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Revue numismatique, vols. 8–9 (4th series) — vol. 8–9 — 1890
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1. MiRiEUS, Opera diplomaiicat t. II, p. 942.
2. Warnkonio, Flandrische alaaU and Rechta ffeschichte, t. Ill, 1" part, evidence, p. 3.
3. Inialogical history of the nobility of the Pat/t^Batf t. II, p. 556.
CN NEW MONETARY WORKSHOP ART^SIEN 83
found rack. It was necessary, in fact, to give above all k The former Ruwaert Philippe the financial means of attaching supporters and intimidating one's opposition to Due Jean. It is in the same order of ideas that the Count of Flanders granted it on December 1, 1422, and “for once only”, k Philippe de Saint-Pol authorization to raise financial aid from residents so many of the various lordships for which this the latter owed him Tribute*. It is probable that theirs that the favor of being able to monetize Rumin- ghem ne| was granted only for a very short time and just as when it came to the lifting of taxes “just once”. The opening almost immediately from a workshop in Elincourt pleads in favor of this opinion.
In order to summarize the numismatic part of our work, we will therefore say that Philippe de Saint-Pol, became ruwaert of Brabant-Limburg in November 1420, opened shortly after, in its Waelhem franchise, a monetary workshop of its own and at the head of which he placed as master, Jean d'Arras, and as waradin, Henri Droegbosch. This coinage ceased, with the hand of Philippe, in the current of the year 1422. We know of large doubles, large and quarter large Drielanders forged Waelhem*.
This is most likely after the closure of Workshop of Waelhem that Ton started, circa
1. Archives of the Northern Department, in Lilie. Register of charters of 1417 k 1423, f» CLXVII, v.
2. H. d'Affrj de ia Monaoie was the first to make it known in the Revue ^ year 1842, p. 18, year bulk of this s^ric.
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1423 or 1424, k work in Ruminghem. We have attributed to this broadcast a double large copy of the Flemish coins of the type of the two ^cus surmon- t6s of a helm*.
Endn, in 1425, Philippe charged Jacques with Lebeque to strike at his fortress of Elincourt golden chairs, double bigs, big ones and quarters basically, of the so-called Kromstaerty system as also half-gross with two crowns summed by a single helm. None of these pieces was found in nature, and until further orders, it is permitted to ask if the instruction of 1425 was followed by ex6- execution.
We do not have any official documents yet song the coinages of Waelhem and Rumin- ghem, so it is impossible to establish whether these workshops provided gold coins. It's likely though- therefore since, according to the instruction that we have just to analyze, golden chairs must indeed have been made quees in Elincourt.
MM. Grotte' and Y. Meyer' give k Philippe de Saint-Pol a gold florin which they describe as follows: ♦ MOn * — * GOM * — ♦ SGI * — * PAV *. Quadri- lobe with angles containing five shields placed in a cross. In the center, a lion shield; above, another k the bicep eagle; on the right, a third to the lion tail in saltire; on the left, a shield at the cross; at underneath, a 6cu k four quarters which no longer leaves
1. The instruction of 1425 makes us believe that there must have existed fractions of this piece still to be discovered.
2. NumismatUcher Anzeiger, 1878, pp. 84-85.
3. Blatter fur munzfreunde, July 1874, p. 285, ft. xxxviii, 1.
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A NEW MON^TAIRB ART^SIEN 85 WORKSHOP
see a lot, but where these gentlemen want recognize 1 and 4 as a lily, and 2 and 3 as a lion.
Rev. * ST^-NTVa: -: PeTfiRVS *. Saint Peter standing, in the right hand a key, in the left a book. At his feet, a small 6 lion shield^ Weight, 3 gr. 48.
a This coin, with a value of approximately 20 carats, copied from the Knapkock of the due Arnouid de Gueidre ^ a is struck on the foot of the Rhine florins of “1420. Similar pieces were issued,” adds to M. Meyer, in Horn County and to Rummen. » John of Bavifere (1418-1425) also forged some in his Duchy of Luxembourg'. MM. Grote and Meyer are very reluctant to believe this florin coming out of the workshop of Waelhem, located in the middle of Brabant and or, in Tint^- r6t of their circulation, it was only necessary to manufacture Braban^on type species. Hit 6 k Waelhem, he could not be, moreover, an imitation of the mon- Gelderland cows; Arnouid did not become due to Gueidre only in 1423, and it is impossible to suppose that we was able to copy the number of this prince in a workshop closed for a year. We therefore believe that it is necessary see rather in the florin at Saint-Pierre de Philippe of Saint-Pol an imitation of the coins of Jean de Bavifere, imitation made in One of the possessions neighbors of Luxembourg, of Antoine's second son of Bouagogne.
1. This coin was part of a small collection of 16 gold coins of the XIV and XV* centuries, made in Minden on September 1, 1868. She entered, we believe, at the Hague Cabinet.
2. Yak dkr Chts, De munien der voormalige Graven en Hcrtogen van Gel derUnd, pi. n* 4.
3. Monthly Numerical Bulletin, vol. H, p. 130.
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Let us recall again, in completing this study already too extensive, which Mr. Chalon published, in the Revue niimismatic beige^ ^ a copper token from Philippe of Saint-Pol bearing, on the right and reverse, a 6cu Quarterly of Burgundy-Brabant and the legends
* 10 W D L7^-ab7^BRe:DA:aOTe:7r:S7^IY:PO —
* lewes ©Laves ®ivs TeroeNv
Alphonse de Witte.
1. T. XV, pi. XIX, n* 1.
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MfiDAILLES
FROM
CONSTANTINE AND HERACLIUS
ACQUIRED BY JEAN, DUG DE BERRY EN 1402
PI. IV, Vet VI.
The works of Renaissance medalists are beginning to be known and classified, thanks to research by collectors and discoveries (the 6rudils. If many points remain obscure, if the number of anonymous works still prevails, and by far, on that of the definitive monuments- deny being attached to an artist's name, it is fair to recognize that great progress has been made, for around thirty years in the path of truth.
One whole side of the question, however, remained in the shadows until now, and few authors have laughed to approach it. It is true that it presents difficulties particularly arduous worship. I want to talk about chronological classification of anonymous medals. How to present the history of the beginnings and development development of Tart which occupies us if you do not have certain data on its first applications? However, the most recent discoveries do not go back
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J. GUIFFRET
hardly beyond the first medals, dated from » Pisanello, that is to say at the earliest in the year 1444. We tried to assign an older date to certain works of the great artist, but without proof decisive. Other attempts made to fix the date of works prior to those of Pisanello did not produce conclusive results.
This is how Julius Friedlander's Memoir on the oldest medals of the Middle Ages * present skilfully very serious arguments in favor of the author's thesis; but without giving proof categorical. The slightest document would do much better our business*.
There is, however, a perfectly authentic text. tick that the German scholar eCit was able to invoke k support of his opinion, and this text has been public since about forty years, in a book which is found everywhere, which we use every day, which you quote constantly, and no one, I say none of the numisma* tists who make their special study of the medals of the Renaissance, I hear none of the scholars who reserves this time as their exclusive domain, no one to this day has left the document into question the conclusions which naturally follow from it really.
Do not be surprised by this singular phenomenon;
1. Quali sono le prime medagUe del medio sevo^ in the Periodica dt numismutica e aphragistica per la storia (V Italia, Florence, 1868, in-8*.
2. We will soon have the opportunity to come back here on medals lords of Carrara, whose former director of the Berlin Cabinet fixed at the end of the 14th century, and which would be until now the oldest Italian medals with a certain date.
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this blindness can be explained in the simplest way. The passage to which we refer has ^t^ public in a dictionary of technical terms Middle Ages, in the Glossary of Enamels of the quis de Laborde. How can we imagine that we would find under the heading Medailles^ an article account giving precise indications for the chronology of the oldest Italian coins*.
Now, in volume II of the Glossary of Enamels^ published in 1853*, we read the following four articles taken from the inventory of the jewels of the due Jean de Berry, brother of Charles V*.
“A large denarius of gold, heavy, or which is counterfeited to the quick face of Julius Cesar, garnished surrounded by four sapphires and eight pearls, hanging from a folding chayenne, where it has two pearls, and above a clasp where it has a large sapphire and four pearls, and six small sapphires and pearls of small value, 112 tournament pounds.
“Another round gold jewel is on one side the face of Octo- raan [sic]^ of high size, and wrote around it: Octomanus Cezar Augustus imperii nostri anno xl*, garnished around four brooms, and the other cost of the said jewel went to a woman of tall figure holding a star in one of his hands, and in the other
1. Although it is not through the article in the Glossary of Emaux that we have been brought to the present discovery, it costs to report in advance middle line T^minent ^rudit who has public arant whoever it is the texie in question, without knowing its full scope.
2. If Tourrage did not leave until 1853, the visa of Mr. de Nicuwcrkerke dates back to February 15, 1852, when the book is in print. The manuscript was therefore available from the beginning of 1851 or even as early as 1850.
3. Page 385, under the heading M^dailUs.
4. This inTeniary, the richest perhaps, and certainly the most curious left to us by the Middle Ages, has spoken publicly on several occasions. A edition, confined to our care? by the Minister of Public Education for take place in the collection of DocumeiUt in^ditt, is currently under loan.
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a whip, and wrote k renyiron from here: lilia anno ab urbe CONDITA, garnished around with garnets and emeralds; which gem My Lord bought 250 tournament books from Michel de Passe.
a Another golden jewel, round, of high size, or which is counter- made Gonstantin a horse, and wrote about it: CONSTANTINUS M. xpo. DEO FiDBLis IMPERATOR; which gem Monsignor purchased in his town of B^urges from Anthoine Man- chin, walking from Florence, living in Paris, 400 livres tournaments.
a A round golden jewel, of high size, where it has one side the figure of an emperor called Eracle in a crescent and his title written in Greek, expounded in Francois in this manner: a Eracle in Jhbsus Christ Died feal emperor and modera-
TOR OF ROMAINS VICTOR AND TRIUMPHATOR; and TaUtTe
cost6 is the figure of the said emperor holding a cross, seated in a chariot with three horses; and is said jewel garnished around 4 sapphires and 4 large pearls, and hangs from a gold chain swallowed by two snake heads, caught 500 pounds in tournaments. »
Although the items in the inventory were incom- fully reproduced, although particularities capitals had 616 been omitted, the description inserted in the Glossary of Emaiix was sufficient to allow to recognize at first sight at least several medals carried on the inventory, and for assi- thus hinder their execution on a date prior to k 1416, year of the death of the Due de Berry and the drafting its latest inventory.
When Mr. Armand took care of bringing together the elements from his book on the Italian Medalists of the 15th and 19th xvi° Steele^ ^ two of the guys who had been part collections of the Due de Berry were reported to him, and he indicated them, without suspecting their importance,
1. Paris, Plon, 1883-87, 3 vols. in-8«.
CONSTANTINE AND HRACLIUS MEDALS
91
because he was not aware of the articles reproduced duils above according to the Glossary of Enamels.
At the beginning of the second volume of the work of M. Armand, is described in great detail in medal of Constantine, medal of restitution, said simply the author, without worrying about the date of its execution. However, Mr. Armand had very probably in front of you the Cabinet copy from Paris. How, without this, could he have moved forward? that this medal appears in the serious work of Marc-Antoine
As for the medallion of Heraclius, M. Armand seems to know him only from the board and Koehler's description; The original would have escaped k his research. We will see later what is needed think of the observation which ends the article con-
1. The grayure described in Bartsch's Peinler'graveur under number 495 de ToeaTre by Marc-Antoine, is indeed the reproduction of the medal which occupies us, although the grarenr has the singular fantasy of embellishing the subject by placing a shrub in front and behind the horse which places its feet on heavily treated terrain. The legend is exactly the same, and also the costume and the attitude of the rider. But let the gran-nire be from Marc- Antoine, that's another question. Bartsch himself seems to hesitate when he written: “pi^ round gray^e by Marc-Antoine during the time he was with France. » Isn't this a roundabout way of excusing the inferiority of labor? rail? But how does he know the date of the execution of the engraving so well? II I was very embarrassed to say it. Mr. Yicomte Henri Delaborde, in his recent catalog of Marc-Antoine's Receuyre, do not hesitate to include the Sture of Constantine among the pieces included (n* 49). Certainly, if the eminent bonoraire conservator of the Cabinet des Estampes had had the opportunity to report bring the original closer to the rupee, he was able to see to what extent the engraver with the burin remained below the engraver in medallions, thickened health the forms of the horse, distorting the character of the rider, styling Cons- tantin of a sort of feather hat which only recalls trfes far away In high imperial hairstyle, there is no need to definitively erase the copy of the medal of Constantine of the work of the master of engraving. It's a a sacrifice to which we will now have to resign ourselves. Raimondi's reputation I won't lose anything.
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created on the medal of Heraclius: This medal and the following (line enlarged copy in reverse direction reverse) seem to us to come from the hand of the artist k who owes you the Constantine* » In short, the author from the Catalog of Renaissance medals suspected neither T^e nor the origin of the medals that he inventoried
The Ministry of Public Education having given us responsible for publishing, in the Documents collection unpublished on the History of France^ the precious invention silence of the due de Berry, the articles relating to medals of Constantine, H^raclius, etc., attracted particularly our attention. The precision with which were described these small monuments, sufficiently proved the interest of which they were the object court of Bourges. The very luxury of details which accompanied the description made an identification easy cation and any confusion impossible. The case was exposed to the conservative scholars of the Cabinet of medals. The text of the invention was submitted to them. silence, and no longer the text, alters in certain parts and above all too abbreviated, that the marquis de Laborde had once been rescued from oblivion; but the text exact, integral as given in the manuscripts originals*. Here is this passage:
a Small golden jewel purchased by Monseigneur * a Item, a little golden jewel of the crown, where the face is on one side
1. National Archives KK, 258, n** 197 et seq.; Biblioth^ae Sainte- Gencvifeve Lf, 5.4.
2. We do not return to the article of the gold denarius representing Jules Cdsar, who should not occupy us here; it is also exactly given
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of Thiberus, of high size and has writing on it: Thiberius Cesar Augustus imperii nostri anno XVPj garnished around a balaiz, a open sapphires and VI pearls, and on the other side of the said jewel has a picture of a tall woman, seated, where he wrote: Phaus^ tina anno ab Urbe condita DCCLXXXII; garnished around grenaz and emeralds, and hangs to couple; and a latch at the end, garnished with a sweep, I sapphire, VI emeralds and VII pearls; which jewel Monsignor purchased in Paris, or month of March Tan 1401, by Michel de Paxi, walking, living in Paris.
a Item, another golden jewel of the roont, where is on one side the face of Octovianus, of tall stature, and wrote around it: Octovianus Caesar Augustus imperii nostri anno xl; garnished around IV balaiz, of IV emeralds and XVI pearls; and above is a table where a script: Manus^ ab integro seculorum nascitur ordo; garnished with a sweep and a pearl; and above said table has a latch or which has XIII pearls, VI emeralds and IV grenaz; and the other cost of the said jewel has a woman of tall stature, holding in one of in his hands a star, and in the other a fuet, and wrote around from this part: Lilia ' anno ab urbe condita DCCL; garnished around grenaz and emeralds; which my said Lord purchased said Michiel de Paxi with the other jewel mentioned above.
c Item, another golden jewel of great size, or which is counterfeit of one of Constantine's sides on horseback, and wrote to Ten- viron: Constantinus in Christo Deo fidelis, imperator and moderator romanorum^ and semper Augustus^ and on the other side has two women, and in the middle of them a fountain where there is a tree, and inside the said tree a cross, and wrote around it: Michiabsit gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jhesu Christi\ and is the said jewel garnished around with two balaiz, two sapphires and large vint pearls all day; and hangs on a gold chain made of buttons golden roons in the manner of paternostres; which jewel Monsignor bought in his town of Bourges from Antoine Manchin, walking from
in the Gtossary of Emauw. The medals form, as we see, a chapter special that we reproduce in full.
1. The Marqois de Laborde has completely ignored this article; he has it but this is omitted by mistake, because we cannot find a plausible reason for do not cite it in the same way as the others.
2. It is obviously necessary to read: Magnus,
3 Lilia is found on the two old inventories. Read: Lit^ia.
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Florence residing in Paris, on the second day of November Tan 1402, the sum of XI cens frans.
a Item, another golden jewel roont, of high size, where it has a of the cost the figure of an Emperor called Eracle in a crescent, and its title written in Greek, explained in French in this manner: Eracle in Jhesu Crist God, f^al emperor and moderator of RomainSy victor and triumphant always Augustus; and of this same coste has written in Latin: lUumina vultum tuum deus; super tenc" bras nostras militahor in gennbus;eiy of the other, is the figure of the said Emperor holding a cross, seated in a three-horse chariot, and above his head has several lamps, and in the middle of the circle where the said lamps have writing in Greek exposed^ in French what is meant follows: Glory be to the heavens of Jhesu Crist God who broke the parts of hell and redeemed the holy cross imperant Eracle, And is led it jewel garnished around four sapphires and four large pearls, and hangs from a gold chain engulfed with two snake heads.
a Item, a golden jewel, counterfeited on one side and the other on the semblance of another gold jewel cy having rendered in the scsecond part of the preceding leaflet, where Gonstantin is emperor; which jewel my Lord has made, and there is no stone.
“Item, another golden jewel roont, counterfeited throughout the semblance of another golden jewel here before rendered in the last part of the said leaflet, or which is the figure of Eracle emperor; which my Lord has made, and there is no stone. »
However long these descriptions may be, it was essential to reproduce them in full, without remove nothing, because no detail is useless. Cer- some passages, deleted by the Marquis de Laborde, are precisely those which have the most importance for the history of medal engraving. In thesis general, there is always a danger of shortening a text ancient that we cite. This is precisely the sentence most insignificant in the eyes of the publisher who will have to provide it a reader who is more informed6 or better prepared for the point of departure from an ingenious rapprochement, from a discovery unexpected green.
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We are left with three inventories, different in writing and date, of the treasures of the due de Berry. The oldest, keeps in the Cabinet of manuscripts of the National Library*, was started on December 2 December 1401 and finished in 1403. These dates explain how do the medals acquired in the course of Tannie 1402 are not mentioned there. Another text, written a few years before the death of the due, towards 1413-1414, the most complete and methodical that we have, gives for the first time the description tion of six medals, forming a sort of chapter special, in the form that we have reproduced. Finally, the inventory drawn up after the death of the great amateur, around 1416-1417, by his testa- mentaries charged with the payment of its debts, bears again the mention of the six midailles; but, this Sometimes, they find themselves dispersed. Thus, TOclave or Augustus is listed at number 230, Constantine at number 231, the two overmoldings of Constantine and Hiraclius received numbers 232 and 233, while the Tiberius and the Heraclius are rejected at the end of the manuscript, under n** 1190 and 1191. The posthunished inventory of the due however, contains an important detail which is not against point elsewhere. It's market revaluation jewels of the collection. The experts brought the medal of Tiberius like that of Augusle, with two hundred tournament pounds each. The Constantine is it is worth four hundred pounds; he had been paid eleven hundred francs by its owner. The HiracIius, moreover large module than the Constantin, is estimated at five hundred
1. No. 11496 from the French fund.
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books. Obviously, the commissioners responsible for Texpertise only takes into account the weight of For and the value of precious stones. What comes k The support for this conjecture is that the two repe- gold titles of Constantine and Theraclius are valued at sixty and eighty pounds nois, because they are not accompanied by stones.
Now that we have carefully collected- ment all the details provided by the last two inventories of the Due de Berry on our medals, the reader can judge whether the quotations from the Glossary of EmauXy sufficient to strictly establish Tiden- title of the originals, contained all the data of the problem.
It is appropriate to successively take up each article to study carefully.
The large gold denarius with the effigy of Julius Caesar, the only inventory number reproduced exactly in all its details in the Glossary of Emaua:^ there is also the only one that is today impossible to recognize born and identified, and who, therefore, has no no interest for us. Of course, Texeniplaire of the due of Berry, and this applies to all the others medals in question here, no longer exist since long time. The intrinsic value of matter is due to the loss of these monuments. But we found a big silver or bronze denarius k Teffigy of Jules Caesar, and was it in a very pronounced archaic style, he
1. It is for this reason that we have not copied the text of Tinven- tairc. The article by the Marquis de Laborde says it all.
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will always be impossible to recognize the part acquired by the Duke of Berry around 1402, since Tin- salesman bears neither description nor 16gende. All this that it is permissible to retain is that there existed 1400 (the denarius of Julius Caesar appears in the first inventory, that of the National Library), a medal, probably Italian, k Teffigy of Jules Caesar, and whose execution therefore went back in the 11th century.
Although Tiberius and Augustus escaped until that here all the research of scholars, ancients or modern, which gives rise to fears that these types are definitively lost, we will however note that in certain remarkable particularities of their description.
The singular rapprochement of Faustine and Tiberius would be enough to characterize the preference of these two medals.
Mr. Armand pointed out several Faustines: one of them serves as a reverse for an Antoninus *; another has for reverse a L6da*; but both belong hold to the second half of the 15th century. They do not would therefore have nothing in common with the one who keeps us busy.
Finally, let us note that we do not find, among the numerous medals of the Renaissance, known and cataloged so far, only one effigy of Tiberius.
The last sentence of the description is beautifully suddenly the most interesting. The scribe gives the datepre-
1. MidaiUeurtitalit, volume 1, p. 100.
2. Ibidem, volume U, p. 170.
1890 — 7 7
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date of acquisition and the name of the seller. The due of Berry bought the Tiberius and the Augustus on the same market. chand, Michel de Paxi, in March 1401, that is I say in 1402, before the Easter festival falling on this day that year on March 26.
The name of the merchant indicates an ila- link; this name probably has, as it happens often, and6 reproduced inaccurately by the scribe. Should we read Michel de Pasti or de Pazzi? These forms are also found and would be more Italians than Paxi. The number of merchants Genoese, Lucca, Florentine, in usual relationships with a curious person like the Due de Berry, is considered rable. The inventory names at least twenty of them; their names are found in the chronicles or in the documents of the time. Many of these Strangers are fixed in Paris where the refined tastes of the court provide them with a large clientele and large profits. Some of them, we know for sure ment, possessed a great fortune.
There is no doubt that Michel de Paxi, de Pasti or Pazzi, had brought the two medals from Italy of Tibcre and Augustus. Assuming that Ml has them shown and transferred due upon their arrival, it is necessary still allow some time for the trip; in addition, they are sold with a mount sumptuous which required some delay; their engraving also took weeks. Our two medals are therefore not later than Tannic 1401; we could unscrupulously go back a little further the time of their manufacture and attribute them to the latest
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late years of the 14th century. But let's be content positive data resulting from formal terms inventory. All we need is the proof authentic that the medals sold to the due of Berry in 1402, some in March, others, I mean Gonstantin and rH^raclius, in the month of November, are from Tann^e 1401 at the latest.
The medal of Augustus*, having Livia on the reverse, is unknown like that of Tiberius. Description and the legends cited by the inventory would not leave no doubt about her identity if we discovered her some day. The legend Magnus ab integro swclo^ rum nascitur ordo* shows the concern of Classical antiquity, this essential character of Renaissance. This Virgilian reminiscence is another argument in favor of Italian origin of the medal. I would be more embarrassed to explain satisfactorily remove the whip that Livie holds with one hand. So it's better not to overdo it insist since the type of the medal is unknown, and will probably always remain so.
Gonstantin's medal is in conditions all different. Reported for a long time, without anyone having until now suspected his seniority^ she generally received from those who spoke about it a date much later than that assigned to it our inventory. Sold to the due de Berry, on 2 November 1402, by a Florentine merchant fixed at 6 a.m.
1. Mr. Armand has only encountered an Italian medal of the Augustus type. It is signed by Crisloforo Geremia who worked around 1460, and has for reverse a figure of Augustus giving his hand Ix Abundance. (Volume I, p. 31.)
2. Yirgilc, Eclogue TV, verse 5.
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Paris and named Antoine Manchin or Antonio Mancini, it was undoubtedly brought from Italy; sound execution would thus date back to the first months of 1402, more probably the year 1401, otherwise a an earlier date.
The copy that we were able to study belongs at the Paris Medal Cabinet. It's an 8urmoul6 in silver executed at a time when it is taxed possible to specify; it is hollow, and as a result has undergone some parts, notably in the rump of the hair val, depressions which alter the model.
If you carefully examine the style of the work, we will find little analogy with the oldest medals of Italian origin with a certain date. No not that the work lacks delicacy. We would cite it is difficult for a type of this era to bring together to the same degree the flexibility and the science of drawing. Obviously, the engraver who drew this horse and this Cavalier was not a vulgar artist. It seems to connect to the tradition of these seal engravers, Flemish or Burgundian, who had pushed their art has a high degree of perfection; but, while seal engravers usually conceal The correction of the shapes and the weakness of the model6 under the exaggeration of the movement, our horse advances quietly, has a pace that accuses Your anatomy and would betray the slightest drawing error.
If the author of Constantine studied our engravers of seals, it showed itself to be very superior to its modules. Perhaps there would be something a little forced pick up in the rider's movement, particularly
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Her in the gesture of the hand holding the refens. This defect, in all cases, is not very noticeable. All the The rest seems to us to be of impeccable design, of a learned and distinguished execution. It is, in sum” an effigy full of nobility and all done worthy of a master.
The reverse of the medal offers an allegory which does not Even though it is quite difficult to explain.
We understand at first glance that the fountain centers trale from which rises the cross surrounded by leaves of palm tree is the fountain of regeneration through baptismfeme. A jet of water, springing from the top of the cross, feeds the basin decorated with arabesques and of animals. All this is still quite intelligible. But what do these two women sitting on each side mean? next to the cruciferous fountain? Why one of them does she show an age that is already mAr, while the other, young and thin, naked to the waist, seems turned away ner the tfete? Is this the old symbol of the ancient and of the new Faith? The young woman's foot, pos6 on a snake, would seem to confirm this interpretation tation. What do these two birds also mean? places behind each of the characters, on a cage topped with a sort of perch? Did the artist did you intend to depict eagles or doves? Are these birds just an artist's whim having intended to fill a compositional void?
So many questions that are difficult to answer respond in a fully satisfactory manner.
Singular thing, almost incredible! Both medals of Gonstantin and Heraclius, complete
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forgotten by the scholars of our time, had strongly excites the curiosity of the scholars of the ages anteriors. In the 15th century, it was the Duke of Berry who hastens to acquire and order it. der a reproduction; a hundred years later, an emulator of Marc-Antoine engraves Gonstantin's medal on a board long attributed to the master himself mfeme, The Heraclius is reproduced, from 1594, in the traits of Juste Lipse entitled de Cruce. In the 17th century, our two medals are still designed to take place, following Du Cange's Glossary, in the learned dissertation of Tillustre 6rudit on the coins of the Late Empire. This board accompanies loincloth from now on all reprints of the Gloss- sary published in the 18th century or today. We still finds THEraclius, but without Gonstantin, in the Historia Byzantina * by the same author.
I am not talking about the Glossary of Enamels and the book by M. Armand. Thus, our two medals have 6the reproduced many times; many an author has them reported, described, commented on for three hundred years, and no one until now has suspected the rank that they deserve to occupy in the history of art.
Du Gauge, moreover, was not content with pr6- see an engraving as is of Gonstantin, face and reverse. Next to this image, he placed a curious dissertation by Joseph Scaliger, of which we reproduce let's go here, especially out of curiosity, some don't wise where the author has endeavored to give the interpretation tion of Tallegory which keeps us in a quandary.
1. 1680, folio p. 112.
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In a letter cited by Du Cange, Scaliger written: a de illo autem grandi nummo tuo Constantini noQ possum satis mirari qui factum sit, ut ex uno later recentissimi saeculi, ex altero vetustissimi moris Ecclesiae vestigia in eo exstent. » Then, at beginning of his dissertation, Scaliger insists on the date question in the following terms: a Num- mus ingens argenteus clarissimi viri Marquardi Fre- heri, quam recens sit, argumento sunt characters arithmetici 234, 235*, which ante trecentos aut paulo plures annos ab Arabibus ad nos transierunt, ac primo quidem dissimiles his nostris hodiernis, postea memoria proavorum hac forma interpolati quae hodie nobis in usu est. Itaque nummus hie cusus aut con- flatus est non illo saeculo quo ii k Christianis recepti sunt, sed illo quo interpolati: hoc est memoria proavorum..."
Other arguments tend to demonstrate that neither the face nor the reverse are antique. Then, with the luxury of quotations which so pleases the authors of his time, Scaliger explains the symbol of the cross coming out of a lily and the water of regeneration which comes from it 6 escapes. For him, the animal k semi fantastic place above the stream which flows from the eastern fountain a lion, by allusion to the psalm: conculcavit leonem and draconem.
The allegorical meaning attributed to the two figures of women deserves to be quoted verbatim: “Assident
1. This observation on the figures traced in relief on the medal of CoDstantiD side on its reverse deserves all the more to be received as this Dum^ros 234 el 235 nc appear on none of the engravings published with the dotarary of Du Cange or with the VUUtory of Byzance.
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solio ulrinque oppositae invicem feminae duae in sellis, anus stolata, and puella nuda, nisi qua velat ea quae pudor çarejubet. Anus est Fides, puella Spes. Anus fingitur, quia antiquior lege... Stolata est quia Bap- tismus vocabatur fidei vestimentum... Contra, Spes et puellari specie est, quia semper viget; and nuda, whoa omnibus terrenis renuncians, expedita tendit ad coelum. » Further comes the explanation of the two birds perched on their cages: a Pone sellas utrius- que astant singular aquilae, renovationem hominis per baptismum significantes; quod percepto bap- tismo dicerentur like aquilae renovati. »
If these glosses seem singular and surprise one little, we must not lose sight of the fact that the goal of all the dissertation is to determine the date of the m^daille.
And here is how the learned philologist concludes: “Quam vetusta haec sint, et quam falsus fuerit, doc- tissimus vir, qui aversam partem hujus numismatis suspectam habebat, ex iis quae disputavimus, et ex aliis, quae longe plura afferri poterant, colligi potest. »
Scaliger, we saw you, does not explain the presence of these numbers 234 and 235. He is content to draw from the presence of Arabic numerals an argument for the date. We have not been able to discover any explanation plausible of these figures, of which it seems impossible to us to see a date no more than a serial number, and we deliver the problem to the meditation of numismatists experts in these matters.
If the character of Constantine recalled by
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distant Tart ^ncais analogies of the 14th century and our seal engravers, nothing similar in all^- gory of the cross. Here everything is Italian, very Italian: design and execution. The slender leanness and go- age of the limbs, the virginal grace of the feminine torso nin, the delicacy of the profile and even the gravity mystery of the old woman, whose type recalls certain some sibyls of the great era, everything belongs h the Italian tradition and comes very close, it seems to us, of the first masterpieces of Florentine school.
There is nothing to say about the legends, except that character shape fully confirms the date given by the inventory of the Due de Berry. 1/register- tion: MiHi ABSiT gloriari, etc., is, as we know, a step sage of Saint-Paul's respite to the Galatians*; this phrase was for a long time the motto of the defenders of Holy Sepulchre.
The Heraclius medal raises problems far more serious and delicate than those we have just tackled. First of all a particularity requires attention: part of the legend is in Latin, another in Greek. LMnventaire very translated exactly the 16th Greek genre; it is still necessary know to transcribe the text, Mr. Armand not having it only imperfectly given.
Around the letter of Timper we read: HPAKAEIOC* EN-Xn-Tn-en-niCTOO-BACI-KAI-AYTO-Pn-NIKITHC- KAI-AeAOeETHC-AEI-AYrrCTOC. To the right of the head, in two lines: ILLVMINA-UVLTVM-TVVM-dBus. Der-
1. Chapter VI, verse Xk.
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laughs the Emperor, on the copy of which we must communication and the gracious liberality of Mr. Ratier, thanks to the gracious intervention of Mr. Adrien Blanchet, finds himself very distinctly engraved the Greek word: AITOAINIC, to which we have no could give a satisfactory meaning. he is k to notice that this word, of which there is no question in the invention- silence of the due de Berry, which could only be a forgotten, does not appear on the boards of Du Cange and Koehler, while Juste Lipse gives. Should we conclude from this difference that certain some examples did not wear it, while it encountered on others? Finally the croissant on which rests the bust of the Emperor is responsible for this Legend: SVPER-TENEBRAS-NOSTRAS-MILITABOR'-IN- GENTIBVS.
The inscriptions on the reverse are no less complicated. Around the medal runs the verse of Psalms of David*: SVPER-ASPID€M-€T-BAXILISCVM- AMBVLAVIT-€T-CONCVLCAVIT-L€ON€M-€T-DRACON€M.
Finally, in the upper field of this reverse, we read, divided into five lines, the Greek legend: AOiA»€N»
YyiCTIC-xh-TO-//0h-OTI-AIEPPII€-CIAl//PAC-niAAC- KAI-€A€Y0€//PnCE + APIAN- BACI-HP//AKAE. The invention silence gives this fairly exact translation: Gloire soil in heaven to Jesus Christ God who has broken the parts deafer and redeem the holy cross^ imperant Heracle.
1. Du Cange corrected the script by substituting militabo k militabor, but the only copy of the medal that we have bears it miiiitabor and Justus Lipsius also gives this form.
2. Psalm 90, v. 13. The psalm reads: ambiilabia el eoacnlcabis^ instead of ambutavit and conculcavit
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Apart from the unique mixture of Greek and Latin text, mixture of which there are not many others examples, another particularity deserves attention. I want to talk about the shape of the characters. If your com- match these letters to those which are engraved on the seals from the same period or, if you wish, on the same daille of Constantine, capital differences jump in the eyes. Here, instead of regular capital letters and well formed, we see uneven, disparate characters misses, betraying in many details an unexplained hand rhyming and clumsy. The Ds and Ps do not appear do not belong to the same alphabet as the other letters.
They have the appearance of the Greek epsilon. Finally the engraver seems more accustomed to reproducing a Greek text than Latin characters. This remark is made very sensitive by the rapprochement of the two major Circular legends on the face and reverse.
What has just been said naturally suggests the idea that the medal of Heraclius would have been engraved, no in Italic, but in Constantinople, or at least in East. Experts, more competent than us in these speakers, seemed to incline towards this opinion, Mr. Feuardent in particular did not hesitate to attribute a Byzantine origin to the medal of Heraciius whose he dates the execution back to 1380 at the latest. We we are at least certain, thanks to the inventory of the due of Berry, that it is prior to Tannee 1402.
In support of this hypothesis on the origin of our medal, it is not useless to recall in a few words a historical event which had, towards the end of the
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14th century, a considerable influence on relations tions of the East and the West.
Europe found itself seriously threatened by the Turks. There were fears for Constantinople. A following the disaster of Nicopolis (1396), the brave Boucicaut was sent, with a certain number of French knights, to take part in the defense from the capital of the Eastern Empire. He left the city says the Chronicle of the Religious of Saint-Denis^y towards 1399, leaving one hundred men-at-arms under the command letter from the sieur de Ghasteaumorant. This one remained in the East until 1402, and did not see the France that following numerous vicissitudes of which the Religious of Saint-Denis has retained the come*. On his return, wanting to win over the good ones graces of the Due de Berry and knowing the taste of this great collector for everyone's curiosities kinds, he donated to him a certain number of relics singular and rare objects related to its travel. The inventory of the Due de Berry describes itself generously these rarities by relating their origin nance: “two cruets made of Indian nuts; a iron cross covered with Greek characters from from the tomb of Saint Helena, a rib of saint Zechariah, a foot of Saint Gyprian, a piece of Saint-Laurent grill; a fragment of the wood of the true Groix, etc., etc. » It should be noted that all of these donations, the inventory of the due says it formally, date from September 1402.
1. Volume II, p. 693.
2. T. Ill, p. 51, 83.
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It seems entirely likely to us that Genoese or Lombard merchants accompanied this small army of relief and took advantage of the circumstances efforts to bring back to the West a number of objects precious among which were undoubtedly the medals sold to the Duke of Berry. brings it closer ment of the dates makes the hypothesis very plausible. At surplus, the enormous ransoms demanded from the princes taken prisoners at Nicopolis demanded necessary- ment of the intervention of Italian bankers. There was k certainly, for several years, reports constants between the great silver praetors of the Oc- Cident and the Turks. We know that splendid pre- felt and in particular precious tapestries were sent to Sultan Bajazet to arrange it favorably bly towards his prisoner, the Count of Nevers. All this seems to us to explain in the best way rational import into Italic and France of numerous objects of Byzantine work, and in particular of the gold medal of H^raclius. We would arrive to somewhat attribute the same provenance to other meshes that the Due de Berry added to his collections at the same time, if the characters of the Constantine did not seem in formal contradiction with this conjecture.
We have not forgotten that Mr. Armand pointed out, in its catalog, an imitation or reproduction of the reverse of the medal of H^raclius, offering notable differences with the original. Thanks to the kindness of Mr. A. Heiss who kindly communicated to us the photograph of the medallion described by Mr. Armand,
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we were able to see that the divergences were on points of primary importance.
First, notable increase in diameter; the copy measures 0" 140, while the original only has O'^OOS. The imperial tank, instead of going left k right, heads, in the large medal, in opposite direction. The number of lamps is increased. Finally, many modifications are noticeable in the position of the horses, in the form of the chariot, in the imperial crown and even in the type of sovereign. We can judge the rest by the boards which accompany this study. The copy offers something something harsher, more barbaric, if I may m express thus, as the original type.
It's not yet in all these variants, though important as they are, what does the difference consist of? capital reference of the two medals; the 16gends, in indeed, are no longer the same. If the registration is cular super aspidem, etc., has been preserved, the Greek phrase placed above horses is replaced by a passage taken from the Psalms of David *: Illumina oculos meos^ ne iinquam obdor- miam in morte^ ne quando dicat inimicus mens: prevalui adversus eum. We finally find in the double Latin inscription of the beautiful medal capital letters commonly used in the 14th and 19th centuries 15th century in the legends of seals. These letters completely different from the grave characters on the piece which served as a model. This particle
1. Petalum XII, verses 4 and 5.
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rile above all would confirm our conjectures about Tori- very different design from the two medals of Heraclius. While the one who wears has the right to the head of the Tempe- reur with numerous Greek legends would come out from a Byzantine workshop, the enlarged copy of the reverse would have been executed in the fifteenth century by some Italian master. This would not be surprising, because the medal of H^raciius has always enjoyed a certain notoriety, judging by the reproductions successively given by Du Cange* and Koehler*.
Du Cange did not limit himself, as he later did Koehler, to present, next to the engraving, a trans- description of Greek and Latin legends. In his long dissertation on the coins of the emperors of Constantinople or the Lower Empire^ joined to all old or new editions of the Glossary, he sought to specify the meaning of the subject represented on the reverse of the medal, and he did not devote k this in-depth study less than two chapters*. He tells us first of all that the medal of Hera- clius attracted the attention of many scholars before he cites among others, J. Lipsius*, Octavius
1. Glossarium medix et infintM latinitatia, at the end of the last Tolume, in the different ancient and modern editions included in VllUtoria Byzantina from the same author, p. 112.
2. HUtorischen Mum BeluMtigung (Nuremberg, 1744). Volume XVI. p. 33.
3. Chapters LXXIII and LXXIV of the Didot edition bearing these titles: mtu aduUeiiniu Heraelii — jEdc9 Anaslaseos expressa in nummo Heraclii.
In the first Editions, these chapters are numbered LXV and LXVI.
4. See in the edition of the complete works of Juste Lipse pubt'c ft Antwerp. in Plantin (1637, 5 folio volumes), the dissertation entitled: De cruee libri tres cum notis ct figuris aeneis, first published in 1593 in-4. At the page 675 of volume III*, we find a very finely engraved reproduction declaring medal of Heraclius, obverse and reverse, with this title: c Heraclii imp. nummus
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Strada*, Patin and Loisel. and suggests that other Ires again discussed the subject. This observation does not does not fail to have its interest. So all the eru- known as the Renaissance or the 17th century which persons engaged in numismatics have known, have studied our medal. As for the subject represented on ie other side of the coin, Du Cange fixed a dune definitive manner.
H^raclius, having made an alliance with Syroes, son of Ghosroes, had put his assistance on the condition that the wood of the Holy Cross, removed by the Persians, would be returned to him. After the victory, Syroes filled his commitment. Heraclius brought back the precious relic of Constantinople. So it would be Tentrie triumph of Heraclius carrying the cross which would make the subject of this setback. According to Du Cange, lamps suspended from a beam would specify the place of the scene; they would recall the church built by
ttreus. » The face bears the word ATTOAINIC behind the Ute of TEmpcrear, as on the copy whose reproduction accompanies this article, and the word milUabor in the crescent; while, on all public boards by Du Cange, the word ATTOAINIC has disappeared and miliiabor is replaced^ by milUabo. This connection would suggest that there was only one type of this mesh,* but which Du Cange simply had removed an word, unintelligible for him as for us, and corrects the barbarism mi//- tabor,
1. V Epitome of the ihresor of$ Anliquiiez, that is to say forlraiU of$ urates midaitles of Emperors of both East and West (Lyon 1553, Th. Gu6- rin, in-4), by Octavius Strada, offered, on page 272, a reduction of the portrait of H^raclius oh It would be difficult to recognize the type of our mesh, if Du Cange had not taken care to inform us in this regard. We must admit that it was impossible for us to find, in the different works of Charles Patin whom we were able to consult, the reproduction of the H^raclius. Same result for Loisel. Judging by the image given in Strada, these reproductions would tell us nothing. It therefore seemed superfluous to lose a lot of time and their research.
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8Saint Helena to receive the precious relic afterwards I discovered the true cross, the church which had received The name of Anastasis. Hence the conclusion of this learned dissertation: a Ita si Heraclii adventus in urbem Hierosolymitanam hie describitur, per lampa- das in eo numismate expressas videtur innui ipsa Anastasis in quam illata sunt vivifica linea: contra, si ejusdem augusti adventus in urbem regiam effin- gitur, extracta ex eadem Anastasi innuuntur. » From in any case, the subject of the medal is clearly determined.
There is another detail of the dissertation to which he relates just stopped for a moment. We read in the pre- first lines of chapter LXXII the following sentence: cc Habetur is aureus and pulcherrimus [nummus] in Gasophylacio regio, ejus qu^^ exhibuimus magnitudi- dinis, adeptse ab eo crucis k Persis, ac in urbem regiam relatae, historiam referens. »
What collection does the author mean by the gazophylacium regium? Is it from the royal treasure of Louis XIV and the Cabinet of French Medals? If we accept this explanation, which seems to us only possible, it follows that Du Cange had seen in the royal collection a very fine copy in gold of rH6raclius. I would not go so far as to assume that it was the one which had belonged to the Duke of Berry; but the fact reported by the learned scholar proves that medals recalling the return of the Holy Cross were once quite widespread.
Du Cange adds that the medal he won The allusion was of the same size as the engraving.
1890 — 8 8
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This assertion is not entirely correct, unless that the well-known gold medal of Du Cange was dimensions significantly lower than that which we we reproduced. By bringing the engraving closer attached to old editions of the Glossary of production given here, we will notice a difference sensitive in diameter.
As for the reproduction of large module with Exclusively Latin legends, we do not find any mention in any of the ancient authors who have spoken of TH^racIius.
Despite its reputation, which goes back, as we see, to the 16th century, the medal of Heraclius seems good to us inferior, in terms of art, to that of Cons- so much so. This last one is certainly the work of a artist of great merit worthy of taking rank among the most skillful representatives of jde Part of engraving in medals.
We have seen from the preceding quotes that these two monuments had been famous for several sifecles. On many occasions they have exercised sagacity of the most famous scientists, the most famous numismatists more distinguished. The only new fact we have had Ambition to add to the knowledge acquired for a long time, it is the presence of these medals in the collections of the Due de Berry and, subsequently, a precise indication of the date of their execution. This simple rapprochement is moreover fruitful as a result unforeseen states and sufficiently shows what contingent pr^- heavens of new elements must bring the descriptions of old inventories to the history of
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TarL of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But Let us hasten to add that we cannot bring too much scruples and circumspection in publishing cation of these texts, because the editor almost cannot never at first sight sense any interest in it; he therefore has the strict duty to publish them with impeccable fidelity.
In summary, the medals of Conslantin and He- raclius had been known for a long time*; but, in studying them almost exclusively at a point of Historical Yue, the great scholars of time passing had only glimpsed one side of the problem and had not suspected the place that they are appc- lessons to be taken from now on in the history of gravity view in medals.
1. We have hesitated for a long time before delivering to printing what Indulgent colleagues were kind enough to make a little discovery. 11 us It was clear that it was necessary to keep in mind, for the notes of the lnrentair that we let's say, the remarks made by the articles of this document. A cir- constancy independent of our will has forced us to leave our We would be sorry if we were not going to see the results of our research. We ceded^ k cctte pressure aTCc all the less regret that we had to resolve to find the medals of Augustus and Tiberc. We will not end up without paying the debt of gratitude that we we have contracted towards the scientists and amateurs who helped us with their advice and their careful assistance in this field trip new for us. We owe a lot to the opinions of MM. Chabouillet, Lavoix el Babeloo, from the Cabinet of Medals. It is thanks to the gracious kindness of MM. Heiss and Adrien Blanchet, our colleagues from the Socicte des antiquuires, that we were able to give a reproduction from the original of the two medals of Hecradius, one of which in silver was graciously communicated only by its owner, Mr. Ratier. Finally, Mr. Fcuardent was kind enough to let us help advice from consummate experience. We offer everyone cos rol- laboratenrs, as complacent as they are crude, the expression of our sincere gratitude.
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On the other hand, unanimous silence keeps one's voice secret. vain people who spoke of Constantine and Theraclius on the medals of Tiberius and Augustus, make us well fear that these two types are definitive- ment and k all never lost.
Jules Guiffrey.
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NDMISMATIC SOUVENIRS DTN TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD 3* ARTICLE: CHINA - TONKIN — ANNAM
Shangatj August 10, 1887. — Shangal does not offer great namismatist sources. The only collection of any importance tance is the property of Mr. Joseph Haas, Austrian consul. Hungary; it consists exclusively of coins and medals from the Far East. Mr. Haas is the author of a strong brochure estimated on the Siamese roonnage: I will have the opportunity to talk about it again ler in the course of these notes.
The heat is crushing; also I spend the biggest part of my time at the “club” which has a very nice library, and I read more than one article on oriental nuroismatics in collections difficult to find in France: China Reviav, the Journal of the royal astatic society (Bombay branch, Geylan, of the Straits, of North-China), the Verhandelingen van het bataviaasch genootschap, etc.
Hong Kong, August 20, 1887. — Three important collections exist tent in this city: that of our compatriot Mr. Marty, that of Mr. Dennys, lawyer, that of City Hall, public museum.
Mr. Marty's medal is very considerable. Everything Textreme Orient is represented there and you will find a very large number of rare pieces. A catalog, of which Mr. Marty ra'a show the boards, go and appear. Many pieces of this collection are locked in isolation in small historical boxes ries in lacquer, ivory, tortoiseshell; this fashionable arrangement Chinese is very pretty, but very impractical when you have extended sequences.
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Mr. Dennys collection is much more restricted than that of Mr. Marty, but formed approximately on the same basis gram. In addition to the currencies of the Far East themselves, it includes a very complete series of coins struck Hong Kong by the English; there are specialists for this workshop men are very rare, tests almost impossible to find. The obliging owner pointed out to me among the curiosities of his office a silver tael minted in Hong Kong to circulate in China, a other Chinese ta&l from Formosa, etc. Mr. Dennys, very heard in the subject, wrote a catalog himself, not yet finished mine, of its interesting medalist.
The City Hall collection, curated by Mr. Dennys himself even, includes an immense number of Chinese currencies still incompletely classified.
Before leaving Hong Kong, I will say a few words about the number circulating source which consists mainly, for 1 money, of old Spanish piastres and Mexican dollars. These mon- naies, whom we met in San Francisco, we will accompany them to India. Small transactions made of copper coins minted by the English for their colonic.
There used to be a mint in Hong Kong for the manufacturing of colonial species, but several years ago that the restoration was closed and its tools sold to the government Japanese style. The special dollars that came out of the hotel Hong Kong coins have become rare; their legends, like those of the copper coins, are in English and Chinese; the type consists of the effigy of Victoria. Small coins of copper, called cents and mils continue to be struck in England; the millets are pierced with a hole in the Chinese fashion and have the module of our cents.
I will note in passing a curious peculiarity about the dollars. New coins, clean dollars, are not valid; of same as in Shanghai, they must, to circulate, be equipped with the greasy ink stamp from a local banker or money changer; of even in Hong Kong, they must be caught, that is to say not denied by the Chinese bankers ^ These arrangements are made,
1. Pcut-6trc must we compare this usage to that, which remained unexplained, which
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it seems, against the counterfeit money which abounds in the country^. Poor guarantee! because nothing is easier to imitate than the timbre wet or punching: moreover, this one does not put bare Tame of the piece, is useless if it is stuffed. I have before eyes a Mexican dollar from 1872, covered with more than twenty punches, and in which an indiscreet crankshaft came revealing, a little belatedly, a copper dome. The proof of its is, it is said, much more conclusive; it is used by the great English bankers.
Besides being completely ineffective, chopping has the great disadvantage of completely damaging the parts. I kept a coin of Cbarles IV, king of Spain, who, in shock repeats the fists which disfigure her, has taken the scyphold form by zan tines. Despite these serious disadvantages, the chop is so much a part of customs that it will continue for a long time to come to be practical. The Chinese don't decide to accept dollars than mistreated by the fists of the money changers: when the coins break, the pieces are good; they continue to circulate by weight.
However, the Chinese government seems to want to introduce Western habits in monetary circulation then that he has just decided to open a mint in Canton, and this, despite the dire predictions of those who see
consisted, under the Roman Republic, of marking the money with a small sharp punch representing a letter of the alphabet or any other symbol.
1. Mexican dollars are, we are assured, made almost everywhere ajourdliui, which would not be surprising. Money is, in fact, current- ment in commerce at a price lower than the rate fixed by law, and there would have, says Mr. Cocbut, in the Revue des Deux-Mondes of July 15, 1887, a gain of 30 & 40 0/0 to be achieved by clandestine manufacturing of silver coins.
In October 1885, the Italian government withdrew the old piasters from the kingdom of Naples to replace them with pieces of 5 pounds; they are present at guicbets in innumerable quantities, identical to yawns, but counterfeited by English counterfeiters who sent them from Malta. “Counterfeiting,” says Mr. Cocbut, “which should not be confused with counterfeiting, is much more dangerous. It consists of an imitation as disappointing as possible, as accurate as possible of legal currency; she reproduces the fine metal, the alloy, the right weight, the module, the effigies; she Therefore, there is a price equal to that of the piece ^issued by the authority^. Its production is no less a fraud, a theft measurable by difference in positive reality between the imitated coin and the real coin. »
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to this extent an economic error. Several newspapers illustrious figures of England have given many details about this establishment. development which will finally provide China with a complete system of digital particular rarity.
Before leaving the Celestial Empire, I would have liked to give my readers an overview of its numismatics since its origin up to the present day; but rather than resorting to the works already aged by Hager (1805), Chaudoir (1842), etc., I prefer wait for the imminent publication of the Catalog of series of the British Museum, by M. Terrien de Lacouperie, the eminent Sino- logist, whose expertise in Chinese numismatics is universal. sallity known.
Hanoi, September 5, 1887. — No collection to report k Hanoi, no more than Haiphong, despite all our efforts to discover.
The circulating currency consists of Indian-Chinese piastres. French, in dollars, and in Annamite zinc coins, on the which I will come back to later. According to Mr. J. Silvestre, these Sapeques are made in Hue and Hanoi; I would have liked to visit Workshop of the latter city, but I am assured that he is sup- bonus.
Saigon, September 16, 1887. — Same shortage of collections than in Tonkin. It's not that it doesn't occur sometimes, but they barely have a certain importance when they take on road to Europe.
This absence of medalists will not prevent me from studying quickly the numismatics of French Cochinchina and that of Annam which is closely linked to it. Two very good memories recently published and a handwritten catalog will give me the necessary items:
1® Annam and its minor currencies, by Ed. Toda. Work of 178 pages in-8'*, adorned with 290 figs. — This work, read before the North^China branch of the Asiatic Society, in December 1881, which has since appeared in the memoirs of this learned company. he There is a separate print, the copies of which are unfortunately very difficult to meet. The author currently lives Madrid.
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2* Notes to be used for research and classification of man" nates and medals from Annam and French Cochinchina, by M. J. Silvestre, included in Excursions and Reconnaissances published in Saigon (1882 and 1883).
3* Description of coins, medals and gold bars apart attached to the Treasury of Hu^ (1886), by M. de Lalande, consul of France. Manuscript preserved at the HAtel des Monnaies in Paris.
Other works, older, and which were used by the previous authors, are the Dictionarium latino^anamiticuni of Taberd (1838), V Monetary Encyclopedic of Bonneville (1840), the Catalog of the Fonrobert collection, by M. A. Weyl (1878).
In the sketch of the numismatics of our Indian possessions cbinoises that I will submit to the readers of the Revue numis^ matically, I will first take care of the small copper coins, in zinc, etc., which have always played the most important role in traffic; I will then examine the species of gold and silver; finally, I will say a few words about contemporary coins of the French Cochinchina.
[has). Small currency of Annam.
Annam did not have its own civilization. Everything that touches to the arts, to religion, to the principles of government is not here a reflection of China. Therefore, there is no reason to be surprised if the numerary "innamite hardly differs from that of the Celeste Empire. The entire monetary system, however, is infinite- ment more complete in Annam than in China.
Until the 15th century, the Annamites made use of mined species. pees in China, especially for them and a little smaller than the corresponding Chinese coins. National manufacturing of the sign of exchange only began, according to Mr. Toda, from of the Dinh dynasty. It was initially a royal prerogative. The currency was made or kept in nine stores located in as many cities whose names we know. From 1740k 1786, workshops were established in various capitals of pro- vince, and it was ordered that the mark of the teller should appear on the reverse of the piece. Today, the city of Hue alone has an official money hotel, but private speculators are authorized by the government h. sink sapeques. 11 p.m.
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that coins for rAnnam are also made k Macau, in fraud.
According to Mr. Silvestre, the Annamite sapeques were first in pewter; it was only little by little that we arrived at Tallier and replace with a baser metal, zinc; they were then in copper. In 1528, the lack of copper meant that iron was used for the manufacture of sapeques, but this is the only example that we have a coinage of this metal. In 1740, we titled coins in zinc, and later in lead. We also used k alloys of copper, tin, lead and zinc.
The Annamese annals have preserved for us the text of the different annuities laws promulgated about the manufacture and price of the exchange sign. This is how we know that in 1230 the tierif or ligature of sapeques, was 70 pieces for the peasants and 60 for city dwellers. It was then reduced to 50, then raised to 60, a figure which has survived to this day.
The title of the sapeques is not regulated. Their value depends, on the market, on the rate of the Mexican dollar. Today- today, a copper sapeque {cash in English, dong in Annamite) 6 is equivalent to ten of zinc, and 600 sapeques of zinc or quan'tien, worth about sixty cents of our currency. The sapeques of lead are worth even less; we see very little of the rest.
In payments to the government, the quan-tien is taken into account at the rate of 604 cask; the four additional cashes represent try the transport costs of this bulky currency.
An author of the 16th century, the missionary of Rivas, says that the Annamite government deliberately woods zinc for manufacturing tion of small species, k because of custom, disastrous for commerce, peasants, to bury their wealth. Impure zinc rapidly decomposing in the ground, Tabus was, it seems, promptly repressed. It is a fact that the fragility of these parts is extreme; often the weak link of rush which brings them together in each pelet breaks; the sapeques fall and break.
It is hard to believe, given the tiny value of this mon- nay, that it could have been profitably counterfeited. G*is however this which happened, and the penal code of the kingdom contains laws severe against counterfeiting.
Customs and superstitions are attached to currencies
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in Annam as in China. It is suspended as a talisman next to children, above the bed of the sick, etc. As I recalled above, the custom of burying money was very widespread, as in all countries lacking security; but here, in the 16th century, this custom was accompanied by another very barbaric: we sacrificed, on the Templaceraent of the hiding place, a young girl whose soul was supposed to watch over the treasure.
All the sapeques bear indistinctly, on the face, the ckiffre of the kingdom in two characters inscribed vertically, accom- loincloths of the words thong-^huy indices of legal remission, stored horizontally. It is good to say that the Annamites have borrows from China the custom of distinguishing, in the dynasties royal, each sovereign by a reign number and by his title dynastic. Both independent of the private name. The number of the reign is a term, symbolic in a way, like the nen-go of the Japanese that the prince adopted on his accession and who represents either the political, social or religious idea which is passing to re-inspire, or the hopes of the new kingdom. These numbers are used to calculate times, and this process is not not the most convenient, due to super titious custom, followed by a large number of sovereigns, to change one or numbered several times in the hope of diverting the fortune contrary. In ordinary language, Europeans are accustomed to study to substitute this figure for the sovereign's own name. What whatever the date of the king's death, his figure continues to occupy the field of currencies until the end of the year started. As for to the dynastic title, it is only awarded to kings after their death.
This is the information given to us by the memoir of Mr. Silvestre, information supplemented by a chronological table history of the sovereigns of Annam with all the reign figures from 981 to the present day. We understand how this painting, which also exists in the work of Mr. Toda, is valuable for the classification of currencies, but I cannot reproduce it here and I must confine myself to referring the reader to it.
As I said at the beginning of these notes, the series of sapeques Annamites begins in the Dinh dynasty (968-981) and continues with great monotony until our days. The reverse
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species is usually smooth, but we sometimes find some written indications, such as the dynasty, the province where remission took place, the value, etc. There is a large quantity tity of so-called rebel coins: we mean by this word, in Annam, not only the rebel leaders in the provinces, but also those who were not recognized as authentic kings ticks by the Annals^ although they were in possession of the throne and the capital. The classification of the currencies of these usurpers is far from easy
In addition to common cash, there have been, from time to time, multiples of the sapeque. King Hien-Tong (1740) inaugurated a large copper coin worth 50 cash and another worth 100 cash. One of these, Dalee from 1743, bears two dragons: it is the first attempt at figurative representation on the coins of FAnnam. This innovation is not continued by successors sisters of Hien-Tong, and the series of sapeques continues without change gement until the rebel Nguyen-Van-Toan (1791-1800) who sank some pieces of large module, having rather the character of medals, quite elegant work. The Nguyen dynasty (1776 k nowadays) provides 50 and 60 cash coins,
A remarkable particularity of zinc sapeques is that they are metric like our francs. Twenty-seven of these pieces, aligned, must give exactly the length of the unit thiiocy measuring fabrics, corresponding to 0™ 648; it is necessary to add however that the sapeques of Gia-Long are the only ones sufficiently regularly manufactured to give the correct measurement.
Gold coins, The treasure of Hu6,
The gold coins of Annam were still quite rare, when an important act of war, the capture of Hu^ by our troops (July 5, 1885), led to the transfer to France of a part of the royal treasure. Seven to eight million in gold and silver, of which 949 Annamese coins and gold medals struck under the reigns of Ming-mang (1820-1842), of Thien-tri (1842-1847) and of Tu- Duke (1847-1883), 5,623 coin ingots of the same metal weighing 1,316 kilograms, a good number of coins and ingots- Annamese silver coins, English gold coins and current Indian coins, etc., thus arrived at the Mint
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from Paris. After an investigation into the scientific value of this iresor, everything was delivered to the crucible, except a double series of each type represented, solt 114 pieces, not counting the lingols of *ar- gent, the lout being worth a hundred thousand francs.
Until now, this precious gathering of historic monuments rics, certainly unique in this world, remained buried in the coffers of THotel des Monnaies, while waiting for it to 8it has. We hope that, in the very near future, what remains of the treasure of Hue will be donated to one of our collections public, instead of following the other pieces into the crucible, con- damned somewhat lightly in blocks; we are sure to be Techo of tones the numismatists by expressing the wish that all these coins, a true trophy of our successes in Annam, come* will form a special showcase at the National Cabinet of Medals.
A special authorization allowed me to visit these brilliant debris from the treasure of the Annamite kings and to draw notes from The excellent manuscript catalog drawn up by M. de Lalande, consul of France, 61st graduate of the School of Oriental Languages, as well as than to the reports of MM. Deveria and Chabouillet who were there annexes. Despite the interest of the subject, I will make little use of this second permission, from our colleagues having, I believe, the intention of publish, shortly, in this same Journal^ a detailed study on the numismatics of Annam.
Gold, let us say it once and for all, does not enter, strictly speak, in the regular traffic of the Far East and do not hardly leaves the imperial treasures or the coffers of the families richer. In Annam, real gold coins, round and flat, appear very late: they are not prior to the advent of the Nguyen dynasty, that is to say the first miere aun^e of the 19th century.
It is not the same for ingots, known at a time when shot further back. Following the teachings of the treasure of Hue, the Annamese gold liiigots must be divided into two groups: 1* those analogous to what we called in Japan “mon- reserve lines” and which bear the characters ouon~pao “first value”, sometimes accompanied by those nei-tang “in the treasure”; 2* those who usually have the tong~pao value in circulation”.
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To the first group belong, for example, the largest ingots from the treasure of Hue, real bricks of metal weighing 50 u 100 taSls (the ta€l = 37 gr. 58) and therefore worth six a.m. twelve thousand francs; in the second group come store ingots of 1 luong or tael, of 7a» V4 ®* V« luong^ as well as the pretty series of 1, '/j^, V4o» 'Ao' Vio Vio luong.
All these latest bars and ingots are real mon- are born and we must classify them, without hesitation, in your collection numismatics; while Chinese gold bars, raw, of indeterminate weight, without official guarantee, there are, in reality, no rights.
Annamite gold ingots, like those of silver, are ordered nary of careful manufacturing; their shape is regular rectangular; most bear the following notices: the word Annanij the king's name, value and title, plus the impervious seal rial. The usual title is ^'/loo' ^^^^ note, following the reigns, certain variations. Every ingot is known under a particular name; this is how that of 1 luong is called luong- vang or gold nail, that that of 10 luong is called nen-vang or bread gold, etc.
The treasury of Hu^ provided sixteen different types of gold ingots. The manufacture is all the more careful as the value of the piece is larger: the 100 tael ingots are decorated on the edges of figures in relief and legends are engraved in a manner remarkable.
Coins and ingots^silver currency.
The Min-mang piastre, or dragon piaster, is approximately the only round silver coin known for Annam. Mr. Sil- vestre cites still smaller pieces, but he does not give any the description. The piastre bears a dragon with five claws, well that the king of Annam has the right, as vassal of the emperor of China, that the dragon has four claws. His title is very low, too she had no success.
Silver ingots are very similar to gold ones. Some, hangers lengthwise, are melted by the particles bind; They have various hallmarks, one of which indicates the value. Others ingots, of imperial manufacture, are melted at Son-Tay.
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The names and divisions are similar to those of gold bars. There is the bread or nen of silver, the half-loaf, the nail, the half-ciou and the quarter-nail; in addition, the 3 quan piece or 30 ligatures, that of 2 quan and that of 1 quan, The smallest ingot, that of 1 quan, weighs five grams; the biggest, the one of 10 taels, weighs 390 grams.
Gold and silver medals.
The Annamese medals form a vast collection, and however- in none of those that your knowledge is prior to the current dynasty. They are generally round, thin, colored lees, and of a fairly careful workmanship. The faces present the reign figures and Tinvariable tong-bu, but the reverses carry drawings, emblems, allegorical figures and symbols tensions. Some are full, others have holes, like the currencies. There are some that hang on your door on cords silk passed around the neck and to which fringes of silk or pearls and bead tassels variously colored res. These pieces are not comparable to the medallions of the ancient, but rather to modern orders of chivalry; this does not are only emblematic jewels assigned to the glorification of some public or private virtue. The emperor distributes them to major holidays for civil servants and government agents ments Strangers as a testimony of esteem, as a reward for beautiful actions, services rendered to the State, acts of dedication, etc.
Mr. Silvestre describes a certain number of them in his memoir, but the treasure of Hue contains many new ones.
Annamese medals are dedicated to Glemency, to Piety subsidiary, ii THonnetet^, and are comparable to our virtue prices; others contain wishes for happiness, longevity or of numerous male offspring. Some are alleys gories of the Dragon, the fabulous animal, whose role is so great in Far East. Others have the “four beauties” on the reverse, that is to say the Constellations, the Trees in flower, the Sea and the Montagues. Still others seem intended for old people the oldest: they bear the attributes of the “three longevity”. Finally, many medals, whose destination is for us uncertain, allude to celestial bodies, to the imperial scepter, to the lotus, to the five ritual attributes, etc.
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Coins of French Cochinchina.
Although dating back barely thirty years, metal history of this former dependency of Annam presents a certain increte.
At the beginning of the French occupation, says Mr. Silvestre, the metals, lead or iron, were exchanged in round or ogivals. We then used, until 1863, the sapeque of zinc and the Mexican piaster, countermarked or not by the trading houses. In 1863, to remedy the disadvantages deny the zinc sapeque, such an inconvenient currency, we have it seen higher than that of Lycurgus, it was imagined to cut the piaster by tnoities, quarters and eighths, and these fragments were called rupees, shilling and 7a shilling or nail. A fraud then consisted of dividing the whole into five “quarters” and ten “eighths”; the cut piasters were immediately demonetized and, on March 5, 1863, the use of coin species was introduced frauQais.
This reform brought with it a new abuse: the coins European and American d^monetized^es afBuerent, and all that which somewhat resembled the coins of France circulated, legal rate, next to it. The monetary situation was during long lamentable and brought to the commerce of our colonic the greatest harm.
In 1879, finally, after many vicissitudes recounted by Mr. Silvestre, and which rather belong to financial history that with numismatics, French Cochinchina finally had its mon- nae to her. We first issued the divisions of the piaster and the mon- naie de billon, then the “piastre de commerce”, a piece of an exe- Truly beautiful execution. The current series therefore includes: piastre, 50 cent, 20 cent and 10 cent coins for Targent; 1 cent coins worth 7ioo piastre, and copper sapeques. poles with a square hole, in the center. The legends of money are in French; those of copper in French gay and in Annamite. All these currencies present this part- cularity that they bear mention of the weight and the title, one or The other or both at the same time.
To the coins of French Cochinchina, it is still necessary to add
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ter the i centime coins that the administration had thrown into the circulation in 1878, after having had them holed in the arsenal of Saigon. This operation failed. The parts were refused by the entire population, and returned to the treasury coffers where they still are, it seems.
Paper money.
Although paper money does not fit precisely into my subject, I would like to say a few words about it.
The use of paper money, of Chinese origin, is noted in Annam of 1397; but there are no more traces of it.
Today there is a funeral paper money representing imaginary values and which makes it possible to offer people, by a naive feint, incalculable sums and a hundred other things precious. The paper simply carries the image of what you intends to offer the deceased person, for example, the figures of coins. This use is linked to that of leaves of false gold and silver that You sow along the way behind the funeral procession and which, according to what Mr. Sil- vestre, aim to deflect evil spirits.
Since 1875, the Bank of India-China has issued 5 k notes 1,000 francs.
[To be continued,) Arthur Engel.
UNLIMITED OR LITTLE KNOWN MONEY WORKSHOPS
Since the work of F. de Saulcy, which revealed such a great number of French monetary mints, all that remains is to glean and we must consider ourselves happy when we discover, from time to time, the name of a new o£Bcine.
We carried out our investigations on an area that Saulcy had left aside and we were favored enough to find some information relating to workshops of the 16th and 17th centuries** centuries.
We knew that the Pamiers workshop had worked for the account of John I", Count of Foix, and that Charles VII had made 1890 — 9 9
f
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stop this manufacturing ^. A document comes to reveal Texis to us- presence of a royal workshop in Pamiers:
On September 20, 1591, “Damphrye” brought to the registry of the Gour des Monnaies 2 fists with effigy of the king, coins of 10 and 5 sols and 3 matrices of the ecu, the quarter ecu and the dozen has to be leased to the Mattre of the mint of Pamiers.
a And on the said day, the said two fists of Effygia and three masters were bailed to Pierre de Castille, bourgoys de Pamiers, "farmer of the said mint of Pamiers *". 2® Another document concerns the currency of Melun: On October 22, 1593, Danfrye brought to the registry a fist of Teffigy of the king for half-francs, with four dies, Tune for the ecu, the others for the quarter d*^cu, the half-franc and the dozen, all “to be sent in the Paris currency transferred to in Melun, of which deed was granted to the said Danfrie”. Comes next the following receipt: “I undersign confess to having received from Mr. Mar- singing, clerk at the registry of the chamber of accounts, the four “dies and punches mentioned above, to deliver to the an engraver of the Paris currency transferred to Melun, did this
The Melun workshop had already been reported according to a decree of the Gour des coins, dated February 22, 1606, which authorized tion' to remove the corners and instruments from the hands of Gharles Riotte, bourgeois and elected official of Melun, who was its depositary *, We also knew an inventory of the equipment of the mon workshop^- silence of Melun under Henri IV [Archives of the registry of the civil court of first instance of Melun).
But these documents did not provide, on the history of this workshop, information as precise as that provided by our text. We now know that the Melun workshop belonged to Henri IV. Philippe Danfrie (former), gener- engraver ral of the currencies of France, had in fact withdrawn to Tours where the
1. F. de Saulcy, Elements of the Kiatory of the Mondlaire Workshops, Paris, 1877, in-4”, p. 51; L. Flourac, Jean /•', Count of Foix, Paris, 1884, in-8", p. 82.
2. National ArchivesSy Z 1'* 347 (Contribution of fish).
3.Arch. Nat., Z l** 347.
4. G. Leroy, A monetary workshop in Melun in the 16th century in Directory of the French Numismatic Society^ 1883, p. 155-158.
“III! November 1593.”
Sign4: Palliot or Par riot
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Chamber of Accounts functioned as Court of Currency, during while the real Court of Coins, composed of leaguers, remained in Paris with the government of the Sixteen*.
3* The third document reveals to us the existence of the alley of Lusignan (now the capital of the canton, Vienne):
“Paper of the issues which are made in the manufacture of farthings “established in Lusignan by me Louis Aube guardian of the said “fabricated in the presence of Monsieur Le Vieulx, advisor to the king “in his court of coins and commissioner established by the said “court for the direction of the following and in accordance with “declarations of the king and decrees of the said court in year six “one hundred and fifty six.
“The first day of June 1656 jay fiiiict deliverance to Mallre “Preignerac clerk to Pierre Alexandre, subcontractor of “two presses of the cincq cy avant established in Limoges, of twenty in five bills of liards which were minted in the manufacture “established at Lusignan as a result of the power received from it 1 of our lords of the court said Peter Alexander who “are found at sixty and four pieces in the marc^. »
Manufacturing continued until December 30, 1656. "4* Our fourth document concerns Talelier de Viriry (near Arras, Pas-de-Calais):
Today is the twenty-seventh day of August, one thousand and six hundred and five € Quantity six was delivered by me Ferdinand Seguin advisor- a ler du Roy, Intendant of the fortifications of Lyonnais and Bresse “and clerk judge-guard and Jean Buisson, tester of the monoye “of copper established in this town of Vimy in the presence of Mon- “Sir Dubuisson advisor and commissioner of his town in at his court of monoyes and deputy commissioner for the direction u tion of the said manufacture that the quantity of fourteen rails seven hundred “marks of copper liards which were found after several "and various pezees *''. » Sign: Seguin, Buisson.
1. A. Barre, General and particular engravers of the coins of France, 1867, p. 27.
2. Brief signifying a delivery recorded and verified signed by the various characters who assist in the operation. See. Boizard, TraiU des Monoyes, 1692, p. 144.
3. Arch, Nal.,Z 1''887.
4.Arch. Nat,, Z 10l2.
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It was made up of 137,000 Hards marks, put into ten shares. vances, until February 9, 1657.
These two workshops of Lusignan and Vimy seem to us to have 6established it temporarily during the troubles of the Fronde. In the event that this hypothesis were true, Lusi- products gnan could wear the difference of Limoges, and those of Vimy the different one from Arras {?). We know in fact that, during the Fronde, Tattlier de Corbeil replaces that of Paris, Meung-sur- Loire that of Tours, Vienne that of Lyon.
J.-Adrien Blanchet.
MEROVINGIAN COINS FROM MADHID’S CABINET
Gontran's thirds of a penny and pseudo-Roman thirds of a penny public in the Revue numismatique y annee 1889, pi. ix, n®' 1, 2, 12 and 13, are not the only Merovingian coins worthy of being noted that the Madrid Cabinet possesses. Mr. A« Engel also noticed the following thirds of a gold penny. before:
THAI 4- FRIDIKVS- Cross. Lace gercle exterior to the legend. The letters CA which end the legend of the law are the ini- tials of the word castrum. On a third of a penny from the collection of Ame- short, recently acquired by the Cabinet of France, we read on the right THAISA CAS; reverse, the same currency as on the coin from Madrid. Thaisa's workshop^ judging by the style of the two third of a penny that we have just mentioned, seems to have to be sought in Touraine.
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Here, secondly, a third of a penny is minted in Lyon:
LV9AVN0 Fl Busle with pearl tiara, right.
+ IV2TV<\> MONETA- Cross on one step, next to the letters LV; the field is surrounded by gravel.
The third piece of the Cabinet of Madrid that we will highlight is 1 silver soul of a third of a penny stuffed^. This is a copy of Orleanese species of the money maker Maurinus.
+ VIIAVRINVS 110. Head with pearl diadem^, k right; in the field, on the right, a crossroads.
9^. + ITIV//////VIISCIVIT. Pomraettee cross on two degrees. Here, to finish, is a third of a penny from Verdun.
VERE DYNO' Bust with pearl diadem, k right.
ly. DODV M~0- Cross; the field is surrounded by garnetis.
The Dodo currency is known; we can therefore wonder if hi legend on the reverse is not retrograde and should not be read DODO""My. The only consideration that can stop is the place that the abbreviative sign would then occupy, before the letters MV* initials of munetarius.
Mr. Prou.
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Description of the Nederlandsche of op Nederland en Nederlanders betrekking hebhende Penningen geslachen tusschen november 1813 in November 1863 door Mr Jacob Dirks, Haarlem. Erven F. Bohn, 1889. 2 volumes in-8<*. (Publication by Teyler*s Tweede Genootschap.)
Many numismatists consider it of no interest Study of contemporary medals and neglect research recent products from our monetary workshops and the history of circumstances which led to the engraving and its release into circulation these pieces. It is not like this everywhere and we believe that it is with good reason that certain scholars endeavor to bring together and describe modern medals. Are we not very happy to find ver, today, in the beautiful contemporary publications of medals of Louis XIV and Louis XV, reproductions of numismatic monuments which recall the main events ments of these reigns and the indication of the motives which made them hit. One of the veterans of numismatic science, Mr. director Jacob Dirks, did not believe it was beneath him to abandon, for a few moments, his continuation of the works of Van Loon and Van Mieris, and to abandon his research on old seigniorial coins of Friesland, to respond to the Call by the Teyler Company, of Haarlem, and write a catalog raisonne of historical medals struck in the Netherlands, from November 1813 to November 1863, i.e. during the first fifty years which have passed since the lifting vement of Holland against Napoleon I*'.
Mr. Dirks did not limit himself to describing with the greatest care all the coins minted during this period, but he accomplished pagne6 its descriptions of summary historical information on a recurrence of which we thus wanted to preserve the memory, on the personage to which homage was paid, or on the institution who issued medals or tokens. Often, he attached a bibliography and this is what gives this publication tion a true scientific character.
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Among the medals described in the work of Mr. Dirks, one a certain number are of interest to France and we will cite, in particular- ment, the medals relating to the Battle of Waterloo and those which recall the siege of Antwerp.
Until the separation of the two kingdoms, the catalog of Mr. Dirks understands the documents relating to Belgium. Unfortunately- Fortunately for us, the work is written in Dutch and little of our compatriots are familiar with this idiom; but we are happy to be able to announce to them that the Teyler Society has just decided to publish an atlas which, completing this work and facilitating research, will reproduce the medals which are included therein, as has happened for an important monographic, also due to Dircks, and relating to mereaux and medals of the corporations of the Netherlands.
Gomte DE Marsy.
Gnbcchi (Francesco ed Ercole). Saggio di bibliografia numisma" tica delle zeeche italiane medioevali e moderne, Milan, L.-F. Cogliati, 1889, gr. in-8* of xxi and 469 pages.
Since the beginning of this century, the work devoted to numismatics have multiplied so much that it is necessary otherwise you will no longer find yourself in the maze of publica- various titles, to bring together the titles in consultation directories easy operation. In several countries, this necessity has been understood and scholars patiently set to work. In 1883, appeared in Brussels the General and Reasoned Bibliography of Numisma- beige tick, by M. G. Cumonl; in 1886, Spain and Portugal gal rcQurent the Bibliografia numismatica espahola of M. Rada and Delgado. I published it myself, in 1887-89, in collaboration tion with M. R. Serrure, a Directory of printed sources of French numismatics, the last booklet of which, including the supplement and the table, was recently distributed.
MM. F. and E. Gnecchi, two zealous workers to whom the Italian numismatics certainly owes a large part of its current vitality, have just given us a book which will hold very worthy of its place in the series of national bibliographies nales.
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It is to be deplored, perhaps, that all these works have not and6 undertaken on a uniform plan, so as to constitute the parts of a whole. Mr. Gumont, as I did myself, classifies works by author names. Mr. Rada y Delgjido adopts the order of matters subordinate to a division by centuries. MM. Gnecchi stopped at a geographical order, perhaps to make their book the complement of the work from Promis become classic: Tavole sinottidie delle monete Italian.
Promised, in fact, successively reviews all the workshops Italian links and gives, for each of them, the indication of the mon- notes which were struck there, referring to the books where find the figures. MM. Gnecchi also take, by order alphabetical, the different zecche; they give the story so- mayor of each of them and finally the titles of the books, notices, journal articles which constitute the sources for this story.
I take at random one of the shortest sections of the book to give a clearer idea of the work of our colleagues Italian:
Berignone or Barignone, stronghold of Techurch of Volterra. The ^v^ques of Volterra minted there in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Carli-Rubbi (Gianrinaldo). The money and the istituzione of it zecche d’Italia, Mantua, 1754, in-8*”, pp. 225 and 227.
Rossi (Uraberto). Volterra e le sue monete^ in the Gazzetta numis- matica, II® year, n®" 21 and 22.
It is easy to understand that work of this kind, extending on more than three hundred and fifty names, cannot be exempt omissions and errors of detail. Among the most forgotten omissions- important, I will point out, at Villa di Ghiesa, that of the article by Mr. von Sallet has published in the Zeitsc/irift f&r Numismatik, t. XII, p. 388, where the curator of the Berlin Museum makes known the big strike by Guelfo and Lotto, sons of the famous Ugolino Gherar- desca. In the section reserved for Parma, MM. Gnecchi would have could cite the notice in which Ms. Marie de Man published, for the first time, Charlemagne's denarius struck in this city [Bulletin de numismatlque, t. Ill, pi. V, fig. 2). I don't have does not find either, in Gorice's bibliography, mention of Article by M. C.-A Serrure insert in the Revue beige de
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mumism, from 1852. For the Savois workshop of Gex, our colleagues D oni not known V Numismatic excursion in Burgundy in vii* century in which M. d'Am^court gave^ a triens mero- Vingian attributed to this city (GAGIACO). In Desana’s article, It was perhaps appropriate to mention some of the orders nances by which the kings of France decried the pieces (recorded in this lordship in imitation of the royal species.
But these few omissions, easily repairable in a next edition of the book, do not detract from its value. All those who will henceforth want to deal with Italian numismatics will become dependent on the Saggio di bibliografia numismatica: this is, I believe, the highest praise that can be given to the excellent work of MM. Gnecchi.
A.E.
Catalog of Gallic coins from the National Library^ written by Ernest Murbt and published by M. A. Gha- BOUiLLET, curator of the department of medals and antiques, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education public and fine arts. Paris, Plon bookstore, 1889; in-4® of XXVII and 328 p.
The Catalog of Gallic coins from the National Library" release, awaited for several years, has just been released butition. Get work, undertaken by the late Muret, with the help of advice from GB. Robert and F. de Saulcy, was almost finished when 8a death; It remained to do the introduction and the tables. Mr. Gha- Bouillet took charge of the first and M. de La Tour of the second.
In principle, we would like the introduction to summarize everything what we know about Gallic numismatics, classification and The allocation of parts. Mr. Ghabouillet was too aware of the degree of advancement of Studies to attempt such an undertaking taken. The Catalog had started at a time when Ton had only vague notions; certain attractive attributions, but very contested today, had been admitted by overenthusiastic scientists. Muret, who had great knowledge practical knowledge of ancient currencies, was not a scholar, but he stuck to his ideas. Under these conditions, the Catalog does not
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could only be a valuable inventory, but in no way a doctrinal work. Mr. Chabouillet, as a man of spirit, gave an introduction in which he traces with accuracy, sometimes with mischief, the history of Gallic numismatic studies; it's a pleasant conference that we read with pleasure and which is good worthy of the scholar to whom the Cabinet of France owes its true increase. We must not forget that, under his administration tion, the Cabinet was enriched with the magnificent Gallic suites of the due de Luynes and F. de Saulcy; let us add that, of all its predecessors, Mr. Chabouillet is, without doubt, the one who has the more contributed to enriching the deposit entrusted to him. During his long leadership, donations and acquisitions have multiplied flounder; and it was not the result of a happy coincidence. The increases, sometimes invisible, were, most often, due to the personal relations of the curator and to the consideration merit which he enjoys in the scholarly world.
To guide oneself in Muret's work, tables were essential; without this common thread, it would be difficult to do searches among these 10413 numbers which are not available Its with a very sure method. Mr. de La Tour acquitted himself of this meticulous work with an accuracy worthy of Doges: without it we would be lost or rejected. Up to a certain point, this Reeritory labor makes up for the absence of boards generally essential in works of this type; in fact, we have beautiful multiply efforts to make a definition or a statement clear description, the slightest drawing is much more useful to give wrinkle of a monument whatever it may be. Moreover, these boards exist and they will most likely be put into the hands numismatists. I think I can reveal the causes of the delay brings in their publication by making, in a few words, This- Catalogue.
11 approximately 14 years ago, it was, it seems to me, under the ministry of Mr. Waddington, the publication of a catalog of Gallic coins which must have had two parts. The first, dedicated to the collection of the Cabinet of France; the second, to pieces scattered everywhere in museums or among people individuals. At the same time, it was decided to form a collection of boards whose number was not limited since you could not will then predict what currencies there would be to reproduce, i.e.
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as a result of communications that would be made, either by using the numerous drawings brought together by Ch. Robert. Today there is 54 planks faithfully engraved by Dardel.
The Catalog was to be monitored by the Compiission of the topography of the Gauls which bore the cost of the engraving of boards and which counted among its members the numismatists dedicated especially to the study of the coins of Gaul. This role could not be very severe, because, as I said higher up, Muret held on to his ideas and liked to move freely from I'avaat. At a certain point, the Commission of the Gauls was suddenly dissolved and its members lost interest in the Catalogue, When the work appeared, people did not believe about use the boards because they did not contain exclusively vement of the coins of the Cabinet of France.
As it presents itself, the work making known the riches of the Cabinet of Medals is a precious working instrument; one cannot, without consulting him, address the slightest question of Gallic numismatics. Like the volumes of the Collection of in^ditSy documents it offers serious workers an in^- drawable from which they will find numerous elements to advance science. As style, as art, the Gallic coins have nothing attractive, but their types varied are well made to excite the curiosity of those who like to seek the solution of certain problems; this curiosity is very legitimate since these fr^monuments constitute the most ancient historical archives of France.
Anatole de Barth^lemy.
Smith (Vincent-Arthur). Bengal Civil Service. The Coinage of the early or imperial Gupta Dynasty of Northern India, London, 1889, in-8% 158 p., v pi.
In 1884, Mr. Vincent-Arthur Smith, then in India, had publishes, in the Bengal Asian Journal, a catalog detail of the gold coins of the Goupta kings, preceded by a sub- stantielle introduction to the history and monetary types of these sovereigns. Since then, the same scholar has been able to study the collections
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English tions of Europe, and he presents to us today a new much more complete work on this coinage *.
It was James Prinsep who was the first to publish, in 1837, a attempt to decipher the coins of the Gouptas, which he called then “ancient Hindu coins, Kanauj series” and cc Hindu coins imitated from the Ardochro type", because these pieces had and^ found in fairly large numbers in Tantique city of Kanauj, on the Ganges, and which they recalled, through their drawings, Indo-Scythian coinage. Except for a few detailed corrections, Prinsep's readings are the true ones, but the story, the chronological, the exact period of the reign of the Gouptas, the extent of their territory and their conquests in the north and west of India, have been profoundly modified and reworked by the research of which this matter has been the subject for half a century. Among the English scholars who have contributed the most to this branch of Indian numismatics, we must especially cite Sir A. Cunning- ham, Dr. Hoernle and Mr. J.-F. Fleet. The latter in particular has took up the translation of all the inscriptions from the time of the kings Gouptas^ was fixed, in a way that can be considered as definitively, the beginning of Tere of these princes at 320 AD. This date, on which we varied for a long time, was important ^establish, because Tere (samvat) of the Gouptas is used not only- ment by these sovereigns in their inscriptions and on the mounts naies, but also by their successors in India, such as the Valabhi of Gouzerate, and by neighboring kingdoms.
Thanks to this historical and epigraphic research, thanks to the discovery and reading of ever new documents, it is today possible to make a classification of the currencies of - Gouptas and to determine the precise period of their domination. This period extends from Tan 300 to Van 530 AD; it's
1. Mr. Smith is also the author of a remarkable analytical index of the twenty volumes of the Archxological Survey,
2. The Collection of these texts forms volume III of the Corpus inscriptionum indU earum, f% Calcutta, 1888.
3. Sir A. Cunningham successively adopted the years 167, 194 and 319 of AD; D' Deal, year 200; Sir E.-G. Bayley, Tannde 190; Ed. Thomas. J. Fergusson and M. Oldenberg have always maintained that the first announcement of this era fell in Tan 319. According to Fleet's latest research, The exact indication is 319-320.
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minus the period of their greatest power, the one when all Northern India was subject to their scepter. We must except some, well understood, the Penjdb, which had been the center of the domination of Toarouchka and which, in the 4th, 5th and 5th centuries of our era, was still occupied by the Indo-Scythian kings, called later, and by other Tartar tribes from the North, under different names of White Huns (Hunas), Ye-ta, small Yue-tchi. Your gers, which the native chronicles designate under the names generics of Yavanas and MlecchaSy and of which we have coins still poorly read or indecipherable, were not framed definitively from India until after the battle of Kori^r (in 544).
It is from the coins of kings Tourouchka, Kanichka, Houvichka and Yasudeva, which were then current in India, that the Guptas borrowed the type of their gold coins. Mr. Smith studied with care the numerous varieties that these pieces present, either on the right or on the reverse. The most general type is that of full-length king, richly dressed, his head nimble, his right hand sacrificed relying on the Fire Taut, as with the Tourouchka. Sometimes the king is on horseback, k Imitation of Bactrian coins. At reverse, the goddess Parvati or Lakchmi seated on a stool or on a wicker trunk which recalls the omphalos of the Seleucids, holding a come of abundance, like the Tych^ of the Greeks. — The legends are in D^vanagari characters and in sans- language. written. — Silver coins are the exact copy of the hemi- drachmas of the Kchatrapas, predecessors of the Gouptas in the Saurachtra and Gouzerate, which were themselves not than a copy of the Roman denarius. Imitation by the Goupta kings even goes so far as to reproduce, on their silver coinage, the famous legend RAONANOPAOi Greek characters corrora- pus, which was, as we know*, the transcription of the title sassa- nide shdhdnshdh “king of kings” and corresponded to Sanskrit maharajadhiraja. This designation of Iranian origin was entry into the royal title of India, because it is found, under different forms, in the inscriptions and on the coins for six centuries, from Kanichka to the kings still not identify little Yue-tchi.
Mr. Smith's work mainly includes the coins of
1. V. Revue numumatique, 1888, pp. 196 ct sq.
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Gouptas proper, what he calls “early or imperial Gupta dynasty", but he also gives, as a supplement, the description of the gold coins of the successors of these kings, like Nara-BaUditya, Prakfigaditya, Vlra-Sinha, and mon- silver coins of Bhtma-Sena, Toramdna, the famous chief of Hunas, and a few others. Gold coins are the most common breous and the most important by the variety of figures and the rich nomenclature of the royal titles that they present. I quote- rai, among the most remarkable, the gold coins of Chandra- Goupta I" and his wife KoumSradev!, from the Licchavi family Nepal; — Samoudra-Goupta holding the lyre; Koumdra-Goupta with the two queens (single); a unique copper currency same king, belonging to the Bodlelenne collection; several pieces of KoumSra, Skanda and Boudha dated by Teredes Gouptas and finally two Toramana silver coins dating from an era still unknown, and who is perhaps the Mother of the Hunas.
The legends of the coins of ancient India are generally difficult to read; this work of deciphering is all the more painful in the work which concerns us, that the reproductions photographs, of which Mr. Smith accompanied his Memoir, are unfortunately confused and obscure and the origins nals are very rare in our collections. For most of these autotypes, it would be impossible to find the transcriptions given by the author, if the drawings were not available much clearer from Prinsep and Wilson. I associate myself with this In view of the observations made previously, in this era Revue, M. E. Babelon and I believe that good engravings are worth What would be more ridiculous than confusing photographs. This remark is especially sensitive for the silver coins of the Gouptas which are of a much smaller module and whose field is con- green with long and tight legends. If at least Tauteur had noted, on a separate table, the facsimile of all these various legends, it would have made the task easier for numismatists, who do not have the good fortune to own all these rare coins. A table with a comparative alphabet was very useful, given the notable difference that exists between modern Sanskrit and Devanagari from the 5th century. Such a lacuna is all the more regrettable. table that not all of Mr. Smith's attributions are absolute-
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some; there are such and such pieces (for example, pi. ii, n** 4, 13, 14; ft. m, 1, 2, 9 and 10) where we cannot find vcr the transcriptions which are in the text; we are therefore obliged to accept them with confidence. I will also point out some errors in the references to the plates of Prinsep and Ariana antiqua. These critical criticisms do not in any way detract from Mr. Smith's merit. nor the value of his work, which is the result of long studies and does honor to English science.
E. Drouin.
P.-S. I received during the printing of the preceding notice, a brochure by MM. Smith and Hoernle, titled: An inscribed seal of Kumar a Gupta II with a photographic reproduction.
It results from research carried out by both Indianist scholars, that some modifications should be made to the list and chronological order of sovereigns Gouptas. Koumara II for example, instead of being relegated to the sovereigns of Magadha, should appear at the end of the main branch principality which continued to reign at Pataliputra, around 530 AD, even after the dismemberment of the empire under the blows of the Hunas, and therefore it is distinct from Kourodra-Goupta of Magadha. I am only mentioning this work here, offering myself to return to it at greater length in another collection.
E.D.
Fabre (Paul). The Liber Cbnsuum of the Roman Church, 1*^' fasci- cule. Paris, 1889, in-4**. Library of Schools fr, Athens and Rome.)
The Liber Censuum is a book which presents the table of censuses due to the Roman Church, distributed by provinces and dioceses. The oldest writing that has reached us dates back to Tannee 1192; it is the work of Cencius the carer, who later became sovereign pontiff under the name of Honorius III. This book was kept ^ day; The author had even left blanks in his mamiscrit to allow the necessary additions to be made. Mr. Fabre undertook the publication of a critical text of the Liber Censuum,
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There is no need to emphasize the importance of this document for the monetary history of the 12th and 12th centuries We find there ^coins all species of currencies used in Christianity hold. But what makes the present edition of the Liber Censuum particularly valuable for numismatists, it is that a great part of the commentary, which Mr. Fabre has enriched, is devoted to the study of the currencies mentioned in the text. Here is the summary of the numismatic notes of the first fascicle:
Page 6, note 1. On the gold coin called malequin.
Page 7, 2" col., note 3. On the marabotin.
Page 12, l'^ col., note 2. On the mazmotin.
Page 13, I'* col., note 2. On the value of Tobole d*or.
Page 14, 1" col., note 4. On the provincials of the Senate.
Page 17, 2* col., note 1. On the siskin.
Page 18, col., note 2. On the value of bezant.
Page 18, 2* col., note 1. On the florins of the Chamber.
Page 26, 1*^ col., note 1. On provincial currency.
Page 43, 1'® col., note 1. On the coinage of Pavia.
Page 47, 2* col., note 1. On the value of the provincials of the Senate.
Page 48, 2® col., note 1. On the currency of Pisa.
Page 52, col., note 2. On the currency of Lucca.
Page 56, 2* col., note 3 and p. 67, I'* col., note 3. From the report between florins and Pisan denarii.
Page 65, 2* col., note 1. On imperial coins.
Page 97, 1" col., note 5 and 2* col., note 1. On the value of big Venetians.
Page 105, 1" col., note 2. On the coins of Milan.
Page 111, I'* col., note 4. On the currency of Susa.
Mr. Prou.
The Grant^ F. FEUAnDBNT.
MACOR, IMPIUaURIB PROTAT PRIRIS
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FIND OF SAINT-AUB'N
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PL. V:
REPRODUCTION OF THE MEDAL OF HERACLIUS
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SUMMARY INVENTORY
DBS
MEROVINGIAN COINS
FROM THE AMEGOURT COLLECTION ACQUIRED BY THE NATIONAL LIBRARY
PI. Vll and HIV.
I still need a few months to complete the complete and methodical catalog of Merovingian coins from the National Library nale. Also I believe I am doing a useful work by donating nant, without further ado, a list of the currencies of this series that the State acquired from the heirs of the late the Viscount of Ponton d'Am6court, thanks to the initiative of the learned curator of the Cabinet des Medailles, Mr. Ainatole Chabouillet, and under the law of July 24, 1889. This is therefore not a question of scientific classification of these pieces, but of a directory indicating to numismatists the resources this news that the Cabinet of France will be able to provide continue their studies.
These currencies are divided into two classes: gold coins and silver coins. Among the gold coins, I distinguished the pseudo-Roman ones,
1890 — 1 10
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the royal, the palatine and the coins of the mon6- silence. All these parts, unless otherwise indicated, are thirds of a penny. For pseudo-currencies rorain, they are arranged in alphabetical order- tick of the legend of law and, to its default, of Legend on the reverse. For royal coins, distribute among the various kings and seek to distinguish between the kings of the same name, it would have been out of the mites and character that I have assigned to the present work. The alphabetical order that I followed is basic on the spelling of royal names as they appear are falling on these currencies. We will not take into account words which, on some coins, precede the royal name.
The Palatine coins are joined to the coins de la Scola and those who were hit by the tax authorities, without indication of workshops.
Next comes the largest group, that is- i.e. the coins issued by the miners. Gelles- These are arranged in alphabetical order of the le- people who indicate the workshop, or, failing them, initials and monograms which take their place. Thus, the third of a penny which bears in the legend on one side Sesoald and the other Avitus ebescobus^ that is to say two names of man, is classed as because it presents lives in the field of the reverse the letters AR, initials of Arverni. In this system, it happens that two coins struck at the same place are found quite far away Genes from each other. The pieces of Chalon including the the slope is Cabilonno are separated from those of which the legend is Cavilonno, References quite name-
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brcux remedies this drawback. After the mon- works with workshop names are described some coins signed in the currency alone, without indication (the place of issue, whether it has been cropped, or it was never engraved.
Silver coins, for the most part, do not present Apart from incomplete legends, it was necessary to possible to follow in their description the alphabetical order tick. I have therefore divided them into a certain number of groups, in the way that seemed to me to render their search the easiest. A bronze piece and another of lead were rejected at the end of the list.
Finally, an alphabetical table of men's names completes this inventory.
Some pieces, chosen among the most interesting health or the most beautiful of this rich collection, have been reproduced by collotype.
There are first, on the first board, eleven royal coins. I will say a few words about it alone- ment; to insist on it would be to encroach on the domain of M. A. de Barthelemy who will talk about it soon in the work he prepares on all the mon- births of the Merovingian kings. Here, first of all, a famous gold penny of Theodebert 1, once found near Antwerp. 11 is also remarkable for the type than by the legend on the reverse. This one, Pax and Liber- tas^ has made this currency suspect to some numismatists. However, the appearance of the room has nothing to do with it. which could cast doubt on its authenticity. As for the legend, it is no more extraordinary
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than that which we read on small bronzes attributed in Gon(iebaud and strikes in Lyon, Pax and Abundantia. The coinage of Theodebert is faithfully cashed on Roman coinage. However, the Paoo legend and Libertas is very much in the Roman tradition. It's one of those loud proclamations like the raincoats They liked to put it on their coins. As for with letters engraved in the field of the reverse, There is seen, wrongly, we believe, the initiatives of Moguncia, Their contours are not clear enough for us to can determine them. Th6odebert's third of a penny reproduced then presents the interesting fact that the Victory from the reverse is shown from the front, while on the thirds of a penny of this king hitherto reported, she is prolil.
It is still a king of Austrasia, probably Sigebert 1 (561-570), which belongs to the third of a penny No. 3 strikes at Reims. At the end of the 6th century, Victory disappears behind the thirds of a penny to make room with the raised cross on steps. Also we cannot not attribute to Clotaire I piece n** 4 of the board VII. His style, still good, does not allow it to be done go down to Clotaire III (657-673). She belongs is therefore attached to Clotaire II, and as she was struck in Chalon-sur-Saone, the date of its broadcast takes place between 613 and 629 *. The thirds of a penny n**' 5 and 6 of the
1. The death of Clotaire H, king of Austrasia and of Burgundy since 613. But Mr. Krusch postponed this date until the end of 629. See his memoir on the chronology of the Merovingian kings, in Forsvhungen zur deutschen Geschichie, t XXII, p. 449, and the summary that given by M. Julien Havct in the Library of the Ecole des Charles, t. XLVI, p. 433. I still adopt Krusch's opinion for the dates of the kings Dago- berl I, Clovis 11 and Clotaire III.
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pl. vii seem to be both attributed to k Dagoberl I (623 or 629 to 639); both equally close They are accompanied by the name of the king, the name of the monetary. But landsls that the first was certainly struck in Austrasia, the second may have come either from a workshop in the same region, or from a workshop in South-East of Gaul. Number 7 was hit by Clo- vis II (639-657) in Amiens. We will notice, in the king's name, substitution of B^D, Clobovius for Clodoi'ius. You probably only see a mistake of engraver. Merovingian coinage presents other examples of confusion between the two letters B and D. Of the word Ambianis the only letters AMB are visible; but the proposed restitution is certain. In fact, the Cabinet of France acquired recently a triens which brings to the law AMBI//////ISCIVE and on the reverse the same name of monetary as we let's read about the triens of Clovis, SIC[HRA]MNO. From plus, on the reverse, the letters of the word Pax abut the cross in the same way as here the letters of the word rex. Finally, these two pieces are of the same style. We will still bring back to Clovis II the thirds of penny n" 8 and 9, Tun with the initials of Tatelier de Marseille, the other with the indication of the Gold workshop leans, in full, Aurilianis fitur. U is remarkable that the design of the head engraved on the right of this last third of a penny is analogous to that of the head of the pieces of Caribert II in Banassac. In what concerns the third of a penny which carries everything together a royal name Clotarius and the name of a Monetary Lioncius^ we can hesitate between Clotaire II
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or Clotaire 111. The workshop is marked by the ini- tiales GR. It’s probably Grenoble. The last royal coin that we had reproduced at 6te attributed by Gh. Robert* k Dagobert 11 (674-679). Mr. Maxe-Werly, who published it again*, just- related to a currency of Toul in the name of the monetary Dructoaldiis *.
No. 12 of plate VI 1 is a third of a penny minted iLyon. From the same workshop came the silver coin No. 13 which bears engraved on the right the very name that we gave him DINARIOS. The third of a penny n** 14 carries in legend, on the side of the head, the place name COC- CIACO. The style of the coin and the presence on the reverse initials CA next to the cross indicate that it you have to look for this workshop in the vicinity of Ghalon, of Autun and Beaune; but precisely in this region there are several localities whose modern name answers k Cocciaco and who can claim the currency in question. They are: Gussy-en-Morvan, Cussy-la-Golonne, Gussy-sur-Arroux, Guzy in the canton of ^lssy-FEveque and Gussy-les-Forges; tones villages which were formerly in the diocese of Au- tun. The third of a penny n** 15, including the legend on the right is Granno^ can be attributed to Grand, in the Vosges. The next coin is a denarius minted name of the famous abbey of Saint-Philibert de Jumifege. No. 17 is a third of a penny which bears the name of Bayeux. The legend engraved on the right of n** 18
1. Comments on the currency of the Roman period, p, 44.
2. In the Revue numismatique, 1890, p. 15, ft. I, n* 2.
3. This is the third of a penny published by Ch. Robert, Current State of Numisma- iique de Toul, in Revue numiam., 1868, pi. xvi, n* 6.
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deserves to stop us. G is APRARICIA. We don't we do not know of a single locality in France whose current name is derived from this Latin name. There is at the con- milk at least two villages, whose name can come from In Aprariciaco. They are Avrechy in TOise and Evrecy in Calvados. Isn't it possible c\}y Apraricia is an incomplete form? Don't we have third of a penny struck quickly at Teodericiaco and whose legend is Teodericia. In the same way we find Teodebercia and Teodeberciaco on coins from the same workshop. If we notice, in addition, that the bust of our currency n** 18 is of the same design as the bust of n** 17, struck B yeux, we will not hesitate to attribute it to Evrecy which is precisely within the limits of the year- ancient city of Bayeux. The number 19 is a third of a penny of the abbey of Saint-Martin de Tours. As for the n" 20, it relates to the law THAISA CAS, for Thaisaco castro, lei again we will notice the fall of the co ending, No numismatist will doubt that this triens is not from Touraine. If you don't find Touraine, a locality whose French name corresponds to in Latin Thaisa, you have to stick to reading and The identification that I propose, namely Thisay in the canton of Cliinon. The name of the place registered in law of No. 21 is Condate vico; the field is adorned with a cross with six branches, a fairly crude imitation of the constantinian monogramm3. This cross appears still on two thirds of a penny from the collection of Am6- short, One of Ballatetone, Another of Braia vico *. If
1. This article contains Nos. 167 and 203 of this document. They were made public by
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we found ourselves in an expanse of restricted territory embraces three localities whose current names answer say to the three Latin names Condate, Ballatetone and Braia, wouldn't there be some reason to see there the workshops of our three thirds of a penny? This hypothesis is carried out in the department of Indre-et-Loire, where You meet Gandes, Ballan and Braye-sous-Faye. Which further adds to the plausibility of this attribution is that the grave bust to the right of triens de Braia is in the style specific to the busts Poitou coins. Now Braye-sous-Faye was in the pagus Pictavinus^ on the confines of the pagus Turonicus^ . Only with great hesitation which I attribute to Remblay, in the department of Sarthe, the third of a penny n"* 22 of which one of the legends is Hamelnco. No. 23 which wears Calmaciaco can having been struck at Chemaz6 in Mayenne. On the No. 24, we read on the side of the head, Wagias, He is im- possible to admit the identification of Wagias with Wassy, indicated by M. d'Am6court*. We offer- we will be Vaiges, in Mayenne.
Coins n*** 25 and 26 on plate viii pr6- one and the other feel, in the right, the name of the city of Rennes, Bedonis; the first is a third of a penny, the second a silver denarius, this one was minted by the royal administration, by the taxman, racio fisci, The n** 27 is still a denarius; the legend on one side is
p. d'Amecourt, first in the Annuaire de la Soc. [rank, from numiam., t. nor, p. 119, n"* 70; the second, in Search for McToving Coins, from Cenomannicum, p. 212, n* 135.
1. See Longnon, Historical Alias of France pi. vii.
2. Numismatic excursion in Burgundy in Anauaire de la Soc. Frank. of numismatics^ I. I, p. 148, pi. viii, n* 75.
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ALOIA VI ^ouT Aloia vico; on the other, MARTINVS MO for Martinus monetarius; the style of this currency and the name of the monetary Martinus^ which we find on the money from Orleans means that it can be given to a village not far from Orléans, Alluyes, in the department building of Eure-et-Loir. This locality is called Alloia in documents from the Carol Ingian era *. As for the place name Climone engraved on the triens n* 28, instead of seeing there, with M. d'Am^court*, one of the forms of the old name of the city of Le Mans, I pr6- identify yourself with Clemont in Berry. No. 29 is a third of a penny from Paris. We usually attribute to Paris church on denarius n**30; I don't believe it all- time that we can translate the letters €R engraved in the field of this currency by ecclesie racio; it is enough- will, in fact, open the List of place names inscribed on Mero^Fingian coins ^ drawn up by M. A. de Barth61emy, to convince himself that the use was to say not ecclesie racio ^ but racio ecclesie or racio basilice^ as also racio domini^ racio fisci, The n** 31 is a third of a silver penny gold or gold heavily alloyed with silver; by his style, it is close to the coins of the Premiere Lyonnaise; the legend of the law being BRIENNON for Briennone^ we can attribute it to Brinon-les- Germans who were in the IV^ Lyonnaise, but not far from the I" Lyonnaise.
The third of a penny n** 32 was minted in Treves; the n** 33 k Epocio which is undoubtedly the former Ivoy,
1. Yoyez Longnon, Historical Atlas^ tezie, p. 164.
2. Research of mirov coins, da Cenomannicum, p. 68.
I
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Mr. PROU
today Carignan in the Ardennes. The resem- white between the bust engraved to the right of the triens of Perta vico^ n' 34, and the bust of the famous triens of Nasio vicu in Barrense is such that we will not hesitate not k attribute it to a neighboring town of Barrois, Perthes, former capital of pagus Pertensis^ in the city of Ghalons-sur-Marne. The letter A which occupies one of sides of the third of a penny n** 35 recalls 1 *A engraved in the field of another currency from the Ani6 collection- short k the legend Atravetes^ Arras, lei ce A is surmounted by a horizontal line similar to that of a T; it is accompanied by the letters SC and V: we could propose to see in the meeting of these letters Tabreviation of Sancti Vedasti. But this interpretation is very doubtful. Just as uncertain is the place of issue of the third of a penny no. 36 whose 16 genres are: + RACI SC PETRI for Racio Sancti Petri and RACIO ECCLE for Racio ecclesie. 11 In the Merovingian era there was more than one church placed under the name of Saint-Pierre. But, corame the bust engraved to the right of our triens is of a style analogous to that of the serious bust on the currency of Glovis struck in Amiens and previously featured under n** 7, we are prepared to assign the room in question at the monastery of Saint-Pierre de Cor- bie, founded in 657 by Bathilde, widow of Clovis II.
The place name that we read on the third of a penny no. 37 is Argintorati, is it Strasbourg or is it One of the two Argentres that exist in France, one in the department of Mayenne, the other in rUle-ct-Vilaine? The question does not stop being
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very embarrassing. Because if this piece is not in the style of coinage from the western region of the Gaul, it differs no less, as you have already noticed that Mr. Engel *, other documents attributed with certain attitude to Strasbourg. However it is rather in FEst that in the West one must look for one's place of origin gine. Thus the reverse, by its general appearance, by the shape of the letters of the 16gende, recalls the reverse of a third key penny of Mouzon, which is also part of the Amecourt collection. It is therefore appropriate to let it be in Strasbourg, unless we know in the Second Belgium a place called6 Argentorati.
Nos. 38 and 39 of plate VIII are pennies gold; we know how rare these are in Gaul species of currency, after the sixth century and outside from Tatelier de Marseille; the first, which weighs 4 grams 20, worn in the legend Chow fit; thirds of pennies with this legend are quite common; Chofe a was identified with Huy in the country of Liege. As for the second, which weighs 4 gr. 41 and whose legend is, in right, BARRO CAIT20 for Barro castro, it is a pro- taken from the same pharmacy as a third of a penny with Barro castro attributed by M. Deloche to Bar-sur-Correze *. The reverse is especially remarkable; in the field, an archer walking to the right and preparing to shoot; in legend, MARIVLFI + VIVE DO, which I interpret Mariulfi^ long live Deo. The loud cheer Deo is con-