Barclay V. Head

“ The chief value of Greek coins lies in their being original works of art, not copies as are most of the extant sculptures in the round, and in their recording the successive phases and local varieties of Greek art, in which respect no other class of monuments, sculptures, bronzes, terracottas, fictile vases, or gems, can compete with them. From the seventh century before the Christian era downwards, and from the farthest east to the extreme west of the ancient civilized world, coins are still extant, in many cases as uninjured as when they first left the dies. ”

“ The metrologist, by comparing the weights of coins of different localities and periods, may gain an insight into the various systems of ancient metrology in its various standards, and obtain a just view of the relative values of the precious metals, and of the great lines of trade in the Greek and Roman world. For practical purposes the medallist and art workman will find in Greek coins the most profitable as well as the safest guide. ”

“ The Traders’ Tokens of this kingdom, properly so-called, are confined, in issue, to the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early part of the nineteenth centuries—those of the first of these periods being the most numerous as well as, in most respects, the most interesting. Though not coins in the ordinary sense, not having been issued by kings or governments, they play a more important part in the history of the country than even the regal pieces do, and the information to be derived from their study is not only valuable but in many instances entertaining. ”

“ Shilling and Sixpence, the words ONE SHILLING, and SIXPENCE, within the wreath of laurel and oak, beneath which is the date. Fourpence, FOUR PENCE. Threepence, figure 3 crowned.
The most beautiful of our modern coins is a Crown-piece struck in 1847, from dies engraved by Wyon. It is in somewhat low relief, and bears on the obverse an exquisite profile portrait of the queen, to the left, filling up the entire diameter of the coin. Her Majesty wears an open four-arched crown; the hair, being plaited, is brought down below the ear, and fastened at the back of the head ”

“ Any one, however, by limiting his ambition to one particular branch, may hope in course of time to form a cabinet the value of which will increase rapidly in proportion as it approaches completion.
This applies not only to Greek coins but to every class. Thus, for instance, there are collectors of English coins who confine their attention to the Anglo-Saxon period; others who will buy no coins later than the reign of Charles I.; and others, again, who only collect the copper money of the last two centuries. ”

“ The supposition, amounting almost to a certainty, is that the “short cross” pennies of Henry II. continued to be struck and issued during this reign as well as in the early part of the next. The Irish coins of John have—Penny, full-faced, crowned bust, within a triangle, sceptre in the right hand; on the left of the head a rose. Halfpenny and Farthing, head in triangle, on either side a star; one variety of halfpenny, called the “full moon halfpenny,” has the face filling up the whole field of the coin, the inner circle forming the outline of the face. ”

“ Small objects represented either in the field or the exergue as adjuncts to the main type are called symbols.
Portions of a coin which are sunk below the level of the surface are said to be incuse.
§ OF THE TYPES OF GREEK COINS.
The types of Greek coins were from the earliest times down to the age of the successors of Alexander almost exclusively religious. The reason for this is not far to seek. In an age of simple faith the head of a god upon the coin was the best of all [103] guarantees for purity of metal and good weight. ”

“ A cast coin, when in gold or silver, may always be detected by its light weight, unless this has been compensated for by making the cast thicker than the original. The lettering and the types on cast coins are also less sharply defined than on struck coins, and the surface has either a soft and soapy appearance, or else it is covered with minute sand-holes, an infallible indication of rough casting. The genuine patina of bronze coins is imitated by paint, which can be removed by spirits of wine. ”

“ The Crown, which is scarce, has the king in armour, laureated, on horseback, with a drawn sword, a long sash flying behind; reverse, four shields in cross, with the crown in the centre; the Half-crowns, Shillings, and Sixpences have two sceptres in saltire, behind a crown, between I. R.; above the crown are numerals for value, and beneath, the month in which it was struck. [56] Gold. The Five-guinea-piece is rare, the others common. They are of the same general type as the silver.
Tin or Pewter. Halfpence and Farthings: obverse, bust profile, as before ”

“ The devices or types which they bear, if not by leading artists, certainly faithfully represent the style of the sculpture and even of the painting of the periods to which they belong. Thus in no other branch of Greek monuments can the student so readily and so thoroughly trace the growth, the maturity, and the decay of the plastic art as on coins chronologically arranged. ”

“ On Imperial coins of Cnidu, the famous naked Aphrodite by Praxiteles was represented. As the goddess of heaven (Aphrodite Urania) , she sits upon the globe (Fig. 46 a) , her head surmounted by the morning star, and holding in her hand a sceptre. On the reverse of the same coin (Fig. 46 b) are seen the sun, the moon, and the five planets.
Cybele. “The mother of the gods” wears a turreted crown. Sometimes she rides upon a lion, at other times she is seated on a throne between two lions. The rabbit is also symbolical of her worship, as an earth goddess. ”

“ The names of known towns are Hastings, Bedford, Bristol, Canterbury, Chichester, Colchester, Cricklade, Derby, Dover, York, Exeter, Ilchester, Guildford, Ipswich, Gloucester, Cambridge, Hereford, Southampton, Huntingdon, Lewes, Leicester, Chester, Lincoln, London, Maldon, Norwich, Oxford, Rochester, Romney, Shaftesbury, Nottingham, Shrewsbury, Stamford, Steyning, Southwark, Taunton, Thetford, Warwick, Wallingford, Wareham, Winchester, Worcester, and Wilton ”

“ But the numismatist has none of those aids which the geologist derives from the order of superposition, and the mineral characters of the rocks in which his fossils are preserved; and, in the case of uninscribed coins, has nothing but the type and its geographical range on which to found any conclusion, unless, as in some rare instances it happens, the coins are associated with others of more certain date. The mere fact of finding a single coin of a certain class in a certain locality proves nothing ”

“ Victories in war and political revolutions are never directly referred to on Greek coins, although the unintentional records of such events may often be traced in a sudden change of coin-types. Thus, for instance, at Syracuse when the Corinthians succeeded in liberating that city from the tyranny of the Dionysian dynasty, the coinage of Syracuse is for a time assimilated to that of Corinth ”

“ On the Groats and Half-groats the inner circle of legend bearing name of town is dismissed, its place being filled with the shield. In this reign the Testoon or Shilling makes its first appearance.
Rarity. Penny of first coinage extremely rare; Halfpenny rare; others common. Second coinage, Shilling with VII., Groat with SEPTIM., and Penny, rare; others far from uncommon.
Gold. The Sovereign and Double-sovereign now make their appearance; they have on the obverse the king, fully robed, sitting on a richly canopied throne, crowned, sceptre in his right, and orb and cross in his left, hand ”

“ Behind her head a rose
That people cry, ‘Lo! there Three-farthings goes!’”
The commonest Halfpenny has a portcullis instead of the bust; the one with the bust is extremely rare. The “milled” money is neater in execution than the earlier “hammered” pieces. The “portcullis” money, struck in 1601 for foreign use, has on the obverse the royal arms, surmounted by a crown, between the initials E. and R., each crowned, and the usual name and titles of the queen; reverse, a portcullis crowned, and the POSVI, etc., legend. ”

“ Arms of cities and towns are found not only on those tokens which were issued by corporations, mayors, or other bodies or officials, but by some tradesmen. Of the first an example or two will be sufficient:—
Obv. THE MAYOR OF = A shield bearing the arms of the city of Oxford; an “Ox” crossing a “Ford.” ”

“ The uninscribed are, unfortunately, the most abundant, and therefore, manifestly, it is impossible to judge by them to what princes or tribes they belong. The geographical arrangement—that of classifying the types according to the localities in which they have been found—has therefore, as a general and very convenient rule, to be adopted. Some coins, as the one here engraved from my own collection, have the convex side perfectly plain, while the reverse, concave, side bears a more or less rude representation of a horse. ”

“ The coins of Verulamium, the ancient city of Verulam, near St. Albans, the capital of the Catyeuchlani, and a place of mintage during some period of time, are tolerably numerous in their types and of considerable interest. Its name as a place of mintage first appears upon the coins of Silvanus; on the gold in extremely small characters, but more conspicuously upon the silver and copper pieces. ”

“ No one whose means are at all limited should attempt to form a complete collection of Greek coins. Even the vast collection in the British Museum is far from perfect, and in many series is still lamentably deficient. ”

“ The young collector will not be long before he learns that a large number of the coins exposed for sale in shop windows are false, and at first he may be a little discouraged by finding that he is himself quite unable to discriminate between a true coin and a false one. ”

“ The known names of mintages are Bath, Bedford, Buckingham, Canterbury, Cambridge, Chichester, Chester, Colchester, Derby, Dublin, Dover, Dorchester, Exeter, Godalming, Gloucester, Ilchester, Ipswich, Hertford, Hereford, Huntingdon, Jedburgh, Shaftesbury, Shrewsbury, Southampton, Sudbury, Lewes, Lancaster, Leicester, Lyminge, Lincoln, London, Lydford, Maldon, Malmesbury, Norwich, Oxford, Reading, Winchester, Castle Rising, Rochester, Stafford, Thetford, Totnes, Torksey, Warwick, Wallingford, Watchet, Worcester, Wilton, and Winchester. ”

“ In Anglo-Saxon and mediæval times the want of small coins—that is, a currency representing a small value—was much felt, and this gave rise to the occasional issue of spurious, or rather base, coins to supply the deficiency, as it was found the smaller pieces—for instance, the pennies when broken up for use as halfpence and farthings—were unfit for general use among the rough-handed population. ”

“ In other words, some of these series of coins, instead of showing the onward and gradual progress of art from a first rude attempt up to a highly finished work, serve to exhibit step by step its gradual degeneracy and decline down to ultimate extinction. ”

“ Reverse.—Type. Generally the royal shield. The Oxford Crown and some other coins have no device, except an ornament to divide the legends; and the Prince of Wales’ feathers three times repeated, or single, above. On some, the shield (which is as James I.’s) is oval, and mantled, sometimes crowned; others have shields, the quarterings terminating in a cross moline, etc. The smaller coins have sometimes a rose crowned, sceptres, or sceptre and trident in saltire, etc., or the declaration EXVRGAT, etc., in lines across. One Half-groat has two Cs interlinked, crowned. ”

“ The best, indeed only worthy, book on the general subject of seventeenth century tokens is Boyne’s, published in 1858, in which close upon ten thousand examples are carefully and minutely described.
Of the more modern tokens—those so abundantly issued during the thirty years preceding 1818—and of the silver tokens of the latter part of that period which, including the Bank Tokens, number some four hundred varieties, I purposely abstain in this little work from giving any particulars. ”

“ He will in time, by careful observation of undoubtedly authentic specimens of the class which he has selected for study, gain a kind of instinct which will enable him to detect the modern imitation at a glance, even though he may not always be able to explain his reasons to the uninitiated. ”

“ Obverse, bust, varied, and name, as HARTHACNVT, HARTHECNVT, ARTHECNVT, HARNATHECN, or abbreviations, R, RE, or REX, and in one instance, AN. Reverse, cross, varied, and moneyer and town names. The latter, as known, are Bath, Bristol, Chester, Dover, Exeter, Guildford, Gloucester, Hereford, Huntingdon, London, Lincoln, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Salisbury, Stamford, Steyning, Southwark, Warwick, Worcester, and Winchester. ”

“ Other [91] devices are implements of one kind or other connected with the trade or calling of the issuer; articles of clothing made or sold by him; animals and heraldic figures usually derived from guild arms or from signs; articles of domestic use of endless variety; and ships, boats, coaches, carriages, pack-horses, and numerous other matters connected with the daily life of the people. ”

“ Occasionally, however, he is simply laureate, and sometimes the club at his shoulder is added as a distinctive symbol. On reverses of coins, Herakles is represented performing his various labours, most frequently contending with the Nemean Lion (Fig. 23) . Sometimes also he is seen at rest, either standing and leaning upon his club, or seated (Fig. 24) . The infant Herakles strangling two serpents is a less frequent type.
[109]
Pan. The head of Pan (Figs. 25, 26, and 27) has pointed ears, and is either youthful or bearded. Sometimes also he has goat’s horns. ”