Coins and Medals : Their Place in History And
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137 i-24 U- COINS AND MEDALS. 79231 COINS AND THEIR PLACE IN HISTORY AND BY THE AUTHORS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM OFFICIAL CATALOGUES o o Q 1 78 o- ** U JL EDITED BY STANLEY LANE-POOLE SECOND EDITION WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1892. 15 V nof PREFACE. jHE prefent work is intended to furnim an anfwer to a queftion that is often and properly aflted about any ftudy of which the ufe and advantages are not immediately obvious. In the following chapters we have attempted to mow what coins can teach us ; what is their value as documents of and of art and what rela- hiftory monuments ; tions they bear to other branches of hiftorical, artiftic, and archaeological refearch. The book will be found of fervice to the antiquary and the collector of coins but it is intended for ; primarily the general ftudent who wifhes to know what he may expect to learn from any particular branch of numifmatics. The writers are or have been all Officers in the Department of Coins and Medals in the Britim Mufeum, except Profeflbr Terrien de la Couperie and myfelf, who, however, have been entrufted with the tafk of preparing the Chinefe and Mohammadan vi Preface. Catalogues for the Department. A feries of eflays which appeared in the Antiquary in 1883 forms the nucleus of the volume ; but thefe have been revifed and enlarged, while additional chapters and illuftrations have been incorporated. A few mis- prints have been corrected in this iecond edition, which is otherwife a reprint of the firft. In the abfence of any general guide to the ftudy of coins, of a popular character, in our language, it is hoped that the prefent work may prove of value to many who have been accuftomed to regard the fcience of numifmatics as little better than a diftradlion. STANLEY LANE-POOLE. ATHEN^UM CLUB, June, 1892. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE - - - v I. THE STUDY OF COINS i By REGINALD STUART POOLE, LL.D. Cambr., Yates Professor of Archeology at University of the of College, London ; author Catalogues the Greek Coins of Alexandria, the Ptolemaic Kings, and the Shahs of Persia. II. GREEK COINS - 10 D.C.L. Ph.D. By BARCLAY V. HEAD, Durham ; author of the of the Heidelberg ; Catalogues Greek Coins of Macedonia, Central Greece, Attica, Corinth, and Ionia; and Guide to the Coins of the Ancients. III. ROMAN COINS - - 42 of the By HERBERT A. GRUEBER, F.S.A. ; author Catalogue of Roman Medallions, and Guide to English Medals ; and joint author of Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland. IV. THE COINAGE OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE 74 F. F.S.A. author of By CHAS. KEARY, M.A., ; the Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Coins, and Guide to Italian Medals. viii Contents. CHAPTER PAGE V. ENGLISH COINS - 99 By CHAS. F. KEARY, M.A., F.S.A. VI. EARLY ORIENTAL COINS - 141 By PERCY GARDNER, LITT.D., F.S.A., Lincoln Professor of Oxford author of Archeology, ; the Catalogues of the Greek Coins of the Seleucid Kings, Thessaly, Peloponnesus, and the Catalogue of the Indian Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings. VII. MOHAMMADAN COINS - - 156 author By STANLEY LANE-POOLE, B.A., Oxford ; of the Catalogues of the Oriental Coins of the Eastern Khalifebs, Mohammadan Dynasties, The Turkumans, Egypt, The Moors, The Mongols, Bukhara, The Turks, and Additions thereto ; the Catalogues of the Indian Coins of The Sultans of Debit, The Mobammadan States of India, The Moghul Emperors of Hindustan ; and the Catalogue of Arabic Glass Weights. VIII. COINS OF INDIA - 175 By PERCY GARDNER AND STANLEY LANE-POOLE. IX. COINS OF CHINA AND JAPAN - - 190 By TERRIEN DE LACOUPERIE, author of the Catalogue of Ancient Chinese Coins. X. MEDALS - 236 F.S.A. author of the By WARWICK WROTH, ; Catalogues of the Greek Coins of Crete, Pontus, and Mysia. INDEX -271 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. SILVER COIN OF THASOS - 2O SILVER COIN OF TARENTUM 22 SILVER COIN OF GELA 24 SILVER COIN OF SELINUS - 25 SILVER COIN OF AGRIGENTUM 26 SILVER COIN WITH HEAD OF MITHRADATES 33 SYRACUSAN MEDALLION - 37 SEXTANTAL AS 47 DENARIUS ..... 5i COIN OF BRUTUS - 53 SESTERTIUS OF VESPASIAN 62 MEDALLION OF ANTONINUS PIUS - 72 COIN OF CHLOVIS II. 79 COIN OF CUNIPERT ... 79 - COIN OF POPE ADRIAN I. 80 CARLOVINGIAN DENARII - 82 FIORINO D'ORO 88 COIN OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 91 BRITISH GOLD COIN 101 PENNY OF OFFA 105 NOBLE OF EDWARD III. no ANGEL OF EDWARD IV. - 113 SOVEREIGN OK HENRY VII. 119 - OXFORD CROWN OF CHARLES 1. 135 X Lift of Illuftrations PAGE COIN OF AN EARLY PARTHIAN KING - - - 147 - COIN OF ARTAXERXES I. - 149 EARLY JEWISH SHEKEL AND HALF SHEKEL - 153 - - COIN OF SIMON BAR COCHAB 1 54 GOLD COIN OF 'ABD-EL-MELIK, KHALIF OF DAMASCUS - 164 REFORMED GOLD COIN OF 'ABD-EL MELIK - 165 SILVER COIN OF THE KHALIFATE - 166 - MARAVEPI : GOLD COIN OF ALMORAVIDES 170 - MILLARES : SILVER COIN OF ALMOHADES 170 SILVER COIN OF HOSEYN, SHAH OF PERSIA - 171 GOLD COIN OF ALMOHADES 173 COIN OF ANTIMACHUS, INDIAN KING - - 176 COIN OF HIPPOSTRATUS - - 178 COIN OF HERAUS, KING OF THE SACAE - - 178 GOLD MOHR OF JEHANGIR - - 189 KNIFE MONEY - 205 ITALIAN MEDAL : PORTRAIT OF JIALATESTA, BY PISANO 241 GERMAN MEDAL : PORTRAIT OF RINGELBERG 247 DUTCH MEDAL: PORTRAITS OF THE DE WITTS - 252 - ENGLISH MEDAL : PORTRAITS OF PHILIP AND MARY 253 COINS AND MEDALS. CHAPTER I. THE STUDY OF COINS. F all antiquities coins are the fmalleft, yet, as a clafs, the moil authorita- tive in record, and the wideft in range. No hiftory is fo unbroken as that which tell no fo com- they ; geography no art fo continuous in nor plete ; fequence, fo broad in extent no fo and ; mythology ample fo various. Unknown kings, and loft towns, for- gotten divinities, and new fchools of art, have here their authentic record. Individual character is illuftrated, and the tendencies of races de- fined. To be a good Greek numifmatift one muft be an and it is a that archaeologift ; fignificant fact, the only archaeological book of the laft century which ftill holds its own is the Doctrina Numorum Veterum of Eckhel, now near its centenary. To 2 The Study of Coins. be a great general numifmatift is beyond the powers of one man. Some may know Greek and Latin enough, with fuch maftery of Englifh. French, German, and Italian as the modern com- mentaries demand, to begin the ftudy of Greek and Roman money. Thofe who would enter the vaft field of Oriental numifmatics muft be fortified with Arabic, Hebrew, Sanfkrit, and Perfian, befides adding Spanim and Ruffian to the other European languages ftill necefTary for their work. Even they muft paufe beneath the Himalayas, nor dare to crofs the Golden Cherfonefe, unlefs they are prepared to mafter the uncouth languages and intricate characters of the further Eaft. So vaft a fubject, and one needing fuch high training, has bet\veen Eckhel's time and ours attracted few great ftudents. Coins have been ufed as helps but the by archaeologifts ; great numifmatift, who could mafter the richeft provinces of the Eaft or the Weft, or even both, and dignify his fcience as no longer fervile but mafterly, is of our con- temporaries. Such was De Saulcy, who has but lately left us to lament how much remained un- told by a mind fignally fruitful in giving forth its manifold treafures. He has had his rivals, and he has his followers, fome, like Francois Lenormant, who have already followed him, others, like Mommfen, ftill living to maintain the high pofition recovered for numifmatics. Greek Thanks to their attractive beauty, and the (kill of Eckhel, Greek coins have been beft examined, and moft defcribed much remains carefully ; yet 'The Sttdy of Coins. 3 unknown and unrecorded. Befides the treafures we are constantly digging out of well-known col- lections, every year brings to light from under the earth coins of new kings or cities, coins with frefh types of divinities and reprefentations of famous ftatues. Moft of thefe works, whether familiar or in new type, have the charm which the great gift of the Hellenic race, artiftic power ruled by meafure and form, threw over all that it handled. Thus Greek coins are the grammar of Greek art. In them we may trace its gradual growth, the ftern grandeur of the Jaft days of archaifm, and the fudden outburft of full fplendour, more marked in coins, however, by the influence of the contempo- raries and followers of Pheidias than by that of the great fculptor himfelf. While the original fculp- ture of this age, in marble and bronze, might be contained within the walls of a fingle mufeum, the coin-types may be counted by thoufands. No reftorer has touched them, nor are they late copies, like the Latin tranflations of Greek originals which confufe the judge of ftatues. Small indeed are in and they ; yet large treatment, beautiful in material, whether it be rich gold, or the fofter-toned electrum, or cold filver, or bronze earth glorified by the unconfcious colouring of the in which the coins have lain for centuries. Some- times we can fee the copy of a flatue, : no fervile reproduction, but with fuch proof of free work in varieties of attitude as mows that the artift, ftrong in his power, was working from memory. Such is the Herakles of Croton, recalling a kindred 4 The Study of Coins. ftatue to the fo-called Thefeus of the Parthenon. Bolder mafters took a theme like the winged goddefs of Terina, and varied it with an originality which mowed they were worthy peers of the fculptors and painters.