654 
M O N E Y. 
Aaron’s rod. The Dardans (lamped two coclcs flighting. 
The Athenians ftamped their coins with an owl, or an ox; 
whence the proverb on bribed lawyers, Bos in lingua. 
They of Egina, with a tortoife ; whence that other faying, 
Virtutem et Japicntiam vincunt tefhidines. See Medal, 
Plate I. fig. 4. Among the Romans, the monetarii fome- 
times imprefled the images of men that had been eminent 
in their families on the coins ; but no living man’s head 
was ever damped on a Roman coin till after the fall of the 
commonwealth. From that time they bore the emperor’s 
head on one fide ; and thenceforth the pradfice of damping 
the prince’s image on coins has obtained among all civilized 
nations; theTurks and other Mahometans alone excepted, 
who, in deteftation of images, inlcribe only the prince’s 
name, with the year of the tranfmigration of their prophet. 
The operation of coining was at fil’d performed limply 
by the ftroke of a hammer, the die being cut on a fort 
of punch. Apparently there was more than one reverfe 
engraven on the fame piece of metal ; and, in the carelefl- 
nefs of halty ftriking, the workmen fometimes let the 
bullion flip afide, in which cafes we fee, as is not un¬ 
common in old coins, that the reverfe and obverfe have 
not coincided, and that with an incomplete reverfe ap¬ 
pears part of the curve of another: perhaps, too, the fame 
row of reveries were not all of the fame fubjedt, and 
thence one fource of the variety of the coins of Athens. 
It may all'o be worth remembering, that the bullion was 
not cut into cylindrical pieces, as is now the pradtice; 
but each piece was of a fpherical form, which accounts for 
the very high relief by which fome of the coins and me¬ 
dals of antiquity are diftinguilhed, and alfofor the cracked 
edges we fo frequently obferve in old coins, proceeding 
from the force of the blow which became requilite. 
The Lydian colony which fettled in Etruria is fup- 
pofed to have carried thither the art of coining, and to 
have communicated it to the Romans in the reign of 
Servius Tullus, or about four hundred and lixty years 
before the commencement of our aera. The early coins 
of both Etruria and Rome are not (truck with a hammer, 
but call; nor are they of gold and filver, as the Greek, 
but of copper and brafs, and both are imprefled with the 
rude figures of cattle, from whence the Latin term 
peennia is derived. On the reverfes of thole Etrufcan 
coins whole obverfe is an ox or a bull, is a device which 
has been thought to referable the bones of a fifli, and 
which has given rife to various opinions. Refle&ing on 
this Angular mark, and on Dr. Henry’s general aflertion, 
that the earlielt coins of all countries are marked with 
the figures of cattle, I have been induced to add, though 
not much, (fays Mr. Landfeer,) to the numerous conjec¬ 
tures refpedting it. I think it mat) have been intended to 
denote the fractional part of the value of an ox, for which 
it was current; becaufe, though thefe coins are large and 
heavy, their material is only copper, which could not, as 
Montefquieu and Dr. Henry, if literally interpreted, 
would fuggeft, render them of equal value with an ox. 
Again, Etruria at that time had no numerals: this mark 
may, therefore, have been ufed to denote the number of 
nails, or’arrows, or fome other Ample and portable l'pecies 
of property, w'hich had alfo been in ufe as money among 
the native inhabitants before the arrival of the Lydian 
colony, and for the value of w r hich thefe pieces became 
current. Cattle could not have been ufed for the more 
trifling purchafes in any country, without manifelt incon¬ 
venience. No man would give an ox, or even a kid, for 
a hide ora balket. Property lefs valuable, or more port¬ 
able and divilible in its nature, mull therefore have been 
alfo in ufe as a circulating medium ; and as fait is laid to 
be thus uled in Abyfiinia, and cowries on the coaft of 
Africa, fo it is more than poflible that nails and arrow¬ 
heads were occaflonally ufed by the orientals as money, in 
their fmaller purchafes. The learned author of the “ In¬ 
quiry into the Nature and Caufes of the Wealth of Na¬ 
tions,” who has amplified the inconvenience of ufing cat¬ 
tle as an inliruments of commerce with his ul’ual peripica- 
city, fpeaks of a village in Scotland, where, in his tiia'ftj 
it was not uncommon for workmen to carry nails, as mo¬ 
ney, to the baker’s Ihop or the ale-houfe. 
On the coins of fome of the cities and colonies of Greece, 
the art has tranl’mitted many interelting and exquifite ex¬ 
amples of beauty, and of the charms of their poetical my¬ 
thology; but ihe learned the moll ufeful application of 
her powers under Roman aufpices. Under Roman au- 
fpices Ihe became the auxiliary of hiftory, and learned to 
commemorate events; and to communicate the wifdotn 
and the virtues, with the portraits, of the ftatefman, the 
hero, and the fage ; but, under Roman aufpices, (he was 
alfo compelled to lloop and proltitute her powers in flat¬ 
tering the mod unworthy of mankind. The Virtues ap¬ 
pear without impropriety on the medals of Nerva, Trajan, 
Adrian, and the Antonines ; but what (hall we Ary to Cle- 
menci) and Moderation being reprefented on the coins of 
Tiberius ? or to the legend which dates, that, “ While 
Cotnmodas reigns, the world is bled ?” Has adulation 
been fo extremely abjedt-? or have the conductors of the 
Roman coinage dared to be ironical under the mod fan- 
guinary and dil'guding of tyrants? 
The belt of the Roman medals, as well as gems, are the 
work of Greek artids ; and the bed dies were cut during 
the reign of Adrian, when genius, difcouraged from her 
nobler flights, l'eemed for a while to have taken up her 
refidence in the Roman mint. The perConincation of our 
own ifland fil’d appeared on the Roman imperial coins. 
On thole of Claudius, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Commo- 
dus, and Severus, the Britannias are numerous; and it is 
worthy of remark, that Ihe appears in a flyle, and accom¬ 
panied by attributes, which may appear to a native of this 
illand, prophetic of her prefent grandeur and importance 
—feated on a globe, on a rock, or on the Grampian hills; 
or Handing ereid, her right hand reding on a rudder, with 
a (hip’s prow in the back-ground. See the article Medal, 
vol. xiv. and Plate II. fig. 17-22. 
Tables of Ancient Money, with their Value in 
Englilh Money. 
Jewish. 
Gerah, 
Solidus aureus, or fiextula, worth 
Siclus aureus, worth 
A talent of gold, worth 
Grecian. 
Lepton, 
l 
o 
o 
I 
5+75 
s. 
o 
l -tS 
IO 
Bekah, 0 1 iff 
20 
2 
Shekel, 0 2 3| 
1200 
120 
5 ° 
Maneh, 7 , 
Mina Hebraica, J ^ I + °‘>- 
io| Talent, 342 3 g 
60000 
6000 
300C 
12 
16 
o 
d\ 
o 
qrs. 
°A 
o off. 
0 
o 2/2 
1 
2 2j 
5 °§ 
7 3 
3 ^ 
7 o 
a 3 
The 
