542 j Mr, Dyer 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE ftudy of medals is by many con- 
fidered’a frivolous and unprofitable 
urfuit ; and by! many made the fubject 
of fatire. But fatire may ftrike what is 
not vulnerable, and the blow may recoil 
on the aflailant. Triflers, I confefs, are 
proper objects of ridicule, and triflers 
are found among the collectors of coins : 
but on what fubjects may not men trifle? 
Are not painters, poets, philofophers 
and divines frequently triflers, infuffera- 
ble triflers? Dulce eft defipere. in loca—to 
trifle in feafon is fweet—is unqueftiona- 
bly an excellent maxim, but is liable to 
mifinterpretation, and “may be carried 
beyond reafonable bounds, particulariy 
if that rule of philofephy, laid down by 
an ancient writer, be admitted, <‘ to 
perform nothing merely forthe fake of 
pleafure, but with the profitable aiways to 
mix the agreeable.”"—-Being convinced 
that the abuie alone of the medallic art is 
entitled to ridicule, I beg leave, agreea- 
bly to my tormer notice, to fubmit to the 
confideration of your readers the tollow- 
ing remarks :- ‘ 
1. ‘The ftudy of coins may be rendered 
fibfervient to literary puriuits: I more 
articularly reter to ancient literature. 
t is not neceflary to inquire, at prefent, 
concerning, the period when medals were 
firfi invented: this would be a queftion 
rather curious, than ufeful; and though 
agitated with plaufbility, could not be 
fatistaétorily fettled. Suiice it to ob- 
ferve, that the original method of com- 
merce wat, to exchange one commodity 
for another; and that when medals were 
firft employed as fubftitutes, they were 
made ufe of inrough bars. Theie bars 
were valued according te weight and 
bulk: hence the SHEKEL, the principal 
coin among the ancient Hebrews is de- 
rived from SHAKEL to weigh ; to which 
sarnae, trom ssavas, to weigh, anfwers 
among the Greeks. In like manner 
pendere, to weigh, among the Latins, 
as the origin of the words impendere, ex- 
pendere, and other fimilar words, for pay 
ing and {pending money. 
An acquaintance with antient medals 
may be ferviceable to men of letters in 
various ways. 
1. The ReELIe1on or MYTHOLOGY 
of a country may be illuftrated by them. 
On confidering the ufefulnefs and import- 
ance ef any difcovery, the ancients were 
ambitious of afcribing the invention to 
their gods. -Cgres, we are‘told, diico- 
on Coins. ha [Sup. 
vered corn; Bacchus, the vine; Pallas, 
the olive; and Triptolemus, the plough. 
Liber & alma Ceres, veftro fi munere te]lus 
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arifta, 
Poculaq. inventis Acheloia mifcuit uvis. 
Bacchus, and foft’ring Ceres, pow’r divine, 
Who gives us corn for meat, for water wine. 
Virgil Georgic: lib. i. 


Olezq. Minerva 
inventrix, unciq. Puer monftrator aratri. 
Inventor, Pallas of the fatt’ning oil, 
Thou founder of the plough and plowman’s 
toil. - ibid. 
Some have, in like manner, attributed’ 
the difcovery of medals to Janus or Sa- 
turn. Be this as it may, the ancients 
carried their religious ideas to their coins, 
and to treat difretpectfully a coin famped 
with thé head of their princes, was con- 
fidered an impiety. ‘They were fond of 
adorning the reverfe of their medals with 
the heads of their deities, with their ap- 
propriate characters, and offices, or with’ 
the more ftriking circumftances and dif- 
tinctions of their religious ceremonies. 
Thus«we have Caftor and Pollux: on , 
horfeback ; Apollo with his lyre: Cupid 
fharpening his ‘darts, and with a quiver. 
of arrows: Mercury with his caduceus, 
and Pegafus ; and the like. ‘The ancient 
Hebrews, in like mariner, fhewed particu- 
lar attention to their religious céremonies 
on their coins, examples of which may be) 
feen in the writers -on Hebrew antiqui- 
ties*, The religion of the Greeks is fus- 
poled by fome to be nothing butan uniform 
and imprefiive {pecies of perfonificatiom. Its’ 
eculiar:ties may be illuftrated by medals. 
With refpe& to this view of the-tubject,’ 
then, a gocd collection of coins may be 
coniidered not only as a kind of MrMmo- 
RIA TECHNICA, but as fo many expo- 
fitions (laid immediately before the 
eyes) of the religious rites of remote 
periods. sid 
2. The knowledge of History, and 
inquiries connected with hiftory, may be 
expedited by an acquaintance with me- 
dals. . 
Many of the defigns on modern coins 
are as trifling and impertinent as the ex- 
ecution of the artift is mean and homely. 
This obfervation, however, is not in- 
tended as an infinuation, that antient art 
is entirely blamelefs. Some of the Ro- 
man coins, {tamped under their emperers, 
{peak the language of adulation: but 
even in thofe few inftances, it was the 

* Vid. Villalpandus de Pond, & Numifmat. 
lib. ii, Difl.iv. cap. 22, 
language 
. 
