Numismatics (Lat. nummus and m/inisma, mon- ey), the science which treats of coins and medals. A coin is a piece of metal of a fixed weight stamped by authority of government, and employed as a circulating medium. A medal is a piece struck to commemorate an event. The study of numismatics has an important bearing on history. Coins have been the means of as- certaining the names of forgotten countries and cities, their position, their chronology, the succession of their kings, their usages, civil, military, and religious, and the style of their art. On their respective coins we can look on undoubtedly accurate representations of Mithridates, Julius CiEsar, Augustus, Nero, Caracalla. and read their character and features.
The metals which have generally been used for coin'
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age are gold, silver, and copper. In each class is com- prised the alloy occasionally substituted for it, as elec- trura (an alloy of gold and silver) for gold, billon for silver, bronze for coiiper, and potin (an alloy softer than billon) for silver and copper. The side of a coin which bears tlie most important device or inscription is called the obverse, the other side the reverse. The words or letters on a coin are called its inscription; an inscription srrrounding the border is called the ler/eiid. When the lower part of the reverse is distinctly separated from the main device it is called the exergue (Gr. i^ tpyov, without the work), and often bears a secondary inscrip- tion, with the date or place of mintage. The field is the space on the surface of the coin unoccupied by the principal device or inscription.
In the present article we shall consider only the types of coin prevailing in ancient times.
I. Heathen Coins. — 1. The Lydians are supposed to have been the first people who used coined money, about 700 or 800 years before the Christian .Tra; and their example was soon after followed by the different states of Greece, the earliest Greek coins be- ing those of ^Egina. In its early stages the process of coining consisted in placing a lump of metal of a fixed weight, and approaching to a globular form, over a die, on which was engraved the religious or national symbol to be impressed. A wedge or punch placed at the back of the metal was held steadily with one hand, and struck by a hammer with the other, till the metal was sufliciently fixed in the die to receive a good impression. The impression was a guarantee of the weight of the piece. From the nature of the proc- ess, the earliest coins had a lumpish appear- ance, and on their reverse was a rough, ir- regular, hollow square, corresponding to a similar square on the punch, devised for the purpose of keep- ing the coin steady when struck by the coining ham- mer. The original coins of Asia jNIinor were of gold, those of Greece of silver. The earliest coins bear em- blems of a sacred character, often embodying some legend regarding the foundation of the state, as the phoca or seal on the coins of the Phocians, which alludes to the shoal of seals said to have followed the fleet during the emi- gration of the peoi)le. Fig. 1 represents a very early
markable series of so-called "encased" coins struck in Magna Grrecia, of which the reverse is an exact repeti- tion in concave of the relief of the obverse. These coins are thin, flat, sharp in relief, and beautifully executed.
2. The inscriptions on the earliest Greek coins consist of a single letter, the initial of the city where they were struck. The remaining letters, or a portion of them, were afterwards added, the name, when in full, being in the genitive case. Monograms sometimes occur in addition to the name, or part name, of the place. The first coin bearing the name of a king is the tetradrachm (or piece of four drachmie) of Alexander I. of Macedon.
Among the early coins of Asia, one of the most cele- brated is the stater Daricus or Daric, named from Da- rius Hystaspis. It had for symbol an archer kneeling on one knee, and seems to have been coined for the Greek colonies of Asia by their Persian conquerors. In the reign of Philip of Macedon, the coinage of Greece had attained its full development, having a perfect re- verse. One of the earliest specimens of the complete coin is a beautiful medal struck at Syracuse (tig. 3),
double stater of Miletus, in Ionia, of which the Unpe is the lion's head, derived from Persia and Assyria, and as- sociated with the worship of Cybele, a symbol which is continued in the later coinage of Miletus. Types of this kind were succeeded by portraits of protecting deities. The earliest coins of Athens have the owl, as type of the goddess Athene ; at a later period the head of the goddess herself takes its place, the owl afterwards re- appearing on the reverse. The lumch-mark, at first a rudely roughed square, soon assumed the more sightly form of deep, wedge-like indents, which in later speci- mens become more regular, till they form themselves into a tolerably symmetrical square. In the next stage the indents become shallower, and consist of four squares forming one large one. The surround- ing of the pimch-mark with a il hearing a name, and the introduction of a head in its centre, as in the annexed fig- ure (fig. 2), gradually led to the perfect reverse. There is a re-