804 
M E D A L. 
pieces called fflertii, and others called dupondiarii, worth 
-about twopence or a penny, are faid to have been com- 
pofed of this precious metal. It is unreafonable to think, 
that any proportion of gold Or filver could have been made 
life of in thefe. The coins faid to have been (Iruck upon 
Corinthian brafs are only done upon a modification of 
common brafs; of which we know, that, in proportion to 
the quantity of zinc made ufe of in conjunction with the 
Copper, the metal alfumes a variety of hues. On the au¬ 
thority of Pliny he informs us, that the coins miltaken for 
Corinthian brafs were no other than what we now call 
prince's metal. 
The Egyptian filver coins (truck under the Roman em¬ 
perors are at firft of tolerably pure filver; but afterwards 
degenerate into a mixture of copper and tin with a little" 
filver. They are very thick, but many of them are ele¬ 
gantly (truck, with uncommon reverfes. There are like- 
wife three fets of brafs coins belonging to this country 
from the earlielt times of the Roman emperors there. 
Some of thefe are of bell-metal, or pot-metal; and, after 
the time of G.dlienus and Valerian, the coinage of brafs 
with a fmall addition of filver becomes authorized by the 
(tate ; the coins (truck upon it being called denarii arei. 
Thofe of lead or copper plated with filver have been fa¬ 
bricated by Roman forgers. Some coins of lead, how¬ 
ever, have been met with of undoubted antiquity; and an 
ancient writer informs us, that tin money was coined by 
Dionyfius ; but none has been found. The leaden coins 
of Tigranes king of Armenia, mentioned as genuine by 
Jobert, are accounted forgeries by Mr. Pinkerton and other 
. modern medalliits. (See fig. 2.) Plautus, however, makes 
mention of leaden coins, and feveral of them have been 
found ; but our author looks upon them to have been 
chiefly eflay-pieces, (truck in order to let the artift judge 
of the progrefs of the die. Others are the plated kind al¬ 
ready mentioned, fabricated by ancient forgers, but hav¬ 
ing the plating worn off. A great number of leaden coins 
are mentioned by Ficorini in a work entitled Piambi An¬ 
tichi, in which he fuppofes them to have ferved as tickets 
for guelts; and coins of the fame kind are alfo mentioned 
by Pa fieri. 
Among the ancient Britons, iron rings, or, as fome fay, 
iron plates, or tin plates and rings, were ufed for money. 
Among the Lacedcemonians, iron bars were quenched with 
vinegar, thus intending that they fliould not ferve for any 
other ufe. Seneca obferves, that there was anciently 
(tamped money of leather, corium forma pullica imprejfum ; 
and the fame thing was put in pradlice by Frederic II. at 
the fiege of Milan ; to fay nothing of an old tradition 
among ourfelves, that, in the confufed time of the barons’ 
wars, the like was done in England. In 1360, king John 
of Fiance, who agreed to pay our Edward III. for the 
ran Com of his perfon 3,000,000 of gold crowns, was re¬ 
duced to the neceflity of paying for the neceflaries of his 
houfehold in leather money, in the middle of which 
there was a little nail of filver. The Hollanders, we know, 
coined great quantities of pafteboard in the year 1574. 
Numa Ponipilius made money of wood and leather; nor 
dc,es it appear that the Romans were much acquainted 
with the art of (Iriking money in metal during the time of 
their kings. 
In coniidering the different fizes, values. See. of the 
Greek and Roman coins, our author treats of the medals 
as money ; a knowledge of which, he fays, is effentially 
neceflary to every reader of the dallies ; inlomuch that it 
may almoft difpute the preference with the Ifudies of an¬ 
cient geography and chronology. Notwithftanding all 
that has been written upon the l'ubjeft, however, our au¬ 
thor is of opinion, that the (cienee is ltill in its infancy, 
in as far as it relates to the rcat money of the ancients. 
“ The ideal (fays he), which is indeed the mod important 
province ot difeufiion, has been pretty clearly afeertained ; 
and we are almoft as well acquainted with the Attic mna , 
or mina, and the perplexing progrefs of the Roman fe/lcrtia } 
as with our own pounds. But with the atlual coin of the 
ancients the cafe is different 5 and the ignorance even of 
the learned in this point is wonderful,” 
The invention of coinage is aferibed by Herodotus to 
the people of Lydia, upwards of 1000 years before the 
Chriftian era. The abbe Barthelemy, cited by Mr. Pin¬ 
kerton, arranges the following ftages of the progrefs of 
coinage. 1. Coins withoutany impreffion. 2. Thofe with 
a hollow indented mark or marks on one fide, and impref- 
(ion in relief on the other. This clafs, it is fuggefted, 
feems to extend from about the year 900 before our era, 
to about 700. 3. Such as have an indented fquare di¬ 
vided into fegments, with a fmall figure in one of the feg- 
ments, the reft being vacant; and impreffions on the ob- 
verfe, as ufual. Thefe may extend to the year 600 B.C. 
4. Thofe which are (truck hollow on the reverie, while 
the obverfe is in relief commonly with the fame figure ; 
which coins may be confidered as of equal age with thofe 
in the lalt clafs. 5. Coins in which a Iquare dye is ufed, 
either on one or both (ides. Thefe were difeontinued 
about the year 420 B.C. 6. Complete coins, both in point 
of obverfe and reverie. Some of thefe occur in Sicily, 
where this art was carried to a perfedtion unknown in 
any other country, fo early as the time of Gelo, who be¬ 
gan his reign in the year 491 B.C. 
Coins of molt remote antiquity, fays Froelich, quoted 
by Pinkerton, may be di(tingui(hed by thefe infallible 
marks. 1. Their oval circumference, and globous (well¬ 
ing fnape. 2. Antiquity of alphabet. 3. The characters 
being retrograde ; or the firft divifion of the legend in the 
common (tyle, while the next is retrograde. 4. The in¬ 
dented fquare. 5. The fimple (trufture of the mintage. 
6 . Some of the very old coins are hollowed on the reverie, 
with the image impreffed on the front. 7. The drefs, fym- 
bols, &c. are often of the rudeft defign and execution. 
The coins of Pofidonia, Crotona, Sybaris.and two or three 
other cities, bear thefe marks of profound antiquity. Some 
Perfian pieces, with the archer upon one fide, and inden¬ 
tions upon the other, (fee fig. 3.) and feveral coins of the 
firft kings of Macedon, are examples. In the Britifti 
Mufeum, there is a medal of filver aferibed to Lelbos, of 
this defeription. 
In a (hort time the Greeks afiumed great elegance ; and 
it is obferved by Mr. Pinkerton, that innumerable of the 
medals of cities, which, from the character, we mull judge 
to be of the higheft antiquity, have a furprifing ftrength, 
beauty, and relief, in their impreffions. About the time 
of Alexander the Great, the art feems to have attained to 
its very higheft perfection. Of the Greek medals, thofe 
of cities are the mod ancient. The civic medals are ge¬ 
nerally damped on the obverfe, with the head of the ge¬ 
nius of the city, or fome favourite deity ; whiie the reverfe 
often prefents fome lymbol ufed by the city at the time 
when the piece was (truck. The legend contains the ini¬ 
tials, monogram, or whole characters, of the name of the 
city. Some connoiffeurs prefer the regal coins of Greece ; 
others the civic. The former interelt by their portraits; 
the latter by their variety. The former are perhaps more 
important to ancient hiltory 5 and the latter to ancient 
geography. The civic coins are interefting, as they pre¬ 
fen t us with a view of the cuftoms, religion, See. of an¬ 
cient cities ; they likewife afford a kind of political baro¬ 
meter of the wealth and power of each city and country. 
The numerous and beautiful gold coins, for inftance, of 
Cyrene, a country, from its remote fituation, little known 
in hiftory, afford (ufficient proofs of its great power and 
wealth. The fmall civic coins of gold, eledtrum, and fil¬ 
ver, (truck in Afia Minor, are perhaps fome of the earlieft ; 
though, if we judge from workmanftiip, thefe coins are (o 
exquifue, that the coins of Greece, (rom their rudenels, 
leem to claim priority of era ; and Mr. Pinkerton (uggelts, 
that it is dubious whether Greece or Lydia firft invented 
coinage. 
Mr. Barry, in his letter to the Society of Arts, dated 
Nov. 26, 1801, has Come interefting remarks npon the 
very early fpecimens of coinage. “ It may be well (fays 
he) 
