Money in Antiquity, vol. I: Origins and History of Coinage — 1878

1 Cohen, 1/ C, pi. \i. .r,"'/'"- "

I ohen, the C. p. \\

/''"/. p, \i\. (l) Cohen, M C, pi. \\w 1, S

1 ii-n, M / 1. 1. augustus, 11 B7, (7) Eckhel,!) A, 1. \ 1. p, 17 1 . .Life/*, ekron, t. VI, p. You

(s s vl i'J.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 235

Roman was one of Egypt's great exports by the Red Sea, and that he enjoyed in the ports of India a preferential rate on native currency (see book VII, chap. v, g 2). It therefore seems that Augustus wanted take advantage of these commercial conditions, and what the Indians did not yet know how to distinguish the coins well stuffed with real coins, for such a lucrative operation^ tive that not very honest, making stuffed deniers especially to export them to India (1). It was a axiom of imperial policy that we had to seek to deceive the Barbarians and win over them, without inquiring free from scruples of loyalty in relationships commerce. A calculation of the same kind, although less fraudulent duleux, was perhaps the main cause of the manufacture tion of restitution currencies under Trajan (see book IV, chap. vi).

We come across many coins stuffed with the first first emperors after Augustus. Four fifths silver coins of Claudius are in this case (2), in especially the deniers bearing the legends on the reverse DE BRITANN and PACI AVGVSTAE (3). The silver coins people of Nero are also very often furred (4), of same as the republican type coins struck in the first months after his death (5).

The number of coins filled with silver then goes in decreasing as real metal parts become-

(1) Mommsen, M/?, t. 111, p. 337.

(2) Rauch, Mittheil. d. num. These. in Berlin, t. 111. p. 287.

(3) Cohen, M h t. I, p. 157,

(4) Ibid. p. 178.

(5) D. de Blacas, bind. num. 1862, p. 229.

88 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

link of a worse title (see book VII, chap. iv, § 2). The operation ceased to be lucrative for the Treasury. The profit, less with each reign, compensated for the less minus the considerable labor costs that required these currencies. Filled pieces* less

numerous from Domitian onwards and become of all rarity under Commode (1). They cease to date from Cara- calla, when money is nothing more than a ball sauced from the most low title. Yet this detestable prince still found way to falsify such bad money, while remaining silent to make, instead of the billon that he legally announced, silver lead w2).

7. But if the coins stuffed with silver cease with the reign of (laracalla, because we could no longer have only produce them at a loss, we begin to mix in the emissions or a certain quantity of coins to be found.

Xiphilinus, according to Dio Cassius, which he abbreviates, reproaches to Caracalla for having struck gilded copper coins, ::/

. wc), The Ennery collection contained a bract coming from a plant stuffed with

Caracalla (3), and an intact piece of this type exists in

Vienna office (4). We meet quite a few coins in copper covered with foil.

of gold, which had been put into circulation as auras,

(1 « >; • . 1/ /. i.i, p. 178; De Win,-, Hep. um. 1868, p 183. ! Xiphilin. Brtv Dion. <. I \\\ll, I”.

- 80, , Bckhel, D Nt i. I, p i w.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 237

with the heads of Gallienus, Postume, Yictorin and Probus (1). And it seems that the government already had sometimes done in previous eras, because we knows of these aurei thickets of Hadrian (2) and Com- mode (3), whose typing is too careful, whose corners are engraved with too much art and finesse for us to be able to easily believe them due to the counterfeiting industry private.

When Diocletian, after the great monetary crisis of 3rd century, began to manufacture loyal species again and wanted to establish a little order in the currencies (see. book VII, chap. iv, § 3), he put an end to these practices. But a little later, under the Late Empire, we see reappear the stuffed gold coins; we have some from Valen- Tinian, Honorius, Anastasius and Heraclius (4). We then found a good number of them in the world Merovingian watering of certain localities. We com- takes recourse to this fraud in Mero-barbarism Vingian, much better than in the full civilization of the Roman Empire; it was, in fact, so easy to discern, just from the weight of the pieces, we are surprised that it could then have been practiced by governments with some chance of success. You had to count much about the criminal laws which prohibited refusing currency bearing the image of the prince, whatever its weight or the title (5). But the use of this fraudulent process by the

(1) De Witte, Rev. num. 1808, p. 18o and s.

(2) Cohen, M l, t. II, p. 121, ir 172.

(3) Rauch, Mitth. d.num. Gesellsck. in Berlin, t. III, p. 287.

(4) De Witte, Bev9 num. 18G8, p. 185.

(5) Arrian. Epictetus. III, 1; Paul. Feel, receive. Y. 25, I.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

government itself is not certain, applied to the mon- born in gold, only for the time of Caracalla and the great monetary crisis of the 111th century (see book Vil, chap. i\. |2. Mr. Momm8en (1) refuses to see in the solidi 1 defl

emperors after Constantine, some of whom Tannie of silver (2), something other than works of forgery coin changers. It is possible that the examples of stuffed aurei prior to Caracalla are also, despite their manufacture neat - counterfeit currency products _ . I '• st, indeed,

ilusively to this criminal industry (pu- Persia (3) and npien (l\) attribute a similar practice. To the question of the history of currencies four-

-, (pii constitutes one of the most important chapters of political mummy of antiquity, presents eno very obscure parts, for lack of having enough i seemed so far the elements. Apart from Froelich S nmann (6), no one took care to draw up the - a little extensive parts of < i '. Also, as said Mr. de Witte 7 . aulieudereji automatically 1'- coins foun ni trr - (Roman pie, the numismatists should focus on closing them - which would allow us to judge both the age and the importance emissions.

i M /.', t. III. p. I

• • . V, i icf.Schol ■, h. /.

\l.\lll. THE. B, I >',am. m n m. i»7. \< M! ' (G) Pop, and rcij. num. vrl. j>. I Q : /;■ . MM. 1808, p. !

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 239

g 4. — Mining currencies.

1. In dealing, in the previous chapter, with the three monetary metals among the ancients, of their real value pective and their alloys, I left entirely aside the question of the mines from which we took, at various times and in different countries, gold, silver and copper minting employees. This is, in fact, a question which does not fit directly into the subject of our book, which, moreover, has only been very imperfectly elucidated hitherto by scholars (1) and which, by itself, asks- would like a special work to be devoted to it, with new new studies, where the observations of geologists and mining engineers should combine with the indi- cations of literary texts and inscriptions.

However, there is a whole group of small currencies Roman copper plates, from the second century AD, the some with the effigies of Trajan and Hadrian (2), others with heads of deities (3), which bear on the reverse the mention of different expressions, generally in the genitive case, a only once in the dative and once in the nominative (i). Some

(1) See. however: Curyophilu.-, De antiquis auri aryenti stanni aeris ferri plumbique fodinis, Vienna, 1737; ïleitemeier, Geschichte des Derg ■ Baues und Huit muesens bei den alten Yolkern, Goettingen, 1783; J. and L. Sabatier, Production of gold, silver and copper among the ancients, Saint Petersburg, 1830.

(2) Cohen, M I, Trajan, n° 338-3G1; Adrien, nos Cil, Gi3, 973.

(3) Cohen', MI, t. II, p. 231, n°* 11GG-IIG9.

(4) On all these currencies, see. Eckhcl, D Ar, t. VI, p. 413 4J8.

240 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

scholars have heard the legends of the reverse of these coins as designating the sources of origin of the metal placed used in their manufacture (1). This is an inter- pretation which would not support examination; but he im- door to take a look at the monuments there given rise, all the more (pie this study will give us

place to note an important example of currencies, which must, given all likelihood, have a ca- character above all fiduciary.

Mining currencies in the imperial era, because under this general designation that it is important to group them per, are all of the same module, that of the small bronze, intermediate as weight between the sowing and the quadrans,

as they were at the time WHERE these pieces were written] (see. book \ il, eliap. iv, g 1); the reverses, Bauf two exceptions 2), fit t0UJ0UT8 in the same two types, OR the legend which mentions the mine is placed in- a crown of foliage, OR it accompanies

the standing figure, Drinks of Abundance holding ears of corn, s of the Mint, represented as usual, with the

balance on one hand, the "nie of abundance" on the other

el l;i mass of metal near <\^ Bes feet.

The legends can thus be grouped, according to the countries

to which the mins belonged

1 talmatie:

METAL. DELM. — With the head of Hadrian or Bans

imperial effigy.

METALLI VLPIANI DELM.— With the effigy of Trajan.

(1) Babttier, Produetiomt eto. p, 160; Cohen, M/, t. D, p. 58 M 181.

(2) Cohen, M 1, t. II. p. JM, n L168«1 li

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 241

Upper moesia:

DARDANICI. — With the effigy of Trajan or the head of Rome (1).

AELIANA PINCENSIA. — With the head of Hadrian (2).

Norique:

MET. NOR. — At the head of Hadrian.

Pannonia:

METALLI PANNONICI ) METALLI VLPIANI PANN I

Undetermined provinces:

With the head of Trajan.

METALLI VLPIANI.— At the head of Trajan. This le- gende can relate equally well to both mines of the same name, whose currencies have just made us note the existence in Dalmatia and Pannonia.

METAL. AVRELIANIS With the youthful head of Marc-

Aurelius or Commodus. The mine mentioned here must her name to Marcus Aurelius, but nothing tells us where she could be located.

None of the mine coins show the letters S C, senatorial coinage index whose products constituted the only empire currency for copper legal tender in all provinces indifferently ment (see book III, chap. I, g 8; book VII, ohap. iv, § 1).

(1) A constitution of Gratian (Cod. Theod. I, 3:2, i>; Cod. Just. XI, 0, \) mentions the procuratores mctallorum intra Macedoniam, Daciam, Mediterranean AJoesiam seu Dardaniam.

(2) Pincum was a town in Moesia, neighboring Viminaotium.

i. . 16

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

2. A first observation must be made first about mining currencies. The farms they mention all belong to the same region, between the Danube and the Adriatic. These are imperial mines, most of which even wore the noi princes under

who they had been inaugurated s.

The coins are all copper; yet none bears no mention of the large farms which provide brought this metal to the Roman world in the time of F Em- worse, of those that Pline (1) particularly points out as in providing the qualities employed by the world

swimming. There is more: most of the mines named there mées are known to us elsewhere, by I im formalities of the authors and inscriptions, as giving aul metals do not copper. The texts- on the gold mines of Dalmatia Bont numerous (2 . t we

3 which was also exploited in the entrance

silver mines (3); those of the Dardanr osa-

he the production of gold, of which they gave a special quality | \. For North America, the rich mines of gold opened in the \ \\ ûè of Rome (5), and < exploitation of the time of Strabo 6, seem to have exhausted b at the time when Fladrien reigned: but the great mining industry which then made the reputation of this

I // .Y \\\IV. 1, i.

! I iryophilui \ Corp, mter. lay. t. 111. No. IW7.

register lay. t. 111, no. 7..

[A Plia, // A, \\\lii ; He \\\iv. 10.

, g | \\

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 243

province was that of iron (1). A reading inscription doubtful (2) seems to mention the procuratores ferraria- rum from the three provinces of Noricum, Pannonia and Dalma- tie (3), and, in fact, it is very difficult not to report to an iron exploitation intended for the manufacture of weapons the piece, with the legend METAL- DELM, which presents a on one side the head of Mars, bearded and helmeted, on the other a cook rasse (4); these ferries of Dalmatia are several times mentioned by the writers (o). As for Pannonia, in addition to iron mines (6), silver mines are mentioned (7) in this province, but never any copper.

This absolutely rules out the idea that the mention of mines on the special class of currencies which concerns us would have indicated the origin of the metal used to manufacture them quer. We must therefore look for it^ on the contrary, the designation tion of the places to which the course of these parts, which the absence of the letters S C characterizes as intended for exclusively local circulation.

Mining operations, with the workers who work there were employed, and the number of which was sometimes

(1) See. literary texts in Caryophilus, p. 50, and Potter, ad Clem. Alex. Stromat. I, p. 363. — Corp. insert. lat. t. III, nos. 4788 and 5036; t. V, No. 810.

(2) Corp. imcr. lat. t. III, nc 4809.

(3) See. O. Hirschfeld, Untersuchunfjen auf dem Gebiete der Rœmischen Verwaltungsgeschichte, 1. 1, p. 76.

(4) Cohen, M/, t. II, p. 251, no. 1169.

(5) Claudian. Bell. get.get. 538 et seq. ; Cassiodor. Var. III, 26.

(6) Registered Corp. lat. t. III, n*3953.

(7) Corp. register lat. t. III, n°

i.

16.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

('lioness | , then with all the tradespeople and mar- chands who naturally came to group around from them, mining operations gave birth

very considerable population populations on their territory, often very extensive. When the metalla belonged to the imperial tax authorities, which from the 2nd century of the Christian era was the case of the greatest number, everything that was included inira fines metallorum, such as mine shafts, quarries, baths, mar- ches, 1'-- industries, free men, freedmen, slaves, as well as miners, workers, artisans without, etc., was subordinate to authority and jurisdiction tion of the procurator metajlorum. This one, like the first magistrate of an industrial colony, determined the rights and the duties of all the inhabitants, established the duties vances aimed at the exercise of each profession and fixed the rate of the tax on 1" product of mines, the exploitation of which it regulated tation. Responsible for the mines of an entire province, the procuratort for each of them, substituted for s. mid self ion administration, in your- ordinary cases and by superior control, a contractor or m;i-

dnctor. whose rights and obligations were determined by a regulation established during the >on >. ]. cut-out green nte of the bronze table by Alj.ustrel, in Por- tugal "», made us part 1 of a regulation

I On |>. he: ,0.11111 WHO IUI m i more of |

Strab m. I, m.

he dei mines “Carthagen ivtil about twelve leagues from the right

■ ■

Mr. i li. «iiraud in the Journal tirs I «April

and May 1877, and that of Mr. Hûbner in VEphemèrit tpigraphkû of the

n

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 245

of this kind, imposed by the procurator metallorum Lusilaniae to the conductor of the Metallum Vipascense, and it is probable that it reproduces a type consecrated in such a case for the ad- ministry of mines belonging to the tax authorities and the popu- lation grouped on their territory.

Money was needed, and especially spare money. point, for the internal needs of large urban areas industrial operations thus formed on the territory of the mines, and equal in importance to considerable cities. Now, if the gold and silver coinage of the emperor^ struck not only in Rome, but in all parts of the empire, was abundantly spread in the provinces, even the most distant, it was not the same for the bare senatorial copper merire, made in the two only workshops of Rome and Antioch (see book III, chap. ni, § 2; book VII, chap. IV, § 1). It was from these two workshops that it was necessary to send this number to the various provinces rare, bulky by its nature and difficult to transport, especially when the transports were distant and had to be do it by land. So it only spread widely few in remote provinces, particularly in those of the East. Its insufficiency for the needs of circulation in these provinces is one of the best proven facts. For to make up for it, we had to resort to the creation of mon- provincial documents issued in the name of state authorities, but limited in their circulation to the territory of the pro- vince for which they were manufactured (see book III, chap. I, § 4; book VII, chap. IV, § k)s and especially to a very broad development of coinage permissions copper for local needs, granted to the colonies Roman or Latin (book III, chap. I, § 5; book VII, chap. IV, § -1) and to indigenous cities enjoying the right!

246 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

extended “municipal autonomy (book III, chap. i. |6; book VII, chap. iv, §4), As we have noticed just now, the pieces of the mines at the imperial level,

by the absence of the letters SC indicative of the manufacture in the senatorial and law workshops it»1 circulation general throughout the empire which reads the cons nce,

present the most obvious character of a coinage premises of this kind. And in fact, under economic conditions mics WHERE the Roman Empire was then located, in the data from the rules which then governed the manufacture With copper money, it was only natural that self- imperial authority granted coinage permissions small booster with localized circulation, similar

to the permissions received by Greek cities or eo|..nies, to the administration of certain metalla% but the term- territory in which a particle population crowded ment numerous. The need for registration permissions especially be silent in the provinces to which exclusively belong to the coins of the mines, because in the th century these provinces were devoid of currencies

. and the senatorial copper coin of the workshops of Rome or Antioch could only achieve this with difficulty. ment. From an autn it was natural that began different ies of mines distinguished according to the con- editions of their property. 'belonging individuals or private companies, the others at tax l), permission for local coinage was never but granted only to metalla constituencies of the

I S rents of private and imperial minos, the ab-

luelledai first ptr la leui ftdminfetraUoo,

m 0, il rachfel I, Umtersuck*nfen ■«/ 1 M. p. 72-91.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 247

second class, subject to the administration of procurators imperials. If in private mines we never wanted make up for the lack of cash by creating a sign of local exchange, it was necessarily a sign purely conventional and without intrinsic value, im- possible to confuse with currency emanating from authorities pnK'.ques, a sign which was in reality only a private assignat, exchangeable for real cash in the cash registers from which it emanated, and drew all its value from the credit of these funds, something like the little lead tokens to which we have conjecturally assigned a role of the same genre in the counters of the Compagnie des Nautae du Rhône and Saône (see above, in this chapter, § 1). We could search, among the ancient leads, for resembling monetary species in their appearance, if it there are none who, in mining districts, have could have served as a sign of private origin replacing the number raire.

But, although made of one of the metals officially monetary and therefore falling into the class of currencies proper, although issued by the authority of imperial officers, the species which concern us, intended for exclusive circulation in the territory of certain mines, had to necessarily, like Test in general all cash created under conditions of the same like, be fiat currencies rather than real currencies; they had to circulate for a value nominal without connection, even remotely, with their value intrinsic metal. Certainly there is no proof formality of this last point; this is just a simple conjecture. But it is made very plausible and almost imposed by the fact that the currencies in question

248 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

Good mowings of the same module, equaling only smallest divisional currencies of cun udays

struck in fairly small numbers, under the empire and already completely fallen into disuse in the ir Biècle. They are therefore in reality much lower than cash used] of the same metal at the same time, in the m provincial and municipal waterings as well as in them aatorial desateli, striking for the whole territory tory of the empire. This, combined with the conditions of a circulation restricted tion, limited to territories - - confined to a particular administration and dependent on imperial use, leads to the idea of a completely conventional monetary sign, representing in the form of a quantity of metal well Lower than the same values as copper coin

usual at the same time, cash itself already

sque completely fiduciary, since the metal value -

the intrinsic! was far from the nominal value assigned to him. The financial administration of Em- worse was entirely imbued with the false doctrine of coin-ifync (see, book 111. chap. n, ^ 2. which had

enthroned the true doctrine of commodity money, dominant among the Greeks book III, chap. n. § i, and < this economic error whose applications in the field of practice generated the great crisis monetary of the up century book \ 11, chap. iv, $2; had this administration had to first apply a week blable doctrine, before extending it to the whole

currency of the Empire, it was in “the dependent territories exclusively from the tax authorities, territories <>ii the- partial conditions- culars of internal circulation bc lent perfect- ment and without in places a. the employment of a Bigne purely \ ntional

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 249

3. We will perhaps be surprised that, in this chapter con- sacred to fiat money, without intrinsic value, among ancient people, we did not speak of facts similar to creations obsidian currencies, to which modern peoples have had recourse several times in circumstances of scarcity of cash produced by war events. The military coinage for the needs of armies in combat loincloth has however had a great development in the anti- equity, and we devote a special section to it later 'book 111, chap. i, § 7). But this coinage, by the authority and under the responsibility of the generals placed at the head of armies, is generally produced in the most satisfactory conditions as the title of the metal and accuracy of part weight; it's good money which were thus manufactured for the pay of the troops and for payment of suppliers. As for the circumstances of shortage which can lead to the creation of a currency of necessity, the ancients do not appear, at least according to the monuments that have reached us, have in such cases used the same method as the moderns, that of create a special currency, openly having the characteristics of necessity, not being confused with the normal cash and must be withdrawn from circulation as soon as the exceptional circumstances which produced it. They preferred to resort to the little means loyal to a monetary issue mixed with a high proportion of stuffed pieces, a means by which it was hoped to dis- simulate fiat cash, delivered to the public without the franchise which alone could justify their existence, means disastrous, as we showed earlier, because that by establishing a confusion between the species - loyal and altered species and making it very difficult to remove the

;.A COIN DA\s ANTIQUITY

first, it depreciated all the cash in circulation. Other times, and particularly under the empire, when the jealousy of the imperial authority had withdrawn from the generals in campaign the old monetary law which they enjoyed under the Roman Republic, instead of currencies

special needs for certain military needs, we gave the currencies already existing in circulation a functional and temporary value* by affixing a itremark see, liter IV, chap. t, j 1 .In this latter- deny case, it is obvious, despite the absence of texts which formally say, that after the cessation of “1st circum- tances which had given an exceptional value to the pieces thus countermarqw d had to set a certain period during which the holders of these coins had to

to the public coffers, to be remedied -

their nominal value in ordinary currency. P delay,

specially given to counter-currencies marked l: in the hands of the particles

had public

put back into circulation for this complaining dei,

and where no longer took any account of the hallmark,

which had been affixed there for a temporary purpose and whose they continued to bear the imprint. (if we therefore utes the finds of imperial coins copper Roman coins, so many examples of coins who have received several countermarks then suck

•have returned to circulation in the same way as the uncountermarked coins, and still remaining there int a century or two.

CHAPTER III

PROCESSES FOR MANUFACTURING CURRENCY AMONG THE ANCIENTS

J. — Minted coins.

1. Two processes can be used for the manufacture cation of currency: pouring the molten metal into molds composed of two pieces of refractory stone or in terracotta, or strike between two corners engraved with metal a solid metal lens. For this last pro- ceded, which was the most generally used, the old ones do not did not possess the powerful means of the pendulum, which invented the modern ones. They minted their coins hammer, slower and more imperfect means, which gave often gives rise to manufacturing accidents, because it was necessary several successive hammer blows to obtain the re- result that we now achieve with a single stroke of pendulum.

Certain Roman silver denarii, bearing the name of the monetary triumvir T. Carisius (1), represent the ins- truments that the moiinayers used. We recognize

(1) Cohen, M C, pi. X, Caritia, n° 7.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

(e cotn-matrix. which bore hollow the imprint intended

be reproduced in relief on the coin, the anvil on

which we placed the corners to hit them, the hammer,

so the pliers or te/size which was used to place the lens of metal, called blank% between the two blanks. A small bronze coin from the Latin colony of Psestum 1 1 watch on one side the balance with board games where the m is weighed

ined at coinage, on the other a worker who is going to mint per, with the hammer that he holds in both hands, the corners drank an anvil, at the command of a counter- master who raises his arm to give him the signal. The fa- manufacturing of coins struck in antiquity by the moj usive of the hammer is still attested by a ]

•me, in the life of Saint Paul Hermite 2. about a workshop in laiix-inonnayeui> including the sahlt

found the instruments abandoned in the desert

The links. ancient coins were cast

i. m-nt and avano. s the 1 closest vmv the one the room should have. This preparation by the m-'. well by the roleuse form

that the flan affects the pine. especially in times

ociennes, that by the ace] him,

“They sometimes present differences in material or

I àvellin t. II. p. 131. ft. V, n* tU. ureh.

\t. He, p. 118; L. § . /•'" kei

who i S \ \ . 74.

m f.r

lÎM si-iHula- vùebëMtur. Hurr m Ariiyptinrum literae will furti Mfti officinam futsse ta temp-

pes: IHCtUt fs1 i$.

\. . read / . r. new ier. t. IX, j>. -

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 253

remains of the fusion jet, imperfectly cut (1). There is no has only a very small number of pieces, of which we are speaking let's go a little further, where the sharpness of the edge, its appearance and shape indicate that the blank was cut the cookie cutter in a metal blade, as one does for our modern currencies. Minnow, in a place (2), seems to allude to this custom of preparing coins into lenses of their exact weight by melting them before hit. It is also he who is indicated by the expression flando, placed before feriundo as if to designate a preliminary operation, in the official title of the triumvirs monetary (3) (see above, in this book, chap. i, § 1, 1; and book III, chap. nor, § 2); this expression is, in effect, clarified by the title that receives on a denier the year l!x BC (4) the quaestor Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, CVR X FL curator denariis flandis (o). Of special workers, in Roman mints, were responsible for the casting work which put the sides monetary coins in condition to be minted; they were designated by the name of flaturarii (6) (see book III, chap. iv, § 2).

Thus prepared, the metal blank intended to become a currency was heated red hot and struck with the corners

(1) Hennin, Manuel, t. I, p. 78 and 86.

(2) Ap. Charis. p. 105, ed. Reil.

(3) Mommsen, M R, t. II, p. i6.

(4) Cohen, M C, pi. XIV, Cornclia, n°* 10 and 1 1; Mommsen, .1/ /«'. t. He, p. 175.

(5) Eckhel, D N, t. V, p. 21:2.

(6) Gruter, p. <>:*S, No. 1; Mommsen, Reg. re

The flaturarii were led by the eonduetoret Jlaturae monetac <

taris: Corp. registration lay. t. VI, no. 791.

&4 I.A CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

cold (1). The pliers, represented on the deniers of T. Ca- risius, etair of an absolutely necessary use for pla- Place the heated flan between the two corners. It's an op< which were responsible, in the monetary workshops tains, special workers, called su/ '2

(see. book III, chap. i\. g -Ji. She was, in fact, strong in- tte, required a lot of practice and b up from; decision.

The hammer strike, which the ancients used, does not did not make it possible to obtain in one go the relief of the mountains naive, even the least pronounced reliefs, as we pro- duces that of bare modern pieces with a single swipe of the balance wheel or hydraulic ram. We had to start again several times, and each time anneal the flan, as we are still obliged to do, even today, for medals with too pronounced relief. These various operations of monetary minting can be drunk in one way particularly clear (3 but the large gold coin of 20 •: s, of king Eucratides of Bactria, who owns the Cabinet of Paris medals”, a piece whose dimensions extraordinary demands required a greater number of resumption of work than for any other currency an- known tick. The corner has been modified in the meantime between two of the strikes; the legend, which we originally had arranged horizontally above the revenue type

again to make it] the ar-form

I My . Mmm. / . Acmd. inter. end. b6t. t. 1\. p. -Ju-j.

! i.rutrr, p. 1086, 0 ​​S I H070, ii \:<:urI,.,nscr.lat.l.X[. D<1344.

Chabouflet, Rtt mm, 1867, p. 386; I. l.mormant, GëMêUê des B I irtêt .ivril |N77.

(4) lîev. num. 1867, pi. XII.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 255

rounded the blank, which has a much more pleasant effect. rous; and what came first from the first legend left perfectly visible traces, although crushed by the later strikes. Furthermore, at the end of the work, the corner split under the effect of excessive hammer blows repeated.

With this need to try again several times by hitting, and each time removing the flan to do so anneal, we understand what precision was necessary in replacing it, so that the reliefs already obtained coincide exactly with the hollows of the die corners. The thing was all the more delicate as the coin blank ancient coins was not, like that of our modern currencies last, fixed and tightened for striking in a ferrule (l); he was left free between the two corners, where a blow of hammer given forged was enough to move it. From there the considerable number of copies from all eras, where the type is doubled by accident, or the blank slipped under the hammer, or it was poorly replaced after one of the times we recooked it w2). We are even surprised that this accident is not even more frequent with such an imperfect process, and there is something there to give ner the highest idea of the degree of skill of hand and precision in their operations, that long practice gave to the mint workers of antiquity.

2. We have a certain number of original coins Roman coins, from the first and second centuries

(1) Hennin, Manuel, t. I, p. 87.

(2) Eckhel, D iV, t. I, p. lxvii; Hennin, Manuel, t. I, p. 2,'J7.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

our era. Most consist of an engraved matrix, made of hardened steel, embedded in a truncated cone "nor in

a sort of barrel in bronze or iron 1: a rim in projection usually surrounds the end of the corner where the ma- trice B€ finds embedded, but it is notably more wide 411e the module of the room, and, therefore, does not have

not used as a ferrule to fix the blank during the trap. The interesting pines and the complete pines of these corners the one owned by the Musée de Lyon ri: it is complete, with < their two piers loning the face and the back of Vau-

reusbh n known to Faustine the young MATRI MAGNAE (3). L - two ••"in- are in volume of square soft iron caps: C( he who was placed at the bottom offers at his top a socket strongly projecting square, at the level of which is embedded the engraved steel matrix of the law type; this ma- trice is itself c, and the engraving of the monetary type It forms a circular leg ncavity in the center. The flan money was placed by the suppostor at the bottom of it socket, where the interior part engaged, a little narrowed cie, from the other corner, at the end of which we see encased

the steel matrix of the reverse. Once the shot hammer given, OR removed the upper corner, then it was necessary to milk overturn the lower one to keep the pi< hit. This last necessity, for which there was no

1 eh. I.rnonnant, Encyclopedia of lukewarm di&eteuaièsne t article Nu*ni$*

matùjue; Cbtbouillet, Description of cameos, etc. of the Cabinet of Medals,

R#”, archécl, duv, Bér. t. wine. p. 276, description of

1 ligula and Claude, discovered in the spring of Perty-le-

Mmi.he.

j I mirmond, Doser, du êntiaaitet tanstraéei an Palaù dot Arts} p. s-j, ei i,j Priedloender, Zsitsckr. j. Name. t. \. p, \i\ and

1 link. M I t. II. p.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 257

no way to escape, was very inconvenient and will cause a significant loss of time.

There are also those corners of the High Empire which are entirely in bronze, including the engraved matrix (1), and the extraordinary and constant multiplicity of corners that all scholars have reported in Greek numismatics, in a single broadcast from the same city and the same year (2), seems to prove that the Greeks did not use not the temper for their monetary corners; that they use were made only of a soft metal, which wore with great speed in typing operations. Unfortunately- erly no Greek corner is known to this day; but we have four Gallic corners, intended for the pro- production of known currencies of gold or silver (3), and they are all bronze or soft iron. Now, the Gauls say followers and imitators of the Greeks in matters of coinage, were only copying their methods. It is easy, of remains, to note on the Greek coins, and on the Roman coins up to Constantine, that their corners be made of iron, either bronze, or even steel, were generally generally of a metal of fairly poor quality, because we sees in the field of medals inequalities and blowholes, certainly due to imperfections of the corners (4).

(1 1 Mongez, Mém. de ÏAcad. des Inscr. new ser. t. IX, p. 207.

There is, however, a clear exaggeration to say, as we do ordinarily, we never come across two copies coming out of the same corner.

(3) See. on these four monuments an important work by M. A. de Barthélémy, Hev. archaeol. new ser. t. XV, p. 346 et seq.

(4) Come up, mem. cit. p. 20 i.

I.17

258 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

ix here, there is no mistaking it, clue them

more characteristics give certainty, . of-

then the first times of coinage until \ of the Christian era, engraved with a grinder, by the process

: it is still today the engravers in fine stones (1). In the fifth century and even a little before, - s I dominated it - tion of the princes of the family of I Pantin, changed. From this moment on, fresh »}»"' — , even le Bont the current currencies! s, cold

, thus [we recognize it at once and to the hardness of the metal, whose purity has not been altered.

. niai- (pie the percussion hardened by work hardening. Eu at the same time, to the nature and aspect of the work, we

is born (the engraving with the chisel has replaced the

t uret for corner preparation 2).

I. (ibinet of Pari medals read

of COU the beginnings of this new phase of iabrica-

, (are those of a solidus of the emperor

I * • Qs are made of steel, engraved with a chisel, and

r two brandies in ter on horseback .-«-delivering to the

of a fleshy one.

is only currencies themselves that

. can draw indu

primitive bion. Linsi, for pieces that offer a

{i) DM 1. p. -

. June 1811; Dvmenan, Hùtêirté*

abouii;. ption of cameos, etc. of

net of medals.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 259

on one side a type in relief, and on the other a hollow square more or less less deep, more or less regular (1) (see book IV, chap. i, §2), we suppose that this square represents a part protruding on which the metal lens was first fixed, to prevent it from slipping under the hammer. It was the time of the childhood of art. The coin only had one single imprint in relief; its shape was extremely irregular. She was almost still just an ingot of fixed weight, bearing an official mark which guaranteed its gravity and purity. We were in the transition between *the simply punched ingot, which we find in origins of Lydian coinage (see book VI, chap. in, § 1), and the currency arrived at its complete point of perfection as to its form.

This necessarily supposes two matrix corners, between which we place the metal blank intended to receive the prints. To facilitate engraving of matrices, did we push a punch, as in modern times, unless you touch up the punch mark with a grinder? The multiplicity of corners in all antique issues makes this very probable, and Tonne would hardly be able to explain otherwise- ment the speed with which they were executed. Monges (2) even believes he has experimentally rediscovered the pre- cis used by the ancients. “Two sculptors,” he said, “designed sing at the same time, separately, and end up in wax, one the head, the other the type of the reverse: the letters are formed very quickly with commonly used punches. We mold then these two waxes, then we pour silver into the

(1) Barthélémy, Mém. from VAcad. Registrations anc. ser. t. XXIV, p. M) et seq.; Eckhel, D N, t. I, p. lxiv; Hennin, Manuel, 1. 1, p. 47 and 97.

(2) Mem. cit. p. 208.

i. 17.

260 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

two molds joined together, which produces medals, All this work can be completed in less than twenty-four hours. As for the minting of coins could also be

very quickly, stamping the corners, as I did myself, that is to say by placing the medal that one can call the prototype, by placing it, I say, cold between the red-hot bronze corners, and striking on the whole device with a strong hammer. So one was able to the space of thirty-six hours, and make molds of iailles, and strike thousands of medals by stamping bronze wedges and by coining blanks heated with red. » The use of movable punches for letters monetary legends, at least among the Romans, is attested by the- letters reversed, moved, transposed and other accidents of the same nature (1, frequent in the imperial numismatics, especially at times when the m swimming presents a particular character of haste (îjf. Au . M. A. Dumont (3) also noted the the most positive way the use of movable letters by Greeks for preparing amphoric stamps

i. In all cases, the currency which bears the right type in relief and on the reverse a hollow square BU] m-

bination, no longer of two matrices, but of one die and a punch, especially from the moment We traced figures, either hollow or in relief, on

i Bokbel, DiV, t. i. p, oxxnu and b. . Hennin, Manuel, i. 1 p. el •.

(2) My t. p. 109.

Registration* at ramique$t p.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 261

bottom of the square. All the more so for the manufacture of incuse parts, that is to say those which, showing on one side the type in relief, as usual, reproduce the same type in hollow on the other side (I). It is by this process that a series considered rable of coins, which testify to the existence of a sort of political alliance and commercial convention between the main cities of Magna Graecia in the 6th century av. (2) (see book VII, chap. i, §2). To get to exactly take into account the manufacture of these parts, it is necessary admit that we obtained the reverse with the same punch which had been used to drive the matrix intended for striking of law. Sometimes, to mark the special alliance of two cities (see book III, chap. i, §2, 2), or even simply to bring together two mythological types, the hollow of the reverse, although reproducing in concavity the masses of the convex surface, offered the drawing of an object completely different. This is a piece from Taranto on which on one side we see Apollo Hyacinthian holding the lyre and the flower of his name, on the other the ordinary type of the hero Taras mounted on a dolphin (3). These variants suggest that after having pressed the punch into the matrix we subjected the area to a new work, intended to replace the first subject with another. It goes without saying, moreover, that blanks clamped like this between a die and a punch had to be reduced to a flat sheet, and that,

(1) Barthélémy, Mém. of the Acad. Imcr. anc. ser. t. XXIV, p. ii; Eckhel, D N, t. I, p. lxvi and 50; Hennin, Manuel, t. I, p. 98.

(2) D. de Luynes, New. Ann. from llnst. arch. t. I, p. 372-ii7.

(3) Ann. of the Archaeological Institute, vol. II, pi. M, No. 2; 0. Thousand, Denkm. d. has. Kunst, 1. 1, pi. XVI, no. 74.

262 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

to arrive at the legal weight of the currency, it was necessary to find ver we extend what we lost in thickness.

Later, towards the end of the 10th century BCE, we see a new reappearance in Bulgaria and very little numerous series of incuses (see book VII, chap. n. § 2). These are copper coins which offer on one side a head of divinity on one relief, on the other a hollow type (1); the flan y ;i the module and thickness usual for parts of the same weight; we see neither the thinning nor the widening ment characteristics of the ancient incuses of Great Greece. The same is true for part of the electrum hectates struck jointly, at the end of the 5th century, by several Greek cities of Asia Minor united in a monetary union shut up see. book 111, chap. ï, § 2, 2; book VI. chap. 17, \ 3 . These pieces, with their flan always very thick for its superficial, are characterized in that they have on the right the type of a city in relief and on the reverse the type from another hollow.

Incused currencies are also sometimes found by accident (2). These are funds from the republican suite caine or imperial without reverse and with the 1 reproduced

t recessed on the side opposite the raised face. (“< if œ which still happens today, under the action of the pendulum, when the coiner has forgotten between the two corners a pic ■<■ already broken and on this piece stacks a new one veal flan. A similar accident must have been even more frequent. than many days when we were operating in conditions haste tions, with corners where the removal of h] piece

i Deecke, Etruskitcke Fortckunge*, II. p. $2 el b.; and in his edition tion of /: 1 1 uq] er, LI, p. 13

(2) Eckhel, /).V, t. I.p. iavi; Hennin, Munie/, t. 1. p. 86 Bl

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 263

already struck was as inconvenient as with the one from the Lyon museum.

5. Bracteates have a close affinity with incuses. These are thin films of gold or silver (bracteae or bratteae) prints of a single type, in relief on one side, hollow on the other. They were obtained by stamping on a raised punch. Bracteates gold from various periods, found in tombs near the city of Minerva, which offer the atheistic type nothing of the owl and whose weights are exactly those of the half, the quarter and the eighth of the obolus attic (1) (see book VI, chap. iv, § 1), must to presume that sometimes, among the ancients, the bracteates had been introduced into the modern circulation netary. This conclusion is supported by several other examples; gold bracteates of Si- are known cyone, Ténédos and Mélos (the latter two in Cabinet of medals of Paris J, that the nature and regularity arity of their weight makes them recognized as currencies (2). It is important not to confuse them with another class of gold bracteates, which we have already talked about above (book 1, chap. i, § 3), which were stamped on the reliefs of current currencies, and intended to be sewn like glitter on clothes.

A singularity which is also not unrelated to the incuse coins are those presented by the currencies gold and silver, struck in Populonia and in various other places.

(1) Beulé, Coins of Athens, p. 63 and 86.

(2) Ibid. p. 64.

364 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

very cities of Etruria during the 5th and 4th centuries BCE Christian (1) (see book VII, five”. U, §3). These parts have no reverse side, but the back side is flat and shows no trace of any cavity. Over time, in the during the 4th century and in the first half of the m. to Volaterroe first, then in Populonia, they began to place on this reverse, flat and without bulge in the center, a little type developed and of low relief or some characteristics which brought these pieces closer to the usual appearance of the mon- Greek origins of ancient times, without, however, complete parity was between the two laces of the lens

metallic.

6. There was still, in the manufacture of money, the connection

among the ancients, other particularities of which it is

often difficult to fully explain the cause and

which, in all cases, reveal quite delicate research

oates of improvement in the processes

I. g] His bronze coins of the La-ides kings of Egypt

(see book Vî, chap, vi, j *2 have their edges of a regular larity which constitutes a real exception in the numis- ancient style, bevel-cut. Nature and sharpness of the Bection clearly show that instead of prepare the blanks, as usual, by molding, we operated as for modern currencies, which we have

cut the dan with a punch from a thick blade

of metal 9. (Jette practice did not come out, so to speak,

(1) The catalog!<• complete list of this coin! a (Ht'' given p.ir Mr. Deecke, Etrutki* fci For$ch**gem, il. p. :»--jh.

_' tfennin, Ifémief, t. I.p. B6.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 265

for the rest, from Egypt. Regularly cut edges in a bevel, although less clearly perhaps than under the Ptolemies, are still observed until the reign of Convenient, in all the strong bronze pieces with effi- imperial gies coming out of the Alexandria workshop (1); but we do not see them with any development in no other series. The large brasses of Antiochus IV of Syria, to the Ptolemaic types, which offer the usual type of the Lagides and the same factory as their coins, are Egyptian coins, minted on the banks of the Nile in time when the Seleucid king was master of the major part of the country (2). However, we can note some attempts to imitate this practice, but fleeting, in certain parts of Greece and in Apulia.

Other, smaller bronze coins, struck in Syria under the domination of the Seleucids, some coins gold and silver from Carthage and a number of Roman silver denarii from the time of the Republic, distinguished by their sawtooth-cut edges. This is what Tacitus (o) calls nummi serrati. Some expressions of the Latin writer (4) seem at first first justify those who explain this use by intention

(1) Eckhel, D N, t. I, p. lxiv.

(2) Feuardent, Giovanni di Demetrio Collections, Ancient Egypt, Mon- births of kings, p. 73. •

(3) German, 5.

(4) Pecuniam {Germani) probante veterem et diu notam, serratos bigatosque. — In reality, this passage only means one thing: it is that the Germans sought republican funds, as heavier than public funds imperial, and that at sight they recognized them by the type of the bige and the blanks with sawtooth edges, two circumstances that did not present other an imperial coin.

266 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

to indicate that nothing had been subtracted from his weight by means of file (1). Indeed, the inequality of the edges, for the even the most perfect lenses, was a per- petual offered to money cutters, while an stroke of a file on a sawtooth must have been much more visible that a similar operation skillfully carried out on a ordinary flan. But if this explanation could be admissible in the case where it concerns exclusively currencies of silver or gold, it is contradicted by the existence of numi serrati of the Seleucids, which are coins of

Small DZe, intended only to serve of extra -, in the manufacture of these currencies, we do not attach chait, as we have already said more binding, no serious importance to the rigorous accuracy of weight, ' ' were currencies that were more fiat than real, whose intrinsic value was not related to the value

nominal. Lecronage would have given very little benefit, and what it would have reduced in weight of the piece would not have influenced its circulation value. The same objection stands before the theory of those who believed that adoption the serration of the edges was a precaution against imitation tation of b > n silver coins in the form of pi < ur- real, imagining that it was not possible to reproduce in a similar process of falsification. The facts are responsible, moreover, for denying themselves in the most more barrel a similar theory, then. pie precisely several of the deniers n hands of which we meet so many stuffed templars than good quality copies trent in the category of nummi serrati (%2).

(1) < [ue refutai I d }jà B rithel, t v. p. (.ii and i.

l)Coh«i M ' \i\.

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 267

There therefore remains a problem which we cannot know, in the present state of science, make a reason well satisfactory health. This problem is that of the cause which could have caused adopt, at a certain time, a practice that nothing seriousness does not seem to justify, which, at the same time, had to significantly increase labor costs, creating particular difficulties for manufacturing currency. Indeed, it is not after the strike and at using the file that you cut the edges of the piece sawtooth. This would have been, without doubt, the most effective process simple to execute, but he could not have put himself into practical without risking always subtracting too much or too much little of the material of the blank, consequently without losing to the currency the accuracy of its weight. The serration was obtained in molding, which prepared the blank in the form as close as possible to that which he was to have after the plate. It is easy to verify this by examining the edges of the nummi would be Roman or Carthaginian; the saw teeth are most often rounded, blunt, do not have in any way the sharpness of edges that they present would have been cut if they had been cut with a file. And the thing is even more salient with copper coins of the Seleucids, where almost always the interval of the teeth offers more or less extensive burrs of metal, which are are produced at the corner of the two mold parts in which the flan was prepared.

It is in Carthage that this singular practice appears having been implemented for the first time. According to their weight and the composition of their metal, the nummi serve Carthaginian rati of gold and silver are placed, in the following of the vicissitudes of the coinage of this city (see book VI, chap. seen, g 1), in the middle of the 111th century BCE-

268 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

yours, towards the end of the first panic war (1. Those (i a S leucids, in bronze, d*aj - judicieus -

reverations of Mr. Feuardent - , were fra] [ne

exclusively from the reign of An tiochua V k ce phon,

that is to say in a period of "21 years, from 164 i 143 av. AD; yet we find a few pieces

[they appear to belong to the reign of Seleucus V, mounted goal The throne in 136 ■>'. In Carthage and Syria, we quickly renounced a use which complicated a lot, and Without advantage, the work of the people will be monetized. However she was temporarily imitated in Macedonia (at), in the early times after the reduction of the country into a province Roman il 16 BC AD. and among the Romans this practice that, introduced on several different occasions, in imitation

' larthage, then that of Syria, reads more fortune than elsewhere theirs.

In Rome, in fact, we encounter an isolated piece serrated edges [5) in the series of deniers cut on the foot of 72 to the pound, that is to say of those whose manufacture tion ceased around the end of the first war Punic see. book Vil, chap. ni, 55 &)î we must oon- sid ms imitated from the numi serrait of Carthage, |

ment contemporary. We are more than a century apart d then without us seeing this par- peculiarity in Roman coinage; then, in the last

I I Miller, \timism.

ription of a collection

; b, El H M I I kfonolof l WWnnaiet of the Community d*s

Mr. p. 51.

(4) //'»

'. 'h. .1/ C. p. ;; ;■.•. M uuntao, M R, t. U, p. 191 *l --i .

THE MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 269

quarter of the 2nd century BC, we start again to make bricking coins with sawtooth edges in Kome, this time in imitation of the Seleucid brass.

“The first money,” says Mr. Mommsen (l), “that we see appear with the jagged edge, after a hundred fifty years of interruption, bear the names of Licinius Crassus and Cn. Domitius (2); they are the only ones who have were minted before 650 from Rome (104 BC). We we only know four others before 670 (84 BC): the funds of L. Cotta (3), of L Scipio Asiagenus (4), L. Memmius (5) and C. Sulpi- cius (6). The names of Domitius and Crassus, who are located wind with those of five monetary on the first de- serrated niers struck in the 7th century from Rorae, could make people think that this extraordinary commission of seven members (see book III, cliap. ni, § 2) inaugurated a new era for coinage, and that these magistrates are the authors of the innovation.

“This system of serration lasted until towards the end of the Republic. The serrated denarii of L. Roscius Faba- tus (7) and others, who found each other for the first time in the Cadriano deposit, were probably all

(1) M R, t. he, p. 197.

(2) Cohen, M C, pi. VII, Aurelia, no. 5; ft. XV, Cosconia, n° 1; ft. XXXIII, Poblicia, No. 1; ft. XXXIV, Pomponia, n<> 1; ft. XXXIV, Porcia, No. 1; Mommsen, M R, t. II, p. 362 et seq.

(3) Cohen, Jl/C, pi. VII, Aurélia, n° 7. (i) Cohen, M C. pi. XIV, Cornelia, no. 3.

(5) Cohen, M C, pi. XXVII, Memmio, n° 2.

(6) Cohen, M C, pi. XXXV11I, Sulpkia, n° 1.

(7) Cohen, M C, pi. XXXVI, lioscia.

270 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

minted after 681 (72 BC). Those of .M. Aquil-

liufl 1 | anddeC. Hosidius Geta *2 seem to be the most

m.-, since these magistrates already take it upon themselves

coins the title of triumvir.- ?oy. book III, chap m,

1 2).

At Burplns, the serration was not of i line, and, at the very time when it was in use, we manufactured quaited parts in the ordinary way [3). Except me, This method has never been used, and it is probable that all the denarii named serait were made in

the workshops.- of the capitulum. »

7. Most bronze coins from the Sel- i aux

serrated edges present at the same time, on their two s, an nter, a small circular cavity produced by a point protruding into the hollow of the engraving of the corner-matrix (4). This point, from the first shot of hammer, penetrate deep into Le Ban de

Boumis metal for monetary minting, and its her

prevented it from slipping, by fixing it between the two corners using this means, we obtained the same and! chei us

by the use of laughter, The same particularity of keoh-

i Cohen, If C, pi. vi. AquUUt d 1

Cohen, M C, pi. XIX, H 1 1 i, d I el

endanl never the same t\ pe 'le d

ite even pu <:<• monetary which we ■ ■- iii'ux speciesea typee different* Maie, in your lrinm?iri

from the right we adopt the eyetème of the serration, the antrum

don't,

(4)Eckhel, n.Y. t. l, p. i.w. Bennin, Manuel, t. I.p, 0

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 271

nique is noticed on some copper coins of cities of Syria and Palestine, struck at the same time than the royal species of the Seleucids where it is observed. Mr. Feuardent (1) was the first to remark that the em- use of this method, to fix the monetary blank between the corners, only begins in Syria from the reign of An- tiochus IV and his Egyptian campaign. On the contrary, from the first reigns of the Lagides dynasty, we can notice the trace on the bronze pieces, which have in at the same time the edges cut into a bevel. The meeting of these two circumstances shows that in Alexandria, and in general in the workshops of Ptolemaic Egypt, we were busy in a very particular way of searching for people improvements in the minting processes, and that there had made remarkable progress in this area. It's there that Antiochus IV borrowed this refined practice, which he introduced into Syria. The other Greeks, no more than the Romans appear never to have practiced it.

But the manufacture of filled coins (see § 3 of previous chapter), which had among the Romans much more great developments than among the Greeks, denotes the from ancient coin makers an astonishing practical skill tick, despite the imperfection of the mechanical means by which they had. Nowadays, with much different tools- advanced technology available to us, we would go backwards before the material difficulties of executing similar parts. It is difficult to understand how we managed to fix in a solid manner, on the iron or copper blank, the thin sheets of silver which covered both faces, to hide their corners and to prevent them from

(1) Description from a collection of med. yrcipies, p. i30.

272 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

separate but the edge of the coin at the time of ppe, how did we finally manage to do so much thin bracts do not tear at the foot of the corner beaten with the hammer. It is especially singular that we were able to overcome these difficulties in the (shelter - rapid formation of numerous monetary issues I the thing becomes almost unbelievable when it comes to the app- application of this process to the manufacture of edged coins teeth, for which there were still added difficulties moreover. But, as Mongez (I) noted, the pro- duction of the filled pieces was only possible by striking hot pressing coins, as the Greeks did and Romans*

8. We do not have to talk here about currencies-in-

urs of Byzantium, to which their particular form has

gives the name nummi scyphati; they do not, in fact,

carried out* "after the time when we stopped

search this book. But, without having their dan reduced to as thin a thickness as that of

;intin< . ■■: * b antiqi

give it a scyphal b accus form. would go pre- sensing in.*' -■ sensitive vexity, b which corners a

no less marked with the Burfaee on the reverse. The Ban metal, in- pieces of this kind, s and between two corners, one of which, that of di Brait,

Dug out bur&ce on which one has engraved the type, and the other a convex surface, of a corresponding curvature. ('• particularity is especially noticeable in the currencies, more

I 1 ' ' .' . : t 1 \ . | l.l I _'

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 273

or less crudely imitated from those of the Greeks and Romans from the time of the Republic, which were made ques by the barbarian peoples spread over the long Danube valley. We observe the first germs in the coinage of Pannonia and the country of the Quades (see. book VI, clip. wine, § 2); it is mainly developed in the gold coins minted by the Boians of Bohemia and the inhabitants of Vindélicie (1), and also, it seems, on Another setback of the Alps by the people around Ver- ceil (2), currencies to which their form completely scyphate, despite the thickness of the blank, was valued in Germany the popular name of Regenbogen-Schiisselchen, “pe- tits dishes with the rainbow” (see book VI, chap vin,

§2. — Cast coins.

1. It was formerly believed that the custom of casting the mon- naie was older than that of hitting her. It's that then scholars considered Yaes grave of the Romans and other peoples of Italy like the monuments completely primitive in monetary art (3). But today- today it is an opinion that a more in-depth study of the facts and numismatic monuments caused to be abandoned.

(1) Streber, Ueber die sogcnannten Regenbogen-Schiisselchen, Munich; 1,860; Longpérier, Rev. num. 1803, p. lil and s.

(2) Promised, BicercJte sopra alcune monete anlichc scoperle nel Yercellese, Turin, 1865; Friediimder, Berliner Bldttcr, t. III, p. 1G9 et seq. ; Rev. num. 18GS, p. 129 et seq.

(3) For the true date of this serious aes, see. book Vil, chap. H, §î-5.

t. *8

THE MONN AN- THE ANTiq

The most common currencies keep the trace of maturity

it was that they were hit in a llan of » form at first very unequal, and which does not [a' with the

ipa a regularity pou ap further by the

modern peoples. The casting process has never only a ption, tri tified for Vam grave, qv

could not have minted for the $1 of the circulation

that with the most powerful pendulums and n hammer, Beul employee dis elders, • i who |

also denote inexperience or haste, as . - coin at a table

part of the billon from the time of Septimius Severus and B B f -

not through ignorance of better methods than the Latins Romans sank their coins instead of there is a better method

everything more convenient and less expensive because of the dim of these parts. What proves it is that ira - and d:tans) who were frak

Rome itself from the earliest times of the d<»nt the weight o'd to that of the liberal ace [on

last • VU, chap. n,

8 bones of >u1 les (interbred p ir le |

of hitting a few pi*

nt the j>cnh i of S; VI,

chap. i\, to m I Demmretion; lirre VU. chap. 1.s! . adrachms of Atl'\zander the

drachmas of - ! of

20 Bactria book VI, chap. \,

; m /;. i. i. i

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS T>ô

§3), finally in copper the largest coins of the Ptoles- meas, whose average weight is 96 gr. (book VI, chap. vi, §2). But most of these currencies of unexpected proportions lites were exceptional coins, struck in small number, to the manufacture of which we were able to give special care, and spend labor costs in relation to the considerable value they represent were in traffic. We couldn't act the same way with copper coins, of low value considering to their weight and dimensions, issued in quantities very considerable, as was necessary for the sole form of cash officially accepted in the use of a as great a city as Rome already was at the time when it began to have currencies. It is by the thousands that count the Jibraux aces in the statements of sums that contain historians at every moment for this era, and therefore it is enough to browse Livy to get an idea of what the development of the manufacturing of these currencies. Under such conditions, it was really impossible to resort to typing to such huge pieces, especially for copper pieces, metal more resistant than gold or silver to the action of the wedge pushed by the hammer. The only Greek copper coins struck which approach to a certain extent by their dimensions of the liberal aces of Italy, those of La- gides, are of a later date; and, as we have noted in the previous paragraph, their manufacture is linked to certain advances in mechanical processes of the striking, carried out only then and in the workshop of Alexandria. It is very doubtful that the Greeks, even the more experienced, could have struck similar ones at beginning of the 4th century BCE, and at i. 18.

276 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

all the more reason we must admit this impossibility

ir the Italiots, who had not yet had I -ion to acquire the same practical skill as Lesi D'ail-

their the metallic mass offered by these copper j

- Ptolemies, 1 - larger than the G t pro-

taken by the process of minting, is only the third

ne of the liberal aces of Borne and Latium, approximately the quarter of those of Picenum book VII, chap. n, £ I . The Greeks of Agrigento, themselves, quaud Lise wml a

these serious to a slightly earlier eue (book VII,

chap. \, § 1), did not seek to make it otherwise than by sinking it. The substitution of simple cast iron for strikes for the aes (jrave of Italy, ri dl establishes a

relative exception nr recent, three years later at least to the invention of money, had its cause in

Difficulty of using another process for donations special of this coinage. OK, it's the same difficulty that made that the Greeks of Olbia, around the same time or a | earlier, also resorted to the process of fleeing to make the biggest pi their serious aes,

which almost equal, as dimen 1 liberal airlocks of Italy see. earlier in this book, chap. I, §i, 3).

Among the Gauls belong exclusively

sively to the last4 | autonomous coinage

(book VI, chap. vin. J4, el book VII, chap, ni, g 6. L - Gallic coins the imitation of s'les

(see book IV, chap. M, g 2. el as well as p

:,t long our an pier dii

slow or third-hand types hel-

leniqn nt on the Greek processes qtfil are

1 done struck their coins, several

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 277

centuries before starting to sink a few (i). The parts resulting from the use of this latter process are of a crudeness of art and execution which reveals hasty work and almost tumultuous, broadcasts made in troubled times and in circumstances of necessity, in the midst of the last struggles of the expiring nationality. 11 must be added that the composition of the gossip of which are made all the parts, giving a metal devoid of duct- tility, imposed almost absolutely, as it was already noted above (in this book, chap. i, §3, 4), to use cast iron in a mold for their manufacture, instead of striking with a hammer between two metal corners- liques.

2. As for the bill of the successors of Septimius Severus, we must note that the prodigious lowering of the title of the currency and a general negligence of manufacturing there coincide with the appearance of numerous copies sunk. It is, strictly speaking, false money. naie, whatever its origin, public or private; this is why, regarding the discoveries of mussels of terracotta suitable for casting the log pieces of the impellers reurs of the third century, we agitated among the antiquarians the question of whether these were vestiges of the industrial secretly sorts counterfeiters, or if the government, at the same time as he claimed to impose on the populations currencies without intrinsic value, in the most serious sense vely altered, had also not wanted to spare the costs carefully manufactured. Like these kinds of companies

(1) A. de Barthélémy, Rev. ark A. new ser. t. XV, p. 346.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUL

are those where bad governments have sought with the most stubbornness in all time a rem to their financial embarrassments, we must refrain from putting substitution of cast species for; although the internal alteration of currencies

idle on lecom] kussaires deprofession.

Alteration can lead to falsification of the title

silver coins, replaced by billon or . in this book, chap. i, g:î. » . a] time S, was an official and legal fact vcy«

book VU, chap. iv. g -2: gold, the frequent substitution from a casting process to that of striking towards the same tem] s can hardly be separated from it. The manufacturing

•iniquity of imperial currency by means the casting was certainly also then an official fact, but exclusively suitable for workshops

in France, England and Switzerland that we have

ived a large number of monetary molds from the

1, never in Italy 2: which is ideal

moves that mussels did not belong | the false-mon-

u. We mainly met a lot of them

in d; in the “Lyon 3” district, where we Bail i u’il y

imperial currency (i), in the same district

I I /; .

Henoin, Mamiei% t. I.p. 82; Àkermtn, C*t§l. of roman county, t. I.p. \n , ; Brnekner, Èierkwurdigkeiten der Ltmdi />

MM t. II. [”. .*.S 81 \um. rhr n. t. !.

i-. 161.

! i khel, /. r.; /; r. %m 67 1 m mmaea If il, t. III, y. 15.

num. is:;:, p. ]

p. 28! “

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 279

where was also discovered the pair of corners of an aw- reus of Faustina preserved in the City Museum.

But the fact is not limited to the billon currency of successors of Septimius Severus. We meet very-fre- only in the south of France, and rarely in north of Lyon, a category of ancient currencies abso- ly unknown to other countries where domination extended Roman tion. These are medium module parts in yellow copper, with a very strong zinc alloy, dupondii of cast brass. The molds in cnt were stamped on the similar pieces from the senatorial workshop in Rome, of which they reproduce the types, the legends and even the letters S C (1). The Marquis de Lagoy reported the first first (2) this kind of coins, and M. A. Colson has some given a very extensive catalog (3), but which is far from being complete. We find, in those that we know, the complete imperial suite from Augustus to Philip, and the specimens are especially multiplied from Hadrian to Sep- time Severe. The manufacturing seems to have been based there a locality in Narbonne Gaul. It is difficult to believe that this real counterfeit of the products of the senatorial coinage was the work of private forgers. The abundance and continuity of emissions do not agree hardly with this data. Moreover there is, between these pieces and the minted coins that they imitate, differences if sensitive to manufacture, module and weight, that, if it had

(1) These parts are, moreover, lighter in weight and one module noticeably smaller than their minted prototypes; but there is one a little thicker.

(2) Rev. num. 1842, p. G7.

(3) Rev. num. 1864, p. 107-1-21.

280 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

been counterfeit money, we would have recognized them at first first glance and exclude the traffic. By what authority were they fabricated? ('is that which dies again; a mystery.

Later, at ivn bj. we see the substitution of melting at minting prohibited by the laws of o'H\ a] l), 356 2 and 371 (3 .

1 3. — Comparison of ancient and modern processes

in i.r.i as results.

To return to the minted currency, the currency normal and usual of the Romans, it is good

to notice that the inferiority of modern monetary art compared to that of antiquity, even sounds the chisel of Benvenuto Cellini, by Michel Colomb, by Briot and Varin, not only cares about the helpless are

found to achieve the same degree of perfection

plastic tion than the old ones. The difference materials there is a very large part i.

We look above all in modern currency for this • pie the island which receives the fingerprints constitutes half disk of perfect regularity, equally flattened Bur all the parts of its two faces, in such a way that the pii

i I i lof. i\. 21, 3 1 Cod. Justin. IX, Ut i (î) Cod. Theodos. i\. 23, l. \) I. i i.XI, 11, I.

I I Dsideralionfl have already been developed in II I

Btêëi \ w it. r. _

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 281

can easily be assembled and stored in piles. It's indeed a great convenience for the conservation of money in a safe and a serious guarantee against fraudulent subtractions, because all it takes is a simple glance to make sure that a pile of coins has not decreased in height, while it was necessary to count piece by piece room or use the balance, to check if nothing has been taken from a group composed of coins of one form irregular and enclosed in a bag, In addition, the number modern rarity, with its mathematically regular edges binds and its thickness everywhere equal, does not allow the im - probity of reducing the metal by filing, an operation which executed with the greatest ease on currencies ancient and which it was only possible to notice in weighing the pieces. There were therefore decisive reasons, and true utility, to adopt and maintain this form in the cash intended for circulation, although it is very unfavorable to art, by forcing the engraver to give give the types too weakened a relief, which does not obstacle to the ability to stack coins.

Moreover, these weakened reliefs are suitable alone for a piece in the shape of a flat disk, and there is nothing more disa- pleasant, as an effect, that the medals which are struck today to perpetuate the memory of important events racks, with their types strongly projecting over a field absolutely flat. Quite different is the appearance of currencies large antiques, pentccontaltra of Sy- racuse for example, with their beautiful lenticular shape, bulged in the center and thinned at the edges, in which recognizes so well the wonderful feeling of propriety Greek artists. The protrusion of the blank adds to the value of the central part of the type, which the engraver designed to

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

appeal above all to the gaze, while the field goes dually by fading towards the ends and no longer has thus this importance which, in crushes the guy. I especially in rant the

■ main currencies that the superiority of the form lenticular bursts in a striking manner; we win a variety of plans, a firmness and a power in the modelling, a fine gold, fleeting I

stop at the - gives nature, that we

would fail to achieve with modern I.

We feel the air and life circulating, and the monetary type arrives

zaler the most beautiful< - works of sculpture, while of nn> coins are flat - relief, and

cell commemorative dailles, plus relieve 3, sem-

blent clumsily placed on the Ban of a thickness uniform that supports them. The data of a plane disk i st claimed by the < - us of utility that we just now, for 1 s of circulating cash,

but none justifies it for 1

who are not | be put in piles and that the < ur

too strong relief would make it completely imprinted

n right to time

didn't bring you back to the form of the

numismatic d i< ds, aua forms that had almost

ment renewed the Italian artists dn w in their-killoDS-. uls monu-

ments that modern monetary art can achieve

attempted in parallel with those of L'antiquil.

This is where the difference comes in

manufacturing. Ancient currency was struck on the market

moderate medals - 1 nor summer tVap-

- by mechanical means of great power,

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 283

first with the pendulum, then nowadays with the ram hydraulic. The use of these machines produced an eco- significant economy and a considerable increase in speed in manufacturing; it is therefore natural and right that we adopted them, to the exclusion of a more im- perfect in both respects, for clean money- said. But Part lost, as he almost loses always using machines. The hammer, striking less roughly than the pendulum or the hydraulic ram, did not crush the flan in the same way and allowed thus avoiding hardness and dryness of the contours, which Your remark in all our coins and medals, but which is unknown to the numismatics of antiquity. The hammer, handled by a skilled worker, was moreover a instrument as intelligent, as obedient to the will than the sculptor's chisel; the monetary could settle the force of his blow as he saw fit, make it more or less violent, as required by the nature of the corner from which he had to produce the print. It was easy for him to calculate things in such a way as to make the principle bear unequally pale force of the strike on the different points of the surface of the blank, so as to give more projection and more value to certain parts of the type. On the contrary, the effect of machines cannot be regulated in the same way; he does not know these delicate nuances which are so important aunts in Fart's works; he strikes with violence, with the uniform and brutal regularity of an unknown force scientific.

The invention of the balance wheel, so valuable for manufacturing tion of current currencies, of which it is necessary to produce the most as many as possible in the shortest time and cheapest possible, brand from the point of view of art

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUJ

a disastrous date in modern numismatics. We can observe the immediate effects in the S from almost all the countries of Europe; but nowhere do they are only marked in a more striking manner than in jes of the Republic of England mwell.

The gold coin, whose corner was engraved by Briot, was made with a hammer, and it can be considered! urn the most beautiful product of the monetary art of - mo -

last; the silver coin was engraved by Blondeau,

ins in Boni almost as beautiful as those of 1' but she was struck with the pendulum, and this circumstance nffit so that she cannot stand the comparison reason. After the invention of the pendulum, that of the hy- ram draulic, incontestable improvement from the point of view

material, adding to the regularity, the cCON mie and the speed of manufacturing, marked a new ph

of decadence for art. It is enough to compare a me- daille from the reign of Louis XIV with a C that the Paris mint strikes today, to judge the difference reference ;lt:it- of the two processes. And M we want

bring the parallel to d cir-

culation, how much do the five francs in the Her-

cule, of the first Republic spawn • . masterpiece of the second Dupré, still made with the pendulum, are not they are not superior to us in the relationships, I am not saying to the coins of the Emperor Napoleon 111 what is there

more indu' i the air.' is not to talk about it), but to those

of the B on 184 J, of which the < ins were taken

since September i el qui Boni the most elegant m nays that have been produced today.

I- raia us which impose the use of means m

standards for the production of circulating cash n

MATTER IN ANCIENT COINS 285

no value when it comes to commemorative medals tives. As only a small number of examples are minted, please, the economy is zero or almost zero; and, as for the greater speed, this is a case where one can say “It seems that time doesn't matter.” Why therefore do we persist in using in their manufacture a process whose effects are not happy in relation to port of art, instead of returning to the system which gave such beautiful results in antiquity? The test deserves at least to be tempted, and I am sure in advance that the re- results would be happy enough to prove the necessity sity to replace the use of the hydraulic ram and absolutely flat metal discs that of the hammer, as well than a metal lens bulged in the center and thinned on the edges, whenever we would like to obtain a true work of art, worthy of passing down to posterity for pass on $1 as a souvenir of memorable events our time. Already, moreover, from the point of view of con- perception of reliefs of the type and lenticular shape of the metal blank, we can welcome with satisfaction our young artists the dawn of a movement back to true principles, too long forgotten. From this point of view, it would be unfair not to report at least as a happy example the excellent commemorative medal of the Vow of the Church of the Sacred Heart by Mr. Chapu, in the which this eminent artist came closer than any another contemporary of the accent of the great engravers of 15th century.

END OF VOLUME ONE

ANALYTICAL TABLE

MATERIALS

FROM VOLUME ONE

Pages. Introduction i

Plan of the work 1*

Book one. — ProlegomeiNES.

Chapter one. — Numismatic monuments which are not currencies.

§ 1. — Roman medallions of gold, silver and copper.

1. Are there any monuments in ancient numismatics that are not monetary? B. . 3

Definition of medals and origin of this term 4

2. Absence of an ancient expression to designate medals

non-monetary 5

The ancients needed it less than the moderns, because of

the way they understood the types of currencies Ibid.

The Greeks did not have medals distinct from the G coins

Their strongest coins have an undeniable monetary character. 7 The enormous golden Eucratides of the Cabinet of France is nevertheless a commemorative coin rather than intended for computer circulation nary Ibid.

3. The Roman imperial gold medallions of the three metals, dis- tincts of strictly monetary species 8

Their types are less historical than those of currencies i>

4. Despite the non-monetary destination of gold and silver medallions,

288 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF MATERIALS

Page*. people, their weight always represents a sum of money

f « *

i - - were intended for lar. . . 11

I -Urination that is necessary j them ni' »r

given by the Emperor, the money by - ... /

Frames that made it possible to wear most of the i

Gold ion as the badge of the imperial washer. 12

i: [uelesl urs du i nt

SELF 3 13

lailond the foundati n Constantinople.... H

medallions of I listin t of

coins of the same metal beds!.

îif and irrefragable, the absence of the letters SC ibid.

They are also missing for some coins from the province.

- outside the authority of the Senate r>

But the particular factory of - - i pei t ] i

confused with bone medals >in properly Roman 16

Particularly fine work • melaillons

heart of the blank and blanks of two metals 17

6. Medallions strewn in a metal border. . They were attached to the middle signs of the effi- imperial gie ille 18

7 The majority of bronze medallions were never of i >nl to be >with another - -

n he: ! I

I\i haven't been made

right -ur their metal It

Eckhel, who l< c wishes i

H s. The i me. no m - hit by the \

from the time of Adrian

them

Particularïl - of him

I .i the head of Antii

•m their dimi dail i what coins

ilemêtU in nt fofrmnàu > es.

1. habits- reli-

FROM VOLUME ONE 289

Pa^es • This usage was especially developed in the cult of fountains and

rivers 99

2. Precautions taken to prevent re-entry into circulation tion, after having stolen them, the coins thus offered

to the gods 31

Obliteration of the type by a cut of shears Ibid.

Dedication inscriptions traced in graffito on the pieces Ibid.

3. Certain coins were specially minted for offerings

of this kind 32

The sacred drachma of Didymes Ibid.

The aces of Nemausus struck on ham-shaped blanks. . \Y.\

4. Coins specially minted by priestly authorities to be given as prizes in certain sacred games Ibid.

§ 3. — Imitations of coins made for jewelry.

1. Use of gold and silver coins in jewelry among the old 3i

2. Imitations of coins manufactured solely for display jewelry tees 36

History of Valerius Paetus under Elagabalus Ibid.

Samples of this kind that have reached us 37

3. Use of gold leaf stamped on dts in ornaments coins 38

§ 4. — Lalismanian medals,

1. Manufacturing of medals to be worn as talismans protectors \)\)

Ideetalismanic attached in the 111th century to the image of Alexander

the Great Ibid.

Medals then struck in his effigy 40

The gold medallions from the Treasure of Tarsus 4!

2. Talismanic medals from the Late Empire, associating the task from Alexander to Christian emblems 42

3. A bronze medallion of Lucille and a painting of Esquilio. 43

§ 5. — The devotional medals of the first Christians.

i. Texts relating to the use of these medals 40

Specimens which have reached us Ibid.

2. Representations they carry Î7

1.M

290 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages. 3. Use of coins of the type of cross enguif i medals

devotional 18

^<>. — The medallions are distorted.

1. Distinctive characteristics of this medallion

their name

Ordinary types of contorniates 50

2. Time when these medallions were made 51

:;. The conformates are all of Western origin

Their relationship with the JOUI of the circus Ibid.

1 ~ efl b dead emperors, especially Nero and Trajan, \ Bgurenl in memory of cr (ju'iis milked for these di- warnings

i. Pinkerton's conjecture on the destination of oontorniat -

as before due Ben ir of entrance tickets to the games

Reasons which prevent it from being admitted for the majority of i

lismanic of the majority of t\| ontor-

niatea

The literary characters represented there are [nor

know about magicians

“;. i pement of magical superstitions in the Lower Period Bmpire

I • ■> OOntorniateS Bel \.i «Mit of feticket for the supporters of (she or

such faction in the JOUX du cirque.

' ~ . — L*

\. rays of . of the time «lu flant-Empii

minted by los mên 3 coins 61

restt es se -'i.'- at the heads of Emperors of the Lower Empire r<-

the deities. Und.

63

I, I m so-called Spintrian. //'"/.

i of an i • m tirique with regard to Tiberius ••• 66

8, — Tokens due-

1. The | ancient monuments similar to | >-

. - 67

FROM VOLUME ONE. 291

However, there are also copper ones, minted like coins. . Ibid.

2. gg game token

Tokens of merchants and industrialists 69

Athenian token of the Thesmothetes Ibid.

Saturnalia Tokens 70

Chapter II. — Generic names of currency among the ancients.

1. Main of these names 72

'Apyiîpiov among the Greeks and aes among the Romans Ibid.

2. Xpr^axa. 73

3. Pecunia, vestige of primitive times when cattle were the instrument

exchanges and the standard of the value of things 74

Fables to which the altered memory of this era gave rise. 76 Pecunia became, in the third century of the Christian era, the special name

copper coin 77

4. N6(xi<7jj.a in Greek 78

N6f;.oç and voOKap.oç among the Dorians 79

Nummus in Latin Ibid.

Nomisma, doublet of nummus 80

Used mainly to designate old collectible medals. tions Ibid.

Philippi, used to designate the current currency after the

1st Christian century 81

N6|xtff[i.a in Byzantine Greek

5. Monela, origin of this name Ibid.

Modern names of coins derived from places of manufacture ...... 8 i

Mesh Ibid.

Thaler. 86

Chapter III. — Origin and spread of use currency in the ancient world.

§ 1. — Metal circulation before the invention of money.

1. Antiquity of the adoption of precious metals as instruments

of exchanges and common standard of values 88

i. 19.

292 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF HÀTIEB

We first laughed at Pétai absolutely raw, in the form of mor- irregular ones as figure and as weight ss>

We then make ingots of regular p>;ds, but n-

official print v '

What was still missing from this form of circulation to become specifically money, and how the invention of it consummated an immense progress "I

The honor of this invention can only be disputed between h s Greeks and Lydians M

2. A look at the metallic circulation in the cirilisatioi - Eastern countries before the invention of currency: the Kg\ pte

Uoulen of drunkenness

Prices of different objects, evaluated in addition, in the documents of the pharaonic era

The inner circulation of ancient Egypt was made up of a rough breast, analogous to that of the Italic people

;. Information provided by Egyptian monuments on the stall of Ki metallic circulation in the countries of anterior Asia, su time of the Wlir and beyond \l\ dynasty

Gold and silver rings

they spring from regular weights according to the pondi systems

born, whose Bouroe is in Babylon. . • l"l

We made them of very minimal weight to clear the expired ones: i It\ie daily

gold rings of this kind that have come down to us in originals...

Circulation in Egypt of silver oi and silver rings made in anterior Asia li'l

For 1” - - - . i weighed in name i ar ont as. . . . i changes from the i mderal d Lie form, into copper outens 106

1 of the Bible which describe the memo etal of the i io

puts he ique Bervant to the exchanges I s

Similar facts are still happening today in

China for gold and silver 109

;. Ri ns< i Dements provided by cuneiform texts on the shoeshine

lation in Asia before the year* in view of the century before our •

ll<»

Continuation of the same stall ^^ choai

gulii as official imprint, weighed at the balan [eu

Iransaction 1 1 1

ideal tools used for pruning them*.

FROM VOLUME 1 293

Pages.

Shape of these ingots 112

5. Consummate progress over the past, development of a circulation fiduciary position 113

Various forms of bonds in the Chaldaean-Assyrian circulation

rienne: simple obligation 114

Obligation or mandate of the creditor on the debtor in short

due date, with penalty clause in the event of non-payment 115

Obligation guaranteed by a claim on a third party, on whom one will have

remedy in the event of non-payment, Ibid.

Obligation delegating to a third party the right to receive the

debt 110

Payment order drawn from one place to another 1 1~

This mandate constitutes a real check 118

It was negotiable for money 119

What was still missing from the Assyrian bill of exchange 120

How the bill of exchange was born quite naturally from the conditions rarticular tions of the caravan trade, where one had to

try to avoid transporting money 121

6. The two sides of Phoenician trade 122

Their land trade followed the same practices as that of the

Assyrians for the use of metals in trade Ibid.

Their maritime trade, from civilized to barbarian, pro- yielded by simple barter 123

The Phoenicians therefore did not feel the need for money. . . 124

§ 2. — The inventors of money.

1. Double current of traditions on the authors of this invention. 125

Phidon, king of Argos, in Aegina Ibid.

The kings of Lydia „ 1 26

These two traditions have a real basis Ibid.

Difficulties in pronouncing each other 127

2. Chronological difficulties 12S

Uncertainty of the date of Phidon Ibid.

3. The priority of Asia over Greece in most inventions tions does not provide a decisive argument here 130

Antiquity and originality of the monetary system of Aegina Ibid.

4. The oldest numismatic monuments of Lydia and from Aegina reaching us 132

Characteristics of anticipation that the documents In- diennes 133

294 AHLE MATERIALS ANALYTICS

Pages.

i B monuments therefore appear in favor of the claims of the I >- (links I .'.

IMiidon must have imitated them, but was the first to coin the ar- gent Ibid.

In any case, money was invented by a people A Hellenic-Pelasgic and is a product of the civilization of of the Aegean Sea Ibid.

• § 3. — Propagation of the use of money.

t. Once invented, currency radiated from BOS two crazy primitives, from Lydia in Asia Minor and Thrace, from Aegina in Greece! 6

If transmission to the Persian Empire 137

InPhenicia 138

In l,\ pie Ibid.

2. The Greeks introduce currency into Italy Ibid.

Introduction of this use Bur le Pont-Eoxin, in the Da-basin Nube and Gaul

Among the Carthaginians Ibid.

I • - Alexander's conquests introduced the use of money as far as India 1 10

China alone remains outside this table of propagation and appears to have independently invented his currency he

LrvEB it. — The third i>\n- currencies one 1 1:

Chr.pitrc first. — The three monetary metals among the ancients.

8 1.— /'.''•/' \rti of vtUurtdeTor, dt ï silver and copper.

i The three metals monél l and uh re 148

The type of 1 - ]/ si itti Ibid

i. Value ratio of gold and silver in earlier Asia. 1 1<>

i th same report in Greece in iv*, AD 1 1 T

ire le Grau \

Dan si di li • the report of the; gold by the

FROM VOLUME ONE 295

Pages, gent, both of different sizes, with the actual ratio of

value between the two metals of equal weight 1 49

Ratio of gold to silver in Asia under the successors

of Alexander 130

The same relation to the Cimmerian Bosphorus law

3. Difficulty of determining the value relationship of copper to silver people in the Greek world 152

Letronne's error on this subject 153

True figure in Athens in the 5th century BC. AD Ibid.

• In the coinage of Alexander the Great 154

In the Egypt of the Lagides -. . Ibid.

Average ratio of the two metals in the 5th and 4th centuries 155

Their value relationship to Olbia on the Hypanis, determined by Yaes grave of this city Ibid.

Copper currency was most often, for the Greeks, that an auxiliary currency, with mainly fiduciary value, for which they attached little importance. to the cut and the actual weight of the pieces 159

Usual irregularity in the weight of copper coins, most of which share have an intrinsic value much lower than their value nominal 160

Relationship of value of copper and silver among the Greeks of Sicily and fluctuations in their monetary relationship Ibid.

4. Gold and silver in the monetary circulation of Rome from before the first Punic war 161

Ancient relationship of the two metals in Elruria Ibid.

In Sicily in the 4th century BC. BC and in Campania at the beginning

of me 162

Relationship of gold and silver in minted Roman coins

at the time of the war of IIannibal 465

Normal price of gold in Rome at the end of the 6th century in the city Ibid.

Its fluctuations from this date until August 166

Variations in the monetary ratio of gold to silver at various

eras of the duration of the Empire 167

5. The ratio of the value of copper and silver in Italy and Rome, its variations until the establishment of silver coinage urban people 168

Changes in the same ratio from then until the beginning ment of the first century BC. AD 169

The Papiria law (in 89) made copper species a fiduciary currency. ciary and conventional Ibid.

ANALYTICAL TABLE: IfATIEB

Pages. The monetary ratio of the two metals is now different

their real relationship of commercial valueV 170

Variations of this monetary relationship from the time of the High Empire. . . . Ibid. Brass, used for certain coins, was attributed a

their double that of pure copper 171

Events after Septimius Severus

Dan-; the great monetary crisis of the th century, the currency of the i

eon- a n aloi, becomes a sought-after commodity

for its intrinsic melalic value \~-

What then was the commercial value of metallic copper

_. — Variations in the choice of the standard metal at different times.

!. I are refrained from continuing the du- re «lu double standard 17.:

The gold standard in Asia Minor, at the beginning of the monni I in

the empin. to tahemenides 1

The silver standard ch i G - 17»

U - B dwarves pass m. eu

Silver ion, | nie to the golden one 1

_' Fluctuations in the value ratio of copper and silver u of importance for monm*

of Pœi i/rave 173

It is not | deny of i i ition of gold and silver

/

Dlj |US: n-

edition of the gold coin and

ier, the one adopted by the Ad lir

a ti\e and invariable relationship enli

the piety of gold of such weight will be worth, despite tonal <

ments of the commercial metals core, a determined number

from "Ut of a certain Ihid.

attempt to establish the double

stall 177

opted for by the Athenians, the gold of a certain weight

r fixed, freely priced by the trade...

This m* tli d< It worse by \ \ \ ;<•

I - ilé that she gives Dt a pe-

B ratio

FROM VOLUME ONE 297

Pages, want to make them represent an exact number of pieces of silver gent 181

3. The Romans, under the Republic, follow the Athenian system, and moreover hardly use gold except in the form of ingots. . . Ibid.

The rare gold coins of the Republic are cut coins

on aliquots of the pound, not a fixed value. . . 182

Auguste tries to achieve the double standard Ibid.

But, after him, the force of things made gold the sole standard; Ja silver currency becomes almost fiat. , 183

Thanks to the unique standard, the progressive alteration of the species of ar- people did not have very serious disadvantages until the third century. .. 184

From Caracalla onwards, the false measures of the Emperors carried

simultaneously damage to both metals; resulting crisis. . Ibid.

It leads to the virtual demonetization of gold, which cannot be accepted more than by weight, the balance in hand 183

Constantine restores the two currencies, but after him gold is the only stallion 186

§ 3. — Alloys of monetary metals.

1. Almost absolute purity of gold in Greek coins and

in the dariques of the kings of Persia 187

Greek silver coinage is also of great purity Ibid.

Title of the Athenian tetradrachms Ibid.

• Coins of Aegina, Corinth and Alexander the Great 188

Title of the silver coins of the Greeks of Italy and Sicily Ibid-

Silver Species of Ancient Asia 189

* Of those of Alexander's successors — 190

2. The electrum coins of Asia Minor Ibid.

What electrum was, proportion of gold and silver it contained

normally 1(J1

Ancient electrum coins in Asia Minor and their value

of this metal 191

Electrum coins made at Cyzicus and IMiocea in the 5th and

4th century 1 98

Title and value of Cyzicus pieces Ibid.

Lowest grade coins of the Union of hecUs of electrum 19G

Their commercial price was much lower than that of the Cyzicus Ibid.

Billon that some of the towns of the Union manufactured. Instead silver, as extra currency 197

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

Monnay. ctrum in the Roman-Campadian series

Electrum coins from Carthage IbiJ.

- until now made of bronze coins

of lead in Roman bronze coins

Purity of title of the Roman silver coins of the Republic. .

MH Republican Gold Purity

■S. Title of various metals in the monetary reform of AagUSie.. /' î f.

Alteration of the quality of gold a; n

quick raptioo of the title

Cimmerio, » the Empire

Alteration of money from Néroi vmation in

billon, then in sauced copper, in the m BÎèck

i lion «the letradrachm< i impériaoi of Antiocne

Celai of the imperial tetradraclimes of Alexandria. _ .

lu po/tft, and its use as monetary metal cbei V -

Gauls

Alteration of Roman copper species in the 3rd century

Chapter II. — Fiat money, without intrinsic value.

among the ancients.

§ 1. — Coins of }>Ii>m. e cooked.

I. Facts of manufacturing of currency - fiduciary support -

itière on intrinsic gold

Menl -

i bs monétain - V I le i imaine ...

I>e l.i Gaul - sins

Numidia 210

j i - -ur the tin coinage of D Bj -

211

Roman tain 113

:. M nu - • I rerre i les R mi!.. -i » 1. rerreei lil id' ttnèoes molded on . -US

-. — P • iron and leather.

i. I iron dam. . 216

l - tion of Lycurgus

FROM VOLUME ONE 299

Pages. The Pelanor lbid^

The iron bars used for exchanges in home poetry risks 219

Similar usage among the Bretons of the time of Caesar

2. The furs used as currency among the Cartha- ginois * 220

§ 3. — Stuffed coins.

1. Definition of this expression 221

Distinction to be made between two classes of coated coins 222

2. This method of currency falsification was practiced officially heavenly by the Roman Senate 223

The expression miscerc monetam among Latin writers Ibid.

The expressions tingere and inficere 22 i

3. The manufacture of filled parts was first invented by the private counterfeiters Ibid.

But early on governments resorted to this

fraud 225

Anecdote of Polycrates of Samos, reported by Herodotus Ibid.

Filled coins in Macedonia 226

In Clazomène, Ibid.

In Athens Ibid.

4. First issue of filled coins in Rome, contemporary

from the war of ilannibal 227

Economic and financial disadvantages of a similar practice, as poorly designed as it is unfair 228

5. Disorder produced by the practice of coins stuffed with the time of the beginning of the civil wars 229

Law of M. Livius Drusus 230

Reform of Marius Gratidianus and his execution by the orders of

Sulla 231

Provisions of the lex Comelia testamenlaria Ibid.

Coins filled after Sylla 232

G. Withdrawal of stuffed coins from the Republic at the start of the Em- worst 233

Manufacture of stuffed deniers under Augustus for export

towards India 234

Filled coins of the princes of the High Empire 235

We stopped seeing pieces of this type in the th century, when the

3 u AXALVI TABLE - IIATIES

ration of the title - - of silver has become such that the

fraud would no longer have given 1

7. Caracalla makes the first of the IHd filled gold coins.

Similar currencies - majors of the ih* -

Empire - ~

Question (i. i den aa are the work of gom n ut

or:

Usefulness of searching for Ibvl.

§\. — The coins of the mit.

I. I -have these coins-, in iui\re, struck - - Anto- nins.

Read: - [we didn’t hear _l”>

S C, indices of the fabrication by the senate authority rial, there is no fault 2\\

- coins - i. bear - iploitaliona b between the Danube and the Adriatic

\ exploitation of metals other than leather, although sb

parts are of copper IHd.

Donnaiea intended to circulate in the territory

of this or that mine

it special ion ofa ciroontscriptionsminièrea

ty of a local me ippoint in the uran b Jglo- population mass which formed on the ter mining

Inanffiance of the mono aatorial of

- came from i < n< - /

- currency - i < actually conventional

- n ions, .i held the fold - coin - o-

nales of the u. -

Chapter III. — Processes for manufacturing money among the ancients.

. — M- itnaies frapj

i. Ln leoi | ate and Strike 151

ond I was the most used among, the ancients

FROM VOLUME ONE 301

Pages. Numismatic types representing instruments of the world swimming Ibid.

Preparation of monetary blanks by molding 252

Hot Strike 253

Obligation to resume typing several times and undo

anneal the part each time 254

Accidents that occurred in these operations 255

2. Antique monetary coins that have come down to us in originals. Ibid.

The Greek corners were made of soft, unhardened metal 257

Gallic corners Ibid.

Engraving of corners with a grinder until the 5th century AD 258

Adoption of burin engraving during the Late Empire Ibid.

3. Archaic hollow square coins Ibid.

Use of a relief punch to prepare the engraving of the corners. 250

Movable punches for letters of legends 260

i. Incuse coins of Magna Graecia in the 6th century BC. Ibid.

Later Incuses of Etruria and Asia Minor 262

Incuses by accident in the Roman series Ibid.

5. Monetary bracteates among the Greeks 263

Etruscan coins with a flat face, without type either in relief or in

hollow Ibid.

6. Special features in the manufacture of certain watches antique naies 26 i

Bronz-s des Lagides with cookie-cutter flan and edges

bevel cut Ibid.

Coins with sawtooth edges or nummi serrati 265

The blanks were prepared as molded 267

Date of coins of this category in Carthage Ibid.

DaDS Seleucid numismatics 268

In the Roman series Ibid.

7. Use at certain times of a point in relief in the middle hollow of the engraving of the matrix, to fix the monetary blank between corners 27o

Particular difficulties in manufacturing filled coins. . . . 271

8. Scyphate coins of the Byzantines 272

Barbarian peoples of the Danube basin, at a time more

ancient 273

§ 2. — Cast coins. 1. The use of the cast iron process for the manufacture of watches

_-«_ - A

kl

J02 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF MATERIALS

Tages. naies has never been anything but exceptional, the elders and came

later than that of the minting Ibid.

Laes grave italic and roman is cast, fault d. ,: niques powerful enough to allow 'hit him so crazy parts -71

It is the same for that of Olbia

Gallic cast coins Ibid.

Use of the cast iron process for the manufacture of a part of the imperial currency of billon in the provinces.in ni* - AD 171

Bronze coins neck - DS Narbonnaise Gaul, from Augu." to Philip

:. — Comp i Éei ;/ '•■'!• s ancient and modern

in their results

The inferiority of art 'modern coins and medals, by relation to ancient works, Slow in part to diversity*

prt manufacturing ideas

Influence of the shape of the pieces, the lenticular blank of the m<:

antiques 28 I

The strike with the hammer and the strike with the balance or hy- ram draulic

-

dai'es, at our young school of engravers

! IN DE I\ TABLES MATIKHES I'I T 1 1: R

-lins.

The Library

University of Ottawa

Deadline

The Library

University of Ottawa

Due date

ocum

0 3 DEC. 198ft 19 DEC. “89

16 DEC. '^u

JAN b 7 1991

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1998

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