll ancient nations, are revered and decorated with 
flow’ers by their fortunate poflefl'ors. 
It was the common policy, and is ftill the general cuf- 
tom, of the Orientals, to conned: religion with royalty in 
the devices which they adopted for their money. Hence 
deities and fovereigns, either named or reprefented, com¬ 
monly appear on the fame coin. On one of thefe of which 
we are treating, is a figure which Mr. Wilkins fuppofes to 
be that of Rama the Bowman, who was one of the Bac- 
chufes of India, and who is reprefented Handing with his 
bow’, and attended by a mythological eagle, which bears 
a conliderable relemblance to that on the ftandards of an¬ 
cient Rome. An enthroned deity fit's on the reverie, 
holding the reins of government in one hand, and in the 
other a cornucopia, with his head lurrounded by a halo, or 
circle of glory. 
On the whole, though there may be great room to con- 
jeflure, there is at prefent none to conclude, that the nu¬ 
mifmatic art is of Hindoo origin. A coin once feen, par¬ 
ticularly if attended with the rude and clumfy appear¬ 
ances of early contrivance, would luggeft to an ingenious 
mind the means of its production. If, therefore, but a 
fingle Hindoo coin can now be produced, the date of 
which is unqueftionably earlier than the firft Greek or 
Lydian money, the honour of the invention Ihould be 
awarded to India, and it would prefumptively follow that 
it travelled with the precious ftones from the Aliatic con¬ 
tinent. 
However this may have been, the frequent intercourfe 
which then fubiifted, foon lpread the art of die-engraving 
through Greece, and each of her commercial cities learn- 
ed to imprels on its coins its refpeftive fymbol. Athens 
had an owl, Thelfaly a horfe, and Argos a wolf’s head. 
The fame crefcent which then fiione on the coins of By¬ 
zantium ftill waves on the Turkifh banner, and its adop¬ 
tion originated in the lignal repulfe of Philip of. Macedon : 
Philip was about to ftorm Byzantium on a cloudy night, 
when the moon, fuddenly fliining out, difclofed his inten¬ 
tion, and enabled the citizens to defeat his projeft.. The 
moon, Hecate, or Diana, was hence ve-nerated as the bearer 
of light, and preferver of Byzantium ; and, when the 
Turks poflefled themfelves of the city, ignorantly fufpi- 
cious of lurking magic, they thought to propitiate its un¬ 
known powers by afluming the fymbol. 
Montefquieu however argues, from Herodotus, and his 
own obfervation of the Pembroke cabinet, that the earlicjl 
Athenian coins bore the imprefiion of the ox, which it 
originally reprefented in value ; and Dr. Henry fays the 
earlieft coins of all countries are embodied with the figures 
of the cattle for which they became the fubftitute as a. 
current meafiire of value; he feems even to regard this 
circumftance as a teft of the antiquity of coins ; but as 
the ufe of unftamped bullion, the value of which mult 
have been eftimated by its weight and degree, of purity, 
preceded the invention of coining, it is at leaft as rational 
to fuppofe that the inventors, or thofe who firft availed 
themf elves of this art, would be folicitous that the weight, 
and confequent value, of money, Ihould be known by in, 
fpebtion. 
We do not find in Scripture that any coins were ftruck 
by the Jew’s, until the time of the Maccabees ; their mo¬ 
ney, before that period, being pieces of filver, of certain 
weights, fucli as fhekels, talents, and drams ; a praiftice. 
ftill retained in China, and other countries; and which 
appears to have been univerfal in ancient commerce. It 
may be therefore prefumed, that, when, thofe weights 
became altered .and difturbed by fraud, the necelfity of 
ftamping them,with certain impreffions became obvious ; 
and hence may be fuppofed the origin of coins, with, their 
effigies, legends, dates, &c. The Jews, though they de- 
tefted images, yet ftamped on the one fide of their fhekel 
the golden pot which held the manna, and on the other 
S D Aaron’s 
