Numismatics
Numismatics
(From the Greek nomisma, “legal currency”)
Numismatics is the science of coins and of medals. Every coin or medal being a product of the cultural, economic, and political conditions under which it originated, this science is divided according to the various civilized communities of mankind. It is not only a distinct science but also, in its respective parts, a branch of all those sciences which are concerned with the history of nations and of their culture — classical archaeology, history in its narrower sense Orientalism, etc. Practically, only ancient, modern, and possibly Oriental numismatics are of importance. Furthermore a distinction should be made between numismatography, which is chiefly descriptive, and numismatology, which views the coin from its artistic, economic and cultural side.
The dependence of theoretical numismatics on the pursuit of coin-collecting is clearly seen in the history of the science. The earliest publications of any importance were written to meet the needs of collectors (e.g. the various cabinets of Taler, Groschen, and ducats and the Münzbelustibungen, or “coin-pastimes”), whereas the foundations for a scientific treatment of ancient numismatics were not supplied until 1790, by Eckhel and for modern not until the nineteenth century by Mader Grote, and Lelewel. (It is worth remembering that St. Thomas Aquinas, in “De regimine principis”, II, xiii, xiv, treated the subject of money and coinage, and this work was for many years the authority among canonists.) The oldest collection of coins of which we have certain knowledge dates back to the fifteenth century, and was made by Petrarch; his example found numerous imitators. Hubert Goltz in 1556-60, visited the various collections of Europe, of which there are said to have been 950. In comparison with private collections, which are as a rule scattered after the death of their owners, the collections of rulers, states, or museums, possess paramount importance, and furnish the most reliable basis for numismatic investigations. As early as 1756 Francis I of Austria in two works of great beauty, “Monnoyes en or” and “Monnoyes en argent”, made known the treasures of his collection; and in recent years the great catalogues, especially those of the British Museum, have become the most important sources of information in this science. The needs of both collectors and theoretical students have called into being a large number of numismatic societies as well as about 100 technical periodicals, in large part published by these societies. From the meetings of the German Society of Numismatics, held from year to year in different cities, there have developed international congresses: Brussels, 1892; Paris, 1900 (Records and Transactions, published by Comte de Castellane and A. Blanchet); Rome, 1903; (Atti del congresso internazionale di scienze storich, 6 vols.); Brussels, 1910.
I. COINS
Coins may be defined as pieces of metal that serve as legal tender. The term includes ordinary currency, commemorative or presentation pieces stamped by public authority in accordance with the established standard, etc., but not paper money or private coinage. To the last class we refer the English tokens which were largely circulated as a result of the insufficient supply of fractional coin about the year 1800; furthermore, the pieces called mereaux, issued, especially by church corporations, as vouchers for money, and afterwards for value in general, like jetones, or counters, and Rechnungspfennige. When each individual is no longer able to wrest from the earth his own subsistence, the necessity arises for sharing labour and distributing its products. This is at first effected by barter of commodities, which requires a universally available medium of exchange usually found in cattle (in Homer the equipment of Menelaus is valued at 9 steers; that of Glacus, at 100). Besides cattle, primitive men have used hides, pelts, cloth, etc., for this purpose. Soon, however, it becomes necessary to find a measure of value that can be employed universally, and for this gold, silver, and copper have been used from very early times; in comparatively recent years after experimentation with many other metals, nickel has been added to these. The first stage of metallic money is reached with the weighing out of pieces of metal of any shape; but, as only the gross weight can be determined by this procedure, and not the degree of fineness (a very essential factor in the case of the precious metals), the necessity arises of certifying fineness by the stamp of public authority, and this stamp makes the lump of metal a coin. The employment of only one of the metals mentioned soon proves insufficient: it is impossible to put into circulation gold coins of sufficiently small denomination or, using the base metal, to issue coins of sufficiently high values. It is necessary, therefor, to make use of two or three metals at the same time. This may be done either by employing the one precious metal as a measure of value and the other, together with copper, only as a commodity or subsidiary coin, or else by suing both metals concurrently as measures of value at a ration fixed by law (bimetallism), a course however, which has frequently caused difficulties on account of the fluctuations in the rate of exchange of the two precious metals.
In form, coins are usually circular, sometimes oval, and quadrangular; these last are particularly common in emergency coinage, and in Sweden had grown to an immense size and great weight. There are also found, especially in the Far East, coins of the most eccentric shapes. In addition to the device and inscription coins frequently bear what are called mint marks or mint-masters’ marks which deserve special mention. Mint-masters and die-sinkers have in many cases been accustomed to distinguish their works by means of certain marks or letters; and the mints distinguish their respective coins either by letters, indicating the place of issue by conventional and arbitrary marks, or by some other means — sometimes scarcely perceptible to the uninitiated — such as the placing of a dot beneath a particular letter of the inscription. In this way the various issues of coins otherwise alike, are kept distinct.
The science of numismatics is materially advanced by finds of coins in large quantities: in addition to a knowledge of previously unknown types, such discoveries afford an instructive insight into the actual circulation of coins at given periods and the extent to which certain coinages were current beyond the confines of their own states, and help us to assign undated varieties, especially those of the Middle Ages, to some particular mint-master or precise period. In the study of the science, as well as in the classification of coins, it is the practice to follow, chronologically, three great eras: the ancient, medieval, and modern; geographically, the different political division of the respective times. For the Greek coins, Eckhel has adopted an exemplary system which is still in use. Beginning at the Pillars of Hercules he takes up the countries of the world as known to the ancients, in the order of their positions around the Mediterranean: first those of Europe, then Asia as far as India, and lastly Africa from Egypt back to the Straits of Gibraltar.
A. Greek Coins
The term Greek is always understood in ancient numismatics to include all coins except those of Roman origin and the Italian oes grave. The monetary unit is the talent of 60 minæ (neither the talent nor the mina being represented by any coin), or 6000 drachmæ, each being equal to 6 obols. The various currencies are in most cases based upon the Persian system of weights. The Persians had two different standards of weight for the precious metal: for gold, the Euboean; for silver, the Babylonian. the gold daric, the common gold coin, corresponding to the Greek silver didrachm, weighted 8.385 grammes (about 129 1/3 grains); the silver daric (shekel), 5.57 grammes (nearly 87 grains). As the value of silver to that of gold was, in antiquity, as 1 to 10, the gold daric is the equivalent of 15 silver darics. Other standards of coinage were the Phocæan, the Æginetan, the Attic, the Corinthian, the Ptolemaic, and the cistophoric standard of Asia Minor; some of these, however, may be derived from the Persian standard. By the substitution of the lighter Attic standard for the old Æginetan Solon brought about the partial abolition of debt. The most abundantly coined pieces were the tetradrachm (25-33mm. in diameter) and the didrachm; pieces of eight, ten, and twelve drachmæ are exceptional, and a forty-drachma piece is a rarity. In the downward scale the division extends to the quarter-obolus (=1/24 drachma). In Greek Asia Minor coins made of a mixture of gold and silver (electrum) were used. In Greece the silver coinage greatly predominated; copper coins do not antedate 400 B.C., while gold was but rarely minted. The coinage of the Persians, on the other hand, was very rich in gold, and it was their example that influenced Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. With a few exception the highest degree of fineness was aimed at, the gold daric being 97 per cent fine.
In the early times the coining was done with a single die: the reverse of the blank metal was held fast by a peg, generally square, in the anvil, and so received its impress in the form of a quadrangular depression (incuse square); in time this square came to be adorned with lines, figures, and inscriptions. In Southern Italy two dies that fitted into each other were employed, so that the coins present the same design in relief on the obverse and depressed on the reverse (nummi incusi). The inscriptions are in different languages, according to nationalities. Bilingual inscriptions — e.g., Greek-Latin — and inscriptions in which the language and type do not correspond — e.g., Greek in Cypriote characters, also occur; and even the Greek characters undergo numerous changes in form in the course of time. The right of coinage being a privilege of sovereignty, the inscriptions first mention the name of the sovereign power under whose authority the coin was struck; in Greece, until the time of Alexander the Great, this was the community. The names of the officials who had charge of the coinage are also found; and later coins also show the year, frequently reckoned from the Seleucid era, 312 B.C. The oldest coins had their origin on the Ægina coasts, perhaps in Lydia, as Herodotus tells us, or at Ægina, to whose king, Pheidon, the Parian chronicle ascribes them, possibly earlier than 600 B.C. Various islands of the same sea furnish coins bearing designs not very dissimilar to these. The coins of Southern Italy are of not much later date, as is proved by the fact that specimens are extant from the city of Sybaris, which was destroyed in 510 B.C. The early coins of Greece proper and Asia Minor are thick pieces of metal, resembling flattened bullets, and, naturally, bear the simplest devices, plants and animals, which soon become typical of particular localities; these are succeeded by the heads and figures of deities and men, sometimes united in groups. About 400 B.C. the Greek art of die-cutting reached its fullest development, attaining a degree of excellence unequalled by any later race: Syracuse holds the first place; after it in order come Areadia, Thebes, Olynthus, etc.
Of the non-Hellenic peoples whose coins are included in the Greek series, the most important for us are the Jews. At first they made use of foreign coins, but, as one of the results of the national rising under the Machabees against the Syrians, the high priest, Simon received from Antiochus VII (139-38 B.C.) the right of coinage. Simon minted copper and silver. To him is ascribed the “Shekel Israel”: obverse legend (Shekel Israel) and a cup or chalice above which is a date (1-5, reckoning from the conferring of the right of coinage); reverse, legend (Jerusalem the Holy) and a lily-stalk with three buds. The rest of the Machabees — John Hydranus, Judas Aristobulus, Alexander Jannæus, Mattathias Antigonus, and so on — coined copper exclusively with inscriptions in old Hebrew or in Hebrew and Greek. After these came the copper coins of the Idumæan prince Herod and his successors. In the time of Christ Roman coins were also in circulation. This is proved by the story of the tribute money. “And they offered him [Christ] a penny. And Jesus saith to them: Whose image and inscription is this? They say to him: Cæsar’s” (Matthew 22:19-21). It was only during the two revolts of the Jews against the Romans in A.D. 66-70 and 132-135, that silver was again coined under Eleazar and Simon and Bar-Cachba respectively. On the Bactrian coins of the first century after Christ there occurs the name Gondophares, or some similar name, supposed to be identical with that of one of the three Magi, Caspar.
B. Roman Coins
In Italy the earliest medium of exchange was copper, which had to be weighed at each transaction (oes rude). At first it was used in pieces of irregular form, later in clumsy bars. The credit of having first provided a legal tender is ascribed to Servius Tullius, who is said to have had the bars stamped with definite figures, mostly cattle (primus signavit oes; oes signatum). The introduction of true coins with marks indicating their value and the emblems of the city belongs to a much later date. The monetary unit was the as of 12 ounces (10.527 oz. Troy), equal to a roman pound (libra — hence, libral standard); usually, however, the weight of an as was only 10 ounces (about 8 3/4 oz. Troy). The divisions of the as (the semis =1/2, triens =1/3, quadrans =1/4, sextans =1/6, and uncia =1/12), in order that they might be more readily distinguished, were marked on one side with as many balls as they contained ounces. On the one side was the representation of the prow of a ship, the characteristic device of the city of Rome, on the other, the head of a divinity, which varied with the denomination of the coin. The coins were round, in high, but somewhat clumsy, relief, and cast; some were minted in Campania.
From 268 B.C. the weight of the as steadily decreased; the libral standard became first a triental, then an uncial, and finally even a semiuncial standard — 1/24 of the original weight. While this reduction of the standard facilitated the manufacture of coins of larger values (dupondius, tripondius, decussis, equal to 2, 3, and 10 asses respectively), it resulted in giving to copper coins a current value far above their intrinsic worth and furthered the introduction of stamped, instead of cast, coins. According to Livy the first silver coins were minted in 268 B.C., this first silver piece was the denarius, equal to 10 asses. It was followed by the minor denominations, the quinarius (1/2 denarius) and sestertius (1/4 denarius). Besides these the victoriatus (1/4 denarius) was coined for the use of some of the provinces as a commercial currency. The denarius, weighing at first 1/72 of a pound was reduced in 217 B.C. to 1/84, the silver used being almost pure. The obverse shows the dea Roma; the reverse, the two Dioscuri; of these stamps the former more particularly remained in use for many years. The mint was managed by a commission (tresviri oere argento auro flando feriundo), the members of which soon placed upon the coins their names or initials, and later glorified the members of their families and their deeds (family or consular coins). Even at that time, but much more frequently in the imperial period, there were denarii of base metal which were often thinly coated with silver (denarii suboevati). It rarely happened that gold was coined.
Cæsar marks the transition to the imperial coinage: in 44 B.C. the Senate ordered the issue of coins bearing his portrait. Even Brutus followed this example, and with Augustus begins the uninterrupted series of portrait coins. While Cæsar had already claimed the right of coining gold and silver, Augustus claimed this right for himself alone and left to the Senate only the coinage of copper; and these copper coins are characterized by the letters S.C. (senatus consulto). Aurelian (270-76) took even this privilege from the Senate. Beginning with the empire we find a copious coinage of gold. The principal coin is the aureus, weighing about 123 1/2 grains; its obverse bears the name, title and portrait of the emperor; its reverse, historical representations in rich variety,. building, favourite divinities of the emperor, and personifications of the virtues that adorned, or should have adorned, him; the members of his family are also represented. In this respect the series of Trajan and Hadrian are especially rich. With Nero begins the debasement of the coinage, particularly of the silver; and this continued until Constantine again established some degree of order. He introduced a new gold coin, the solidus, equal to 1/72 of a pound (about 70 grains), which for centuries remained an important factor in the development of the monetary system.
Special mention should be made of the medals, peculiarly large and carefully executed works of the mint, issued in commemoration of some event. They were made of gold, silver, or copper, and in the precious metal, generally coined in conformity with the legal standard. There are also specimens made of copper surrounded by a circle of yellowish metal (médailles des deux cuivres). The term contorniate is applied to a large circular copper coin with a raised rim, used principally in connection with the circensian games.
The coins of the Roman emperors of the East, which are designated as Byzantine, belong, chronologically at least, to the Middle Ages, but, judged by the standard observed in their coinage and, in the beginning, also by the character of the coins themselves, the entire series is closely connected with the issues of the Roman Empire. Copper was coined abundantly, silver rarely, but the greatest importance attached to the gold coinage. For many years gold was coined only at Byzantium, and these gold pieces served as a model, not only for the gold coinage of the West, which was not resumed until the thirteenth century, but also for that of Islam. Artistic merit is entirely lacking in the Byzantine coins: their type is rigid and monotonous. In place of the former wealth and variety of devices on the reverse, we find religious symbols, the monogram of Christ, and saints. The coinage of John VIII, the last of the emperors but one, about the middle of the fifteenth century, was the last of the Byzantine series.
C. Medieval Coins
The new states that arose within the territorial limits of the old Roman Empire at first made use of the Roman coins, of which a sufficiently large number were in existence. The rare autonomous issues of the period of the racial migration are very closely connected with the Roman series; only the Merovingians, in France, made themselves to some extent independent. Very soon, however, a general decline began in all matters connected with coinage; the coins steadily become coarser, gold currency disappeared, copper was coined only exceptionally; small silver coins were the only medium of payment. Charlemagne restored some kind of order; claiming the right of coining as a royal prerogative, to be exercised by the king alone, he suppressed all private coinage, which at that time had assumed disastrous proportions. He furthermore enjoined greater care in minting and made regulations on this point which became the standard for the greater part of Europe, and which, in their essential features, are operative in England to the present day. The basis was the talent, or pound, of silver (about 11 4/5 oz. Troy); it was divided into 20 shillings (pound and shillings being both merely money of account) each equal to 12 pence (deniers). The penny therefore weighed 23 1/2 grains. The most common designs on the Carlovingian coins are the representation of the cross and a church adorned with columns, surrounded by the legend christiana religio.
The peculiar economic conditions of the Middle Ages gave rise to the issue of silver coins of constantly diminishing weight and fineness, so that they steadily became more and more worthless and, as a result of the general rise in values, could no longer be used as currency. In this way a process began which was repeated several times during the Middle Ages: as a result of the depreciation of the older small coins, new coins, larger and more valuable, were struck in some city whence they made their way triumphantly through the whole of Europe. In course of time these in turn became depreciated and were replaced by a new issue. In the thirteenth century the shilling (equal to 12 pence) was first coined at Tours; in contradistinction to the denier, which at that time had become very thin, it was called nummus grossus (thick coin), and, from the name of the place where it was first coined, grossus turonensis, or gros tournois. One side has a cross with the name of the king and a legend, most commonly Benedictum sit nomen domini; the other, a church. The tournois spread rapidly through France and along the Rhine, and led to the minting of a similar coin at Prague (the grossus pragensis, or Prager Groschen), which in its turn was imitated in many countries. After the Merovingian period the only gold coins minted were the Augustales of the emperor Frederick II. These were copies of the earlier Roman coin and were struck in Sicily. A regular gold coinage does not begin until about 1250, in the Republic of Florence. These coins bear, on the one side, St. John the Baptist, and, on the other, a lily, the emblem of Florence. From this device (flos lilii), or from the name of the city, they received the name florin. Their weight was a little more than 540 grains. A few decades later the Doge of Venice, Giovanni Dandolo, began the minting of a gold coin which bears the representation of the doge kneeling before St. Mark and the effigy of Christ with the legend: Sit tibi Christe datus quem tu regis iste ducatus. The last word of this legend gave the coin its name, ducato (ducat); in Venice it was also called zecchino (sequin) from la zecca, “the mint”. The type of the florin and the name of the ducat soon became current throughout the world.
The transition to modern times is marked by the introduction of still larger silver coins. Of these, besides the Italian testone and the French franc, the German Taler was the most important. In 1485 the Archduke Sigismund of the Tyrol caused the issue of a new silver coin weighing 2 Loth, and of a fineness of 15 Loth; its value at the rate of exchange of that time corresponded to that of the gold gulden and it was therefore called Guldengroschen. The example of the Tyrol was soon followed by many nobles who had the right of coining; the Joachimstaler (shortened to Taler), made in the mint of the counts of Schlick, at Joachimstal, originated the name of Taler (Dollar), which has been retained to the present day. Among the most interesting of the coins of this kind are the Rubentaler, coined by Leonard of Keutschach, Archbishop of Salzburg, and named from his armorial bearings, a turnip (Rübe); these are counted among the rarest and most frequently counterfeited coins of the Middle Ages.
The monetary systems of the German Empire during the Middle Ages are of the greatest interest with respect not only to the number of its types of coin, but also the peculiarity of its evolution. Charlemagne, it is true, had established uniformity of coinage and had caused the right of coining to be acknowledged as exclusively belonging to the sovereign; but his weaker successors were gradually compelled to yield this, as well as most of the other royal prerogatives, to the feudatory lords, whose power continued to increase as that of the paramount government weakened. Among these feudatories were, not only all archbishops and bishops, but also the leading abbots and abbesses within the empire. The evolution was gradual. At first permission was granted to hold a fair (mercatus), levy a tax (telonium), and erect a mint (moneta) at some place belonging to one of the feudatories. At first the mint may have been only an exchange, the profits of which, however, in the Middle Ages were often very considerable, and accrued to the lord. Then he was permitted to have coins struck bearing his portrait, but had to maintain the uniform standard. At length these feudatory lords obtained the privilege of coining without any restrictions. When this was done uniformity in the currency of the empire was at an end, a great diversity in the coinage was rendered possible, and the right of coining, instead of being a prerogative of the emperor, became a privilege of every feudatory. These sought to exploit this privilege as a productive source of income by constantly debasing and changing the coinage, thereby causing serious losses to those of their subjects who were engaged in trade. The cities, therefore, which had not yet obtained the right of coinage, endeavoured to gain some control over the system, either by obtaining for themselves the right of coining or by farming mints, or by inducing the owners of mints to exercise their privileges in a more reasonable manner.
Of the German medieval coins, the “bracteates” (Lat. bractea, “a thin sheet of metal”) deserve special mention. They were not personal ornaments, like the Scandinavian bracteates of earlier times, but genuine coins. As the denier had become thinner and thinner in the course of the eleventh century, it was replaced, early in the twelfth century, in some parts of Germany, by very thin but rather large silver coins, made with one die, showing the same design, in relief on one side and depressed on the other. These coins, especially in the beginning, were carefully executed and not without artistic merit. The city of Halle in Swabia (Wurtemberg) issued a small fractional coin which had a wide circulation, and was called Heller from the place of its origin. In some respects the evolution of French coinage resembles that of German: here too we find, in the tenth century, coinages of lay and ecclesiastical barons (the archbishops of Vienne, Arles, Reims, etc. in particular), characterized by a fixed type (type immobilisé) which is maintained unaltered for a long period. But by the close of the Middle Ages this coinage is confined to a very few powerful feudatories and in comparison with the royal coinage, is no longer of importance. From France we have the chaise d’or, a gold coin that was also largely minted in other countries; it represents the king seated upon a Gothic throne. In England sterlings and nobles were stuck, both of them often counterfeited. Coins of the archbishops of Canterbury and York are extant. In Italy, because of its numerous political divisions, we find a diversity of coinages similar to that of Germany. The scarcity of coins of ecclesiastical mints is noticeable: with the exception of some isolated examples and the series of Aquileja, Trent, and Trieste, we have only the papal coinages, which, following chiefly the Byzantine model, begin with Adrian I, but do not become important until Clement V (the first of whose coins, however, were struck at Avignon). While eastern Europe was for the most part under the influence of Byzantine, the Crusaders nevertheless brought Western types into the states founded by them in the Orient. Mohammedan coinage appears only about the year 700; these coins, because the Koran forbids pictorial representations, bear only texts from the Koran and, generally, precise statements concerning the ruler, the mint-master, and the date of coinage.
D. Modern Coins
With the beginning of modern times, partly as the result of the discovery of America and the exploitation of its silver deposits, large silver pieces appear everywhere in great numbers. As a natural consequence of this, we find greater care bestowed upon the execution of the work, more legible characters in the inscriptions, and increased attention to the pictorial representations (portraits and coats-of-arms). Several of the Renaissance issues, particularly the papal coins, are reckoned among the foremost works of art of that time. In the course of the last few centuries, countries which had not come under the influence of the civilization of the Middle Ages enter into numismatic relations with the others, e.g., Russia and the Far East, China having coins of the most extraordinary shapes, some perforated, some in the form of tuning-forks, sabres, etc.; Siam, lumps of twisted silver wire.
While during the earlier centuries the monetary systems of the older civilized countries of Europe generally developed along the lines established in the course of the Middle Ages, the great political and economic revolutions of the nineteenth century brought into being new forces which had their effect on the monetary systems. While the changed relations of the German-speaking peoples resulted in a variation of their currencies (the mark in Germany, krone in Austria, gulden in Holland, and franc in Switzerland), the unification of Italy, on the other hand, resulted in a uniform Italian monetary system (lira). But economic conditions have produced even more lasting results than political. On the 23rd of December, 1865, France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland formed the Latin Union, which was joined in 1868 by Greece, agreeing upon a uniform regulation of the coinage of these states on the basis of the French monetary system. This system has now been adopted by a large number of states, which have not themselves joined the Latin monetary Union — Rumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Finland, Spain, and, at least nominally, many of the Central and South American republics, which were formerly Spanish colonies, and furthermore a number of smaller European states. Austria-Hungary and Russia are also approximating to this system. Another monetary union was formed in 1873 and includes Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, the monetary union being the Scandinavian krone. The Portuguese monetary system is still in force in Brazil, its former colony. Even without any formal convention, a coin may gain currency in foreign lands. Thus the Mexican dollar, which in name and value is an offshoot of the German monetary system, is current coin on the farther shore of the Pacific Ocean, in the maritime provinces of China, in Japan, Siam, and part of the Malay Archipelago; it influences Central America and even many of the African maritime provinces. The Indian rupee, too, has gained currency on the shore of the ocean opposite the land of its origin, on the coasts of East Africa, Southern Arabia, and the Malay peninsula. A good example of the crossing of economic and political interests is furnished by Canada, where the English sovereign is legal tender, although Canadian currency follows the standard of the United States. While the coins now in circulation in Austria and Hungary are valid as currency in Liechtenstein and Montenegro and vice versa, an Austrian coin long since put out of circulation in Austria itself, known as the Maria-Teresien taler, and bearing the date 1780, is even now the most important commercial currency in Central Africa, the Sudan, Tripoli, and Arabia. The high degree of perfection which had been attained during the last decades in the technique of coining gave rise, on the one hand, to a number of experiments with coinage (coins made of aluminum, Russian coins of platinum, Belgian pierced coins, English coins of two metals) most of which, however, had no decisive success. On the other hand, it became possible to pay greater attention to the artistic side of coining, as is evidenced by the latest issues of the French and Italian mints.
II. MEDALS
The term medal (medallia in Florence = 1/2 denier) is applied to pieces of metal, usually circular, which, though issued by a mint, are not intended as a medium of payment. Their material, form, mode of manufacture, and history prove that they were originally coins, though altered conditions and needs, both artistic and cultural, have made them independent. Their purpose is to commemorate important events in the history of a nation, so much so that attempts have been made to write histories based upon and illustrated by the series of medals of some individual or of a whole country. Occasions for the issue of medals are found in an accession to the throne, a declaration of war, the conclusion of a peace, or an alliance, the completion of a public building; it has also been very extensively used by sovereigns for presentation to persons whom they wished to honour, and in such cases was often a veritable gem of the goldsmith’s art. On the other hand, a medal has often been presented by subjects to their sovereign on such occasions as his marriage, in token of homage. But as an expression of the culture of a people the private medal possesses much greater interest, and in this field the German medal of the Renaissance and the following centuries furnishes the most numerous examples. Portrait medals played the part now taken by photography. Medals stamped with coats-of-arms also serve to represent private individuals, and are sometimes put to practical use as tokens, buttons for liveries, etc. They are used to commemorate betrothals, or marriages, silver or golden weddings, births and baptisms, and there are a large number of sponsors’ christening gifts in the shape of coins or medals (Patenpfennige) made expressly for the purpose and inscribed with the names of the infant and the godparent, the place and date of baptism, and generally a pious maxim. These Patenpfennige were often put into rich settings to be worn as ornaments, and wee handed down as heirlooms form generation to generation. Not only the entrance into life but also death is recorded in medals; and many such pieces contain detailed biographical notices.
Very often the medal serves a religious purpose; in Kremnitz and especially in Joachimstal extensive series of such religious coinages were struck. Typological representations found great favour, the one side showing the Old-Testament type, the other the New-Testament antitype. The Reformation produced many medals embellished with Biblical phrases. A favourite subject on religious medals was the head of Christ: the city of Vienna has for centuries used medals bearing this design as public marks of distinction. At Easter medals with the Paschal Lamb, at Christmas others with the Infant Jesus, were given as presents. Of the saints, St. George was most frequently represented, on the Georgstaler and Georgsducat, and a superstition prevailed that the wearing of a medal with the image of St. George was a protection against wounds. A similar superstition was connected with the representation of St. Roch and St. Sebastian or of St. Rosalia, as also of the cross with the brazen serpent, as a protection against the plague. There is also an interminable series of wholly superstitious amulets, astrological and alchemistic coinages which profess to be the product of an alchemistic transmutation from a base into a precious metal. The imperial coin-cabinet at Vienna contains one of these pieces, probably the largest medal in existence, weighing about 15 1/2 lbs. avoirdupois; and adorned with the portraits of forty ancestors of the Emperor Leopold I, in whose presence the transmutation is supposed to have taken place. Thus the numerous and manifold purposes for which the medal has been employed faithfully reflect the cultural conditions which led to its coinage and are a source of information that has not yet been fully appreciated.
True medals were unknown to antiquity; their functions were in many respects — particularly as memorials of important events — performed by coins. In contrast with the monotonous and generally inartistic coins of the present day, the coins of antiquity, and more particularly those of Greece, were masterpieces of the art of the die-engraver, who was not compelled to seek other opportunities to display his skill. Among the Romans conditions were analogous, with the exception that the medallions of the emperors approximate somewhat to the character of our medals, although they are, as a rule, duplicates of the legal monetary unit; the tokens (tesseroe), struck for the games, and the contorniates are even more closely related to the medal. The few gold issues of the Emperor Louis the Pious (814-40) also resemble medals, and in the further course of the Middle Ages we met with a large number of coins which were evidently intended to commemorate some event in history, although their devices are often very difficult to explain; there is many a puzzle here still awaiting solution. As the symbol of Henry the Lion, the powerful Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, the lion plays an important role on his coins. But his adversary, Otho of Wittelsbach, who, when Henry the Lion had been outlawed, received the Duchy of Bavaria, employed this symbol also and issued deniers which picture him in pursuit of a lion or with the severed head of a lion in his hand. Coins are also very frequently used to commemorate enfeoffments, and these bear a representation of the liege lord from whom the kneeling vassal receives the gonfalon. A Polish bracteate perpetuates the memory of a pilgrimage of Duke Boleslav III to the tomb of St. Adalbert in Gnesen. A denier of Ladislaus I of Bohemia shows the repulsive head of Satan with a descriptive legend on one side, and on the other a church. Luschin was able to account for this device as follows: after a succession of serious elemental disturbances in Bohemia there came, in the midst of a terrible hurricane, a meteoric shower, during which many persons declared they beheld Satan in human form near the castle; this denier was then struck, bearing on either side the head of Satan and the Church of God. Such coins as these in some measure serve the purpose of commemorative medals.
The first true medal appeared in Italy towards the close of the fourteenth century. Francesco II Carrara, Lord of Padua, had two medals struck, in imitation of the ancient Roman medallions: one, in memory of his father, Francesco I, recalls the later medallions of Commodus and Septimius Severus; the other, commemorating the capture of Padua in 1390, has a portrait of Francesco II analogous to that of the Emperor Vitellius on his sesterces. The reverse in each case bears the punning device of the Carrara family, a cart (carro). These medals are struck in bronze and silver. to the same period belong the medal-like trial-pieces made by the Sesto family of Venice, a family of die-cutters. These, too, were stamped; but the development of the medal in the next period was not due to stamped pieces. Even before the middle of the fifteenth century Italian art suddenly reaches the climax in this department with the cast medal. Vittore Pisano, a painter (b. about 1380, in the Province of Verona; d. 1455 or 1456) is the oldest and most important of the medallists. Like those of his followers, his works are cast from wax models or models cut in iron, a process which frequently makes it necessary for the pieces to be afterwards chiselled. He signs his work opus Pisani pictoris. The medals are, for the most part, of large size, and are coated with an artificial patina. On the obverse they present expressive portraits, generally in profile; on the reverse, beautiful and ingenious allegories: thus of Leonello d’Este, a lion singing from a sheet of music held by Cupid; or of Alfonso of Naples, an eagle that generously gives up the slain deer to the vultures. Even though it can be proved that Pisano made use of certain prototypes which in turn were possibly derived from seals, his fame as the real creator of the medallic art is not materially diminished by that fact. Both in composition and in execution he has hardly been equalled, as, for instance, in his representations of the nobler animals, the lion, eagle, ho rse.
Pisano travelled through the whole of Italy, and portrayed the prominent princes and influential men of his time; he made the medallic art so popular that thenceforth artists, in all the important art centres of Italy, engaged in the manufacture of medals. Such were Matteo de’Pasti, and admirable artist at the court of Rimini; the Venetians Giovanni Boldu and Gentile Bellini, the latter of whom made a portrait-medal for the sultan Mehemet; the Mantuan Sperandio, the most prolific medallist of the fifteenth century, and many others. At this time, too, the stamped medal returns to prominence. In Rome Benvenuto Cellini and, after him, Caradosso, and especially the masters of the papal mint are deserving of mention. The imitations of the bronze coinages of the Roman emperors by Cavino a truly admirable. Finally, at a somewhat later period, Italian medallists are found in the service of foreign princes: Jacopo da Trezzo in the Netherlands, the two Abondio in Germany. The Italian medal exerts the most powerful influence upon the development of the older French productions. The Italian Laurana in the latter half of the fifteenth century struck the first French medals, and the works of the next period clearly show Italian characteristics. Not until the seventeenth century did a new style appear, in which the drapery especially is admirably reproduced; the most prominent artists were Jean Richier, at Metz, and, later, Guillaume Dupré and Jean Warin.
In Germany, the earliest large silver pieces were coined at Hall in the Tyrol, under the influence of Italian coinages; and to Gian Marco Cavallo, who was invited to Hall as engraver to the mint, these coins owe their important position in the history of art and their demonstrable influence upon many of the medals of Germany. These, the oldest specimens of the German medallic art, being at the same time coins, were stamped; but, like the Italian, the German medal does not reach its highest perfection in stamped, but in cast pieces. A considerable number of models made of boxwood, of Kehlheim stone, and, later, of wax are still extant. These portraits in wood or stone were at first regarded as final, and only by degrees did they come to be used as models for casting in metal. These cast medals, which made their appearance to the art-centres of Germany (in the beginning of the sixteenth century, Augsburg and Nuremberg) likewise owe their origin to the Italian medal. But only their origin; the further development of the German medal follows entirely original and independent lines until it reaches a degree of excellence, on a level with the Italian. It is true that the Germans fail to produce the magnificent designs with their wealth of figures that we find on the reverse of Italian medals; instead, we find, more commonly, excellent representations of coats of arms. The great strength of the German medal lies in the loving care bestowed upon the execution of the accurate portrait on the obverse; and this accords with the purpose of the medal, which was much more widely distributed among the prominent families of the middle classes than was the case in Italy.
The German medal reaches its prime soon after the year 1500, considerably later than the Italian: among the oldest examples that have come down to us are those of Albrecht Dürer. Many of the artists give us no clue at all to their identity or sign themselves by marks or symbols that are often difficult to interpret. It has now become possible, however, to assign definitely a long series of very valuable medals to Peter Flötner, a master of Nuremberg, who must therefore be considered as one of the foremost of all medallists; he is closely followed by Matthes Gebel. Other noteworthy medallists of this period are Hans Daucher, most of whose work was done for the Court of the Palatinate; Hans Schwarz of Nuremberg, “the best counterfeiter in wood”, who executed a large number of works for the members of the Diet of Augsburg of 1518; Jacob Stampfer, in Switzerland; Friedrich Hagenauer, one of the most popular artists; Joachim Deschler, who finally settled in Austria, where, especially in the mints of Vienna, Kremnitz, and Joachimstal, a large number of medals were struck at this period, not all of them, however, to the advantage of the medallic art; Hans Reinhard, from whom we have a number of very carefully chiselled pieces, and Tobias Wolf, both in Saxony. By the end of the sixteenth century the German medal has clearly passed its zenith and becomes dependent upon foreign, and, at first, especially Italian works. In the Netherlands the art attained a high degree of perfection. The great names here are Stephanus Hollandicus and, somewhat later, Konrad Bloc, both of the second half of the sixteenth century, and Peter van Abeele of the seventeenth century. In England the medallists are for the most part foreigners; of the native artists, who do not appear until very late, the most deserving of mention are Th. Simon and William and L. C. Lyon. Caspar and Simon Passe on the other hand attain great artistic skill in the production of very carefully engraved small, thin silver pieces. The other states are of less importance; they employed for the most part foreign artists.
The high artistic level which the medal attained in Italy and Germany at the beginning of the modern age could not be maintained permanently. For while excellent pieces of work were produced here and there, medals as well as coins, as works of art, deteriorated more and more. Not until after the middle of the nineteenth century did the art receive a fresh impetus and that first in France. Considering merely its external manifestations, it is possible even to fix the exact date of the beginning of this movement. On 2 May, 1868, the chemist Dumas, president of the Comité consultatif des Graveurs of the Paris mint delivered an address pointing out the defects which prevented the artistic development of the medal, and, as president of the mint, appealing for their amendment. He particularly mentioned the bad taste of the lettering, the polish, the high rim etc. If this address dealt rather with the outer form, a new view of the true purpose of the medal had already been gradually created. Following the productions of Oudines, Paul Dubois, Chapus, above all Herbert Ponscarmes (the first to oppose the polishing of medals) and later Degeorges, Chaplains, and Daniel Dupris, Oscar Roty, by far the most distinguished of the French medallists won distinction. He excels not only as a portraitist, but more particularly in the composition of the reverse: his fine allegories (e.g., on the medal for merit in connection with the education of girls — the Republic teaching maidens, the future mothers of men) recall the artists of the Quattrocento, which he carefully studied, but did not, as a rule, directly imitate. Just as the execution of the medal is preceded by long and careful deliberation as to how the fundamental idea is to be worked out (Ponscarmes seems to have led the way in this) so the execution itself receives to the very last moment the most careful attention. Only the artist’s hand must touch his work. The French medal has thus attained great results, even when judged merely on its technical merits.
Independently of the French movement, a medallic revival has begun in Austria. Anton Scharff brought about a restoration of the medallic style and an emancipation from the rigid conventional forms; working side by side with him are Josef Thautenheym, the elder, Stefan Schwartz, a master of the technique of the chiselled medal, and Franz Xaver Pawlik. Recently Rudolf Marschall has won a high reputation as a portraitist, and received the commission to execute medals for both Leo XIII and Pius X. The French and Viennese medals have called forth in other countries an activity which has already resulted in many beautiful specimens of medallic art.
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General Numismatics: DANNENBERG, Grundzüge der Münzkunde (Leipzig, 1892); HALKE, Einleitung in das Studium der Numismatik (Berlin, 1889); v. SALLET, Münzen und Medaillen (Berlin, 1898); BABELON, Notice sur la monnaie (Paris, 1898); AMBROSOLI, Manuale de Numismatica (Milan, 1895); LANEPOOLE, Coins and Medals (London, 1894); E. AND F. GNECCHI, Guida numismatica universale (Milan, 1903); HIRSCH, Bibliotheca numismatica omnium gentium (Nuremberg, 1760); LIPSIUS, Biblioteca numaria (Leipzig, 1801); LEITZMANN, Biblioteca numaria (1800 — 66). On Abbreviations: SCHMID, Clavis numismatica (Dresden, 1840); RENTZMANN, Numismatisches Legenden Lexikon des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (2 parts, Berlin, 1865 — 66, supplement, 1878); SCHLICKEISEN, Erklärung der Abkürzungen auf Münzen, 3rd ed. by PALLMANN (Berlin, 1896); CAPPELLI, Lexicon abbreviaturarum (Leipzig, 1901). Dictionaries: DE BASINGHEN, Traité des monnaies (Paris, 1764); SCHMIEDER, Handwörterbuch der gesammten Münzkun de (Halle and Berlinm, 1811, 1815); AMBROSOLI, Vocabolarietto dei numismatici in sette lingue (Milan, 1897). Periodicals: Historische Münzbelustigungen (1729 — 50); Numismatische Zeitung (Weissensee, 1834 — 73); Blätter fürMünzfreunde (Leipzig, 1865—); Numismatischer Anzeiger (Hanover, 1868—); Zeitschrift für Numismatik (Berlinm, 1874 — ); Numismatisches Literaturblatt (Berlin, 1880—); Berliner Münzblätter (1880—); Frankfurter Münzblätter, now Frankfurter Münzzeitung (1901—); Zeitschrift und Monatsblatt der numismatischen Gesellschaft in Wien (1870—); Zeitschrift und Mitteilungen der österr. Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Münz-und Medaillenkunde (1890—); Mitteiluingen der bayrischen numismatischen Gesellschaft (1872—); Revue numismatique (Paris, 1856—), formerly Revue de la numismatique française (Blois, 1835 — 56); Yearbook of the Société française de numismatique (1866—); Bulletin international de numismatique (Paris, 1902—); Revue belge numismatique (Tirlemont, then Brussels, 1842—); Bulletin mensuel de numismatiqwue et d’archéologie (Brussels, then Paris, 1881—); Revue suisse de numismatique; Numismatic Chronicle (London); Rivista italiana di numismatica (Milan); Gazzetta numismatica (Rome); Journal international d’archéologie numismatique (Athens).
Ancient Coins: ECKHEL, Doctrina nummorum veterum (Vienna, 1792-98); MIONNET, Description des médailles antiques grecques et romaines (6 vols. and supplement, Paris, 1806-13; 9 vols., 1819-37); HEAD, Historia numorum. A Manual of Greek Numismatics (Oxford, 1887); A Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum (London, 1878—); BARTHÉLEMY, Nouveau manuel de numismatique ancienne (Paris, 1890); IMHOOF-BLUMER, Monnaies grecques (Paris, 1883); MADDEN, Coins of the Jews, Vol. III of Numismata Orientalia (London, 1886); SAULCY, Recherches sur la numismatique judaïque (Paris, 1854); BABELON, Description historique et chronologique des monnaies de la république romaine (Paris, 1857); SABATIER, Description générale des médaillons contorniates; MOMMSEN, La monnaie dans l’antiquité (Paris, 1878-79); COHEN, Description historique des monnaies frappées sous l’empire romain communément appelées médailles impériales (Paris, 1859-68; 2d ed., 1888-92); STEVENSON, A Dictionary of Roman Coins (London, 1889); SABATIER, Description générale des monnaies byzantines (Paris, 1862).
Medieval and Modern Coins: LELEWEL, Numismatique du moyen-âge (Paris, 1835); BLANCHET, Nouveau manuel de numismatique du moyen-âge et moderne (Paris, 1890); ENGEL-SERRURE, Numismatique du moyen-âge (Paris, 1891-1905); IDEM, Traité de la numismatique moderne contemporaine (Paris, 1897-99); GRUEBER, Handbook of the Coins of Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1898).
Medals: ARMAND, Les médailleurs italiens des quinzième et seizième siècles (Paris, 1883-87); FRIEDLANDER, Die italienischen Schaumüntzen des 15ten Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1880-82); HEISS, Les Médailleurs de la renaissance (Paris, 1882—); KEARY, A Guide to the Italian Medals (London, 1882); FABRICZY, Medaillen der italienischen Renaissance (Strasbury, 1903); POEY D’AVANT, Trésor de numismatique et de glyptique (Paris, 1839—); MAZEROLLE, Les Médailles françaises du 15. siècle au moitié du 17. (Paris, 1902); DOMANIG, Die deutsche Medaille in kunst- und kulturhistorischer Hinsicht nach dem Bestande der Medaillensammlung des ah. Kaiserhauses (Vienna, 1907); ERMAN, Die deutsche Medaille des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1884) (reprinted from Zeitschrift für Numismatik, XII (1885); SIMONIS, L’art de médaillier en Belgique (Jemeppe, 1904); Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland (published by the British Museum, London, 1904 — 0; LICHTWARK, Die Wiederweckung der Medaille (Dresden, 1895); DOMPIERRE DE CHAUFETIE, Les médailles et plaquettes modernes (Haarleben, 1898—); MARX, Les médailleurs français contemporains (Paris); MARX, Les médailles modernes en France et à l’étranger (Paris, 1901); LOEHR, Wiener Medailleure (Vienna, 1899; supplement, 1902).
AUG. V. LOEHR Transcribed by Michael L. Mueller Dedicated to my beautiful wife Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Numismatics
(Lat. nuzmmus and numisma, money), 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 ascertaining 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 Caesar, Augustus, Nero, Caracalla. and read their character and features.
The metals which have generally been used for coinage are gold, silver, and copper. In each class is comprised the alloy occasionally substituted for it, as electrum (an alloy of gold and silver) for gold, billon for silver, bronze for copper, and potin (an alloy softer than billon) for silver and copper. The side of a coin which bears the 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 surrounding the border is called the legend. When the lower part of the reverse is distinctly separated from the main device it is called the exergue (Gr. , without the work), and often bears a secondary inscription, 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.
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 aera; and their example was soon after followed by the different states of Greece, the earliest Greek coins being those of AEgina. 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 sufficiently 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 process, the earliest coins had a lumpish appearance, and on their reverse was a rough, irregular, hollow square, corresponding to a similar square on the punch, devised for the purpose of keeping the coin steady when struck by the coining hammer. The original coins of Asia Minor were of gold, those of Greece of silver. The earliest coins bear emblems 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 emigration of the people. Fig. 1 represents a very early double stater of Miletus, in Ionia, of which the type is the lion’s head, derived from Persia and Assyria, and associated 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 reappearing on the reverse. The punch-mark, at first a rudely roughed square, soon assumed the more sightly form of deep, wedge-like indents, which in later specimens 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 surrounding of the punch-mark with a band bearing a name, and the introduction of a head in its center, as in the annexed figure (fig. 2), gradually led to the perfect reverse. There is a remarkable series of so- called encased coins struck in Magna Graecia, of which the reverse is an exact repetition 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 drachmee) of Alexander I. of Macedon.
Among the early coins of Asia, one of the most celebrated is the stater Daricus or Daric, named from Darius 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 reverse. One of the earliest specimens of the complete coin is a beautiful medal struck at Syracuse (fig. 3), with the head of Proserpine accompanied by dolphins, and for reverse a victor in the Olympic games in a chariot receiving a wreath from Victory a type which is also found on the reverse of the staters of Philip of Macedon, known as Philips, and largely imitated by other states. Coins of Alexander the Great are abundant, many having been struck after his conquests in the Greek towns of Asia. A rose distinguishes those struck at Rhodes, a bee those struck at Ephesus, etc.; these are all types generally accompanying the figure of Zeus on the reverse; on the obverse is the head of Hercules, which has sometimes been supposed to be that of Alexander himself. It would rather seem, however, that the conqueror’s immediate successors were the first who placed their portrait on the coins, and that under a shallow pretense of deification-Lysimachus as a descendant of Bacchus. and Seleucus of Apollo, clothed in the attributes of these deities. Two most beautiful and important series of Greek coins are those of the Seleucidee, in Asia, of silver, and of the Lagidae or Ptolemies, in Egypt, of gold.
3. Roman coins belong to three different series, known as the Republican, the Family, and the Imperial.
a. The so-called Republican, the earliest coinage, began at an early period of Roman history, and subsisted till B.C. 80. Its standard metal was copper, or rather es or bronze, an alloy of copper. The standard unit was the poundweight, divided into twelve ounces. The ces, or as, or pound of bronze, is said to have received a state impress as early. as the reign of Servius Tullius, B.C. 578. This gigantic piece was oblong like a brick, and stamped with the representation of an ox or sheep, whence the word pecunia, from pecus, cattle. The full pound of the as was gradually reduced, always retaining the twelve (nominally) uncial subdivisions, till its actual weight came to be no more than a quarter of an ounce. About the time when the as had diminished to nine ounces, the square form was exchanged for the circular. This large copper coin, called the as grave, was not struck with the punch, but cast, and exhibited on the obverse the Janus bifrons, and on the reverse the prow of a ship, with the numeral I. Of the fractions of the as, the sextans, or sixth part, generally bears the head of Mercury, and the uicia, or ounce piece: (fig. 4), that of Minerva; these pieces being further distinguished by dots or knobs, one for each ounce. There were circular pieces as high as the decussis, or piece of twelve asses, presenting a head of Roma (or Minerva), but none are known to have been coined till the weight of the as had diminished to four ounces. The Roman uncial coinage extended to the other states of Italy, where a variety of types were introduced, including mythological heads and animals. In the reign of Augustus, the as was virtually superseded by the sestertius, called by numismatists the first bronze, about the size of an English penny, which.was at first of the value of 21, afterwards of 4 asses. The sestertius derived its value from the silver denarius, of which it was the fourth. The half of the sestertius was the dupondius (known as the second bronze), and the half of the dupondius was called the assarium, an old name of the as. The assarium is known to numismatists as the third bronze. Silver was first coined at Rome about B.C. 281. the standard being founded on’ the Greek drachma, then equivalent in value to ten asses; the new coin was therefore called a denarius, or piece of ten asses. The earliest silver coined at Rome has on the obverse the head of Roma (differing from Minerva by having wings attached to the helmet); on the reverse is a quadriga or biga, or the Dioscuri. Among various other types which occur in the silver of the Italian towns subject to Rome are the horse’s head and galloping horse, both very beautiful. During the social war the revolted states coined money independently of Rome, and used various devices to distinguish it as Italian and not Roman money.
The earliest gold coins seem to have been issued about B.C. 90, and consisted of the scrupulum, equivalent to 20 sestertii, and the double and treble scrupulum. These pieces bear the head of Mars’on-the obverse, and on the reverse an eagle standing on a thunderbolt, with the inscription Roma on the exergue. The large early republican coins were cast, not struck.
b. The Family Coins begin about B.C. 170, and about B.C. 80 they entirely supersede the coins first described. Those families who successively held offices connected with the public mint acquired the right first to inscribe their names on the money, afterwards to introduce symbols of events in their own family history. These types gradually superseded the natural ones; the portrait of an ancestor followed; and then the portrait of a living citizen, Julius Caesar.
c. Under the empire the copper sestertius, which had displaced the as, continued the monetary standard. A magnificent series exists of the first bronzes of the emperors from Augustus to Gallienus. While it was the privilege of the emperors to coin gold and silver, copper could only be coined ex senatusconsulto, which from the time of Augustus was expressed on the coins by the letters S.C., or EX S.C. The obverse of the imperial coins bears the portraits of the successive emperors, sometimes of the empress or other members of the imperial family; and the reverse represents some event, military or social, of the emperor’s reign, sometimes allegorized. The emperor’s name and title are inscribed on the obverse, and sometimes partly continued on the reverse; the inscription on the reverse generally relates to the subject delineated; and towards the close of the 3d century the exergue of the reverse is occupied by the name of the town where the coin is struck. The coins of Augustus and those of Livia, Antonia, and Agrippina the elder have much artistic merit. The workmanship of Nero’s sestertii is very beautiful. The coins of Vespasian and Titus commemorate the conquest of Judaea. The Colosseum appears on a sestertius of Vespasian. The coins of Trajan are noted for their architectural types. Hadrian’s coins commemorate his journeys. The coins and medals of Antonine, Marcus Aurelius, and the two Faustinen are well executed, as are also those of Commodus, of whom a remarkable medallion relates to the conquest of Britain. There is a rapid falling off in design after the time of Commodus, and base silver comes extensively into use in the reign of Caracalla. Gallienus introduced the practice of coining money of copper washed with silver.
The colonial and provincial money of this period swas very inferior to that coined in Rome. In the coins of the provinces which had been formed out of the Greek empire the obverse bears the emperor’s head, and the reverse generally the chief temple of the gods inn the city of coinage; the inscriptions are in Greek. In the imperial coins of Alexandria appear such characteristic devices as the heads of Jupiter Ammon, His, and Canopus, the sphinx, the serpent, the lotus, and the wheatear dolonial coins were at first distinguished by a team of oxen, afterwards by banners, the number of which indicated the number of legions from which the colony had been drawn.
After the time of Gallienus the colonial money and the Greek imperial money, except that of Alexandria, ceased, and much of the Roman coinage was executed in the provinces, the name of the town of issue appearing on the exergue. Diocletian introduced a new piece of money, called the follis, which became the chief coin of the lower empire. The, first bronze disappeared after Gallienus, and the second disappears after Diocletian, the third bronze diminishing to 1 20th of an ounce. With the establishment of Christianity under Constantine a few Christian types are introduced. The third bronze of that emperor has the Labarum (q.v.), with the monogram IHS. Large medallions, called contorniati, encircled with a deep groove, belong to this period, and seem to have been prizes for distribution at the public games. Pagan types recur on the coins of Julian; and after his time the third bronze disappears.
The money of the Byzantine empire forms a link between the subject of ancient and that of modern coins. The portrait of the emperor on the obverse is after the 10th century supported by some protecting saint. The reverse has at first such types as Victory with a crosse afterwards a representation of the Savior or the Virgin; in some instances, the Virgin supporting the walls of Constantinople. Latin is gradually superseded by Greek in the inscriptions, and wholly disappears by the time of Alexius I. The chief gold piece was the solidus or nomisma, which was long famed in commerce for its purity, and circulated largely in the west as well as the east of Europe.
II. Jewish Coinage. The oldest extant Jewish coins are held by the best authorities to belong to the period of the Asmonsean princes. About the year B.C. 139 Antiochus VII (Sidetes), the son of Demetrius I, granted to Simon Maccabaeus, the priest and prince of the Jews, the right of coining money. This was to be with his own stamp, and to be current in his own country (1Ma 15:2-9). Of this privilege Simon availed himself, and the shekel and halfshekel appeared in silver, and several pieces in copper. The shekel presents on the obverse the legend Shekel of Israel: a cup or chalice, above which appears to have been the date of the year of Simon’s government in which it was struck. Reverse, Jerusalem the Holy; a triple lily or hyacinth. It is generally believed that the devices on this coin are intended to represent the pot that held manna and Aaron’s rod that budded. Of the first there could only be a traditional recollection; and though Aaron’s rod is said to have produced almond blossoms, and the flower on the reverse of the shekel resembles rather the hyacinth than the almond-blossom yet regard being had to Jewish feelings, and the probability that the dies were engraved by Greek artists, it will seem safer to accept the common belief on the subject than any other. The half-shekel resembles the shekel, and they occur with the dates of the first, second, third, and fourth year of Simon.
The copper pieces bear a different stamp. A coin has been found in copper of the type of the silver shekel, having the date of the fourth year of Simon; but there seems to be every reason to believe that this was either plated or intended to be so, and therefore a counterfeit. The other copper coins known are parts of the copper shekel the half, the quarter, and the sixth. The entire copper shekel has not been found. The half-shekel bears on the obverse the legend, In the fourth year one half; two bunches of thickly leaved branches, between which is a citron. Reverse, The Redemption of Sion; a palm-tree between two baskets of dates and other fruits. The quarter presents an obverse similar to that of the half, but without the citron, and has a corresponding difference in the legend. Reverse, the same legend as the preceding, but a citron takes the place of the palmtree and baskets. The sixth part of the shekel exhibits a totally different type. Obverse, The Redemption of Sion; a cup like that on the silver shekel. Reverse, In the fourth year; a bundle of branches between two citrons.
The palm-tree on these coins is well chosen as an emblem of the country., In subsequent times the captive Judaea was represented as sitting under a palm-tree; and the palm-branch appears on many of the coins struck by the Jewish princes. The palm-branch, the myrtle, the willow, and the citron composed the token which every Israelite was commanded to bear in his hand at the feast of tabernacles. This was called the lulab a word which simply means a palm-branch, and this is represented on the copper coins before described. While the lulab was borne in the right hand, the citron or ethrog was carried in the left. This, too; appears on the coins of Simon Maccabaus; and thus the whole of the coinage of this great man becomes highly symbolical, and was calculated to keep up the national feeling which he had so powerfully excited. On the murder .of Simon in the year B.C. 135, his son John, who assumed the name of Hyrcanus, succeeded to the dignity of high-priest, and ruled for nearly thirty years. Of this prince we have a great number of coins; but they are only of copper, and present a totally different type from those of his illustrious father. Obverse, in five lines, surrounded by a wreath of laurel or olive, John, High-Priest, and the Confederation of the Jews. Reverse, two cornucopise, between which is a poppy-head, a pomegranate, or perhaps a citron. There .are several varieties of this coin, one of which bears over the o b v e re inscription the Greek. letter A, which is supposed to indicate an alliance between John and Antiochus Sidetes or Alexander Balas. The type of the cornucopiae is of Egyptian origin, and may on these coins be intended to indicate the continued prosperity of the country.
The next coins are those of Judas Aristobulus, which offer the same type as those of John Hyrcanus. They do not bear the title of king, although Judas is said by Josephus to have so styled himself (Ant. 20:10,1). He reigned only one year, and his coins are extremely rare. They have been erroneously ascribed to Judas Maccabaeus.
To Judas Aristobulus succeeded his brother Alexander Jannaeus, B.C. 105. He is called in the Talmud Jannai, and on his coins Jonathan or Jehonathan. His coins, which are numerous, have a peculiar historical interest. They may be divided into two classes-first, those with Hebrew inscriptions on the obverse and Greek on the reverse; and, secondly, those wholly Hebrew. The bilingual coins present obverse, The King Jehonathan; a half opened flower: reverse, an anchor with two cross-trees, within, an inner circle; (of the King Alexander). Another has obverse, a palm-branch; reverse, a flower. Another the Hebrew inscription Jonathan the King, written in the intermediate spaces of a star with eight rays. SEE ALEXANDER JANNAEUS.
The anchor was borrowed from the coins of the Seleucidae. The star is supposed by some to allude to the prophecy of Balaam, There shall come a star out of Jacob, and to indicate that the king imagined himself to be accomplishing that prophecy. Others, however. regard this figure as that of the spokes of a wheel. It seems that Alexander’s coinage gave great offense to the Pharisees on account, of. its- Greek characters and heathen types. They were, moreover, jealous of his increasing power, and considered that they had many: causes to dislike his government. They attacked him while he was officiating as high-priest, beat him with their lulabs, and pelted him with their ethrogs. This outbreak cost the lives of six thousand of the insurgents. A civil war ensued, in which fifty thousand of the Jews were slain. Towards the close of his reign he appears to have been on better terms with his subjects, and abandoned the coinage which had so greatly incensed them. His second coinage, therefore, substitutes the sacerdotal for the royal titles, and returns to the Hebrew language. It resembles that of his immediate predecessors. Obverse, Jonathan the HighPriest and the Confederation of the Jews, in five lines, and within a wreath; reverse, the cornucopiae and poppy-head or citron. A variety of this coin leaves out the word confederation.
On the death of Alexander Jannaeus, his queen, Alexandra, succeeded to his authority. B the help of the Pharisees she reigned nine years B.C. 78 to 69. We have one coin which singularly enough, since she seems to have continued in the favor of the Pharisees bears her name in Greek characters, gives her the title of queen, and recurs to the heathen type of the anchor. Obverse, (Alexandra the Queen); reverse, a star with eight rays; some traces of, an inscription in Hebrew, which De Saulcy considers may have been a royal title (Nun. Juld. pl. 4, No. 13). To her succeeded her son Hyrcanus II. of whom we have no coins. Then for a short period Aristobulus II and Alexander II, the brothers of Hyrcanus, reigned. The latter struck coins of the same type as the Greek ones of his father, bearing the anchor, the star, and the vase, and giving the name in Greek only with the royal title. From the year B.C. 47 to 40 Hyrcanus was restored, but we have no coins extant which can be attributed to him.
The last coins of the Asmonsean dynasty are those of Antigonus, B.C. 40 to 37. This prince was the son of Aristobulus II: and by the aid of the Parthians and the support of Antony he drove Herod out of Jerusalem, and was proclaimed king of Judea. His coins are copper shekels and half- shekels. The first present a Hebrew inscription on the reverse, and a Greek on the obverse , written round a Wreath: reverse, two cornucopiae, Mattathias the High-Priest and the Confederation of the Jews. Another, which seems to be a half-shekel, bears the Greek name and title within a wreath. Reverse, Mattathias, High-Priest; a single cornucopia, on each side a leaf. Another, the obverse of which is obliterated, bears a single cornucopia, with the name and title in Greek in two straight lines. This is probably a quarter of a copper shekel. From these coins it is manifest that the name Antigonus is the Greek equivalent of Mattathias.
In the year B.C. 37 Herod I, surnamed the Great, after the execution of Antigonus, ascended the throne. Considering the position and resources he attained, there could scarcely fail to be coins with his image and superscription. It will be observed, however, that since the silver coinage of Simon Maccabeeus, no issue has appeared in that metal. The Romans prohibited, in all countries subject to their dominion, the coinage of gold, and permitted that of silver only to a few important cities, among which Jerusalem was not included. The money, therefore, of Herod and his family is all of copper. The coins of Herod the Great do not exhibit his head. The most common represents on the obverse what it seems most reasonable to call a helmet with cheek-pieces; above it, on each side, a palm-branch; in the center between them is sometimes a star. Reverse, a tripod, ; on one side of the tripod the year of the reign, on the other a monogram. SEE HEROD THE GREAT.
Another gives the legend round the helmet, and the Macedonian shield on the reverse. Another presents the name and titles round a caduceus, with the date and monogram in the field. Reverse, a leaved pomegranate. Another, a tripod, a palm-branch on each side. Reverse, a.cross within a wreath or fillet. The cross is probably the Greek letter X, the initial of , the denomination of the coin. Others, again, bear the anchor, the double cornucopia, the vase, and palmbranch. Of Herod Archelaus, B.C. 4 to A.D. 6, there are coins bearing his name in Greek, and evidently to be assigned to him, as they express the title of ethnarch. They are various in type, displaying the anchor, the helmet, the galley with five oars, the prow of a ship, the caduceus, and the bunch of grapes, from which hangs a leaf. They are all of small size.
Herod Antipas succeeded in A.D. 4, and his reign terminated inA.D.’ 39. He is distinguished by the title tetrarch. His coins exhibit obverse, a palm-branch, with his name and title; reverse, a wreath encircling the name of the city which he built on the Lake of Gennesareth, and called after the reigning emperor Tiberias. Others give on the reverse the name of Germanicus Caesar in a wreath.
Herod Philip II was the son of Herod the Great and Cleopatra. He reigned over Auranitis, Batanaeas, and Trachonitis, with some parts about Jamnia, from B.C. 4 to A.D. 34. We have a few coins of this prince; more of Philip I. They exhibit the head of Tiberius on the obverse, and on the reverse a tetrastyle temple with the name and title of Philip as tetrarch. The temple represented is that which Herod the Great had built near Panium, and dedicated to Caesar. SEE PHILIP.
Herod Agrippa I, called in the Acts Herod the king, and on his coins Agrippa the Great, reigned from A.D. 37 to A.D. 44. Of his coinage we have many types. One of these only is Jewish. It bears-obverse, ; the name is spelled with one f, and the legend surrounds an umbrella fringed at the edge: reverse, three ears of corn springing from one stalk; in the field the date A.2., year 6. There are several coins of Agrippa I not bearing Jewish types, some of Which call him the Great, and others designate him as Philo-Caesar or Philo- Claudius. Some coins bear the name and titles of Agrippa on the reverse, with those of the reigning emperor surrounding his portrait on the obverse. Of this class we have pieces of Caligula and Claudius, and on a coin of the latter the Jewish king is represented as sacrificing at an altar to one or more heathen deities. Mr. Madden (Jewish Coinage, p. 110), who seems to doubt the attribution of the coin to Agrippa I, supposes the temple to be that of the god Mama at Gaza. If it be a coin of Herod Agrippa, both it and the act which it commemorates must have been in the highest degree distasteful to his Jewish subjects.
Herod King of Chalcis. A few small coins bearing the name of Herod the King written round a single cornucopia. have been attributed to this prince by Cavedoni and Levy (Jud. Miinzen, p. 82).
Agrippa II. The king Agrippa of the Acts, from A.D. 48 to A.D. 100. We have one coin with a portrait of Agrippa II, and the title of king; it bears on the reverse an anchor. This is assigned by Mr. Madden to the year 58; and he adds (Jewish Coinage, p. 116), the right of striking coins with his head must have been peremptorily put an end to, as in the next year and all future years his coins appear either with the symbolical head of the town at which they were struck, or with that of the reigning emperor. Thus Agrippa II appears on the reverses of Nero, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian; and one coin corroborates the information of Josephus (Ant. 20:9, 4), that Agrippa changed the name of Caesarea Philippi to Neronias, in honor of Nero, from whom he had received considerable accessions of territory. Another coin is still more interesting. It is a small copper piece, bearing its name written round a dot on the obverse, and on the reverse an anchor with the date FT. R.K. year 26 (Cavedoni, Lettore, 1:53). It seems probable, as this. date corresponds with A.D. 73 at which time the Temple was a heap of ruins-that this piece of money may have served for the offerings which the Jews were compelled to bring every Sabbath-day to the synagogue during. the reign of Agrippa. Some of the reverses of Domitian which bear the name of Agrippa give the palm-tree, the galley, and the double cornucopia. These pieces terminate the coinage of the Idumaean dynasty.
The next coins are those struck by the Roman procurators; and it is remarkable that the Romans carefully abstained from introducing into the coinage intended for Judaea any symbols which might be offensive to the people. Those struck during the reign of Augustus are of two classes the first, from the expulsion of Archelaus, A.D. 6 to A.D. 14, exhibit an ear of corn on the obverse, with the name: : and on the reverse a palmtree with the date of the year. Subsequent coins appear of another type -obverse, a cornucopia, ; reverse, an altar, (of Augustus). These are all of small size.
Under Tiberius some coins occur with the name of Julia, his mother- obverse, the name in a wreath; reverse, an ear of corn, or a triple lily like that on the ancient shekel, with the date of the year. Afterwards others were struck with the emperor’s own name round a double cornucopia; reverse, the word . in a wreath. Others with a vase, a vine-leaf, a palm-branch; and some with a sacred vessel which Tiberius himself had presented to the Temple. But the most interesting of these coins are those struck by Pontius Pilate. They bear on the obverse the lituus, with the name of Tiberius Caesar written round it, and on the reverse the date in a wreath. This heathen symbol, suggested, as Mr. Madden thinks likely (Jewish Coinage, p. 149), by the strong passion which Tiberius is known to have entertained for augurs and astrologers. comes with a peculiar appropriateness before our eyes on the coinage of a procurator by whom our Lord was given over to be crucified.
Coins struck under Claudius bear on the obverse two palm-branches crossed; reverse, the name of Julia Agrippina. Others with a palm-tree on the reverse commemorate, on the obverse the names of Nero and Britannicus Caesar. These coins were struck by the procurator Claudius Felix, as are those also which bear the name of Nero in a wreath; the obverse exhibiting a palm-branch, with the name Caesar and the date the year 5, namely, from his association with Cumanus.
Felix continued procurator till A.D. 55, when he was recalled; and, as we learn from the Acts, Porcius Festus succeeded him. Next came Albinus, in A.D. 62, and finally Gessius Florus, in A.D. 65. Tacitus (Hist. v. 10) states that this man’s tyranny drove the Jews into open revolt. Of these last three procurators we have no coins.
The revolt occasioned by the intolerable oppression of Gessius Florus established for a time an independent government at Jerusalem; and Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high-priest, refused to offer sacrifices for the welfare of the Roman empire, massacred the Roman garrison, and remained for some time master of Jerusalem. This was in A.D. 66. Eleazar struck silver coins bearing on the obverse a vase, with the words round it Eleazar the High-Priest; to the right of the vase a palm branch; reverse, a cluster of grapes, FirstYear of the Redemption of Israel. Others, of copper, bear the legend The Liberty of Zion, and the date Year Two.
Another, with similar obverse, bears on the reverse the name Simon in a wreath. This latter, of which only one specimen exists, is considered a forgery, but an imitation of a genuine coin. If so, it would intimate that Eleazar and Simon, during the time that they were acting in concert, issued coins hearing both their names. A curious shekel is attributed by Dr. Levy to Eleazar: obverse, Jerusalem, a tetrastyle temple; reverse, First Year of the Redemption of Israel; thelulab, to the left of it the ethrog. A similar shekel occurs of the second year. There are also copper coins of the same period, one having on the obverse a palm-tree with the legend Eleazar the High Priest, written retrograde; reverse, a cluster of grapes, with the legend First Year of the Redemption of Israel (Revue -Numismatique, 1860, pl. 3:3, 4).
Simon the son of Gioras also struck coins of a similar character with those of Eleazar: obverse, Simon within a wreath; reverse, The Deliverance of Jerusalem; a pitcher and palm-branch. Dr. Levy considers that the pitcher on these coins is not intended to be a repetition of that on the shekels of Simon Maccabaeus, but to commemorate a Temple ceremony which on the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles was held with great pomp. A golden pitcher was filled with water from the spring of Siloam; and when the priests arrived with it at the water-gate, they blew the trumpet. Another with obverse, a cluster of grapes; Simon; reverse, a palm-branch, Second Year of the Deliverance of Israel. Another has on the obverse Simon, in a wreath; reverse, a three-stringed lyre instead of the pitcher. Some with this type of the lyre have no date. Copper coins of the same period appear bearing the name of Simon: obverse, Simon, the name divided by a palm-tree; reverse, The Deliverance of Jerusalem; a vine- leaf. Another with a cluster of grapes instead of the vine-leaf. Another with the date of the second year. Another with Jerusalem instead of Simon. Another similar, with date of the second year.
Simon the son of Gamaliel is believed to have struck coins; and those are attributed to him which bear the title of Nasi-chief or prince, used in the later age of the Jewish polity to signify prince or president of the Sanhedrim. One is of a large size, and probably struck on a large brass Roman coin. It bears the legend Simon Prince of Israel, in a wreath clasped with a gem; and reverse, a vase with two handles; First Year of the Redemption of Israel. Other coins are of the usual size the half- copper shekel: Simon Prince of Israel, written on the two sides of a palm-tree; reverse, vine-leaf; First Year of the Redemption of Israel. A similar coin has the date of the second year. To the same prince must be attributed coins with the, same legends, but bearing on the obverse a palm- branch within a wreath, and on the reverse a lyre with three, five, or six strings.
Coins occur also in copper without any name: obverse, a vase with two handles; The Year Two; reverse, a vine-leaf; The Deliverance of Zion. Another with the Year Three. These are thought to have been struck by the authority of the Sanhedrim.
Another coin of the period of this first revolt, bearing the vine-leaf and the palm-tree, may possibly belong to Ananus or John of Gischala; but this is a matter of conjecture. This revolt terminated in the taking of Jerusalem by Titus and the destruction of the Temple.
The coins struck by Vespasian and Titus to commemorate the capture of Jerusalem, though not Jewish coins, still merit some notice here. They are of all metals and sizes, and many are of very beautiful workmanship. They exhibit on the obverse the head of the emperor, with his titles, and usually the date of his tribunitian power. On the reverse is the figure of the captive Judaea, generally sitting on the ground under a palm tree, and in one instance the hands, bound behind the back. On the gold and silver the legend, where there is one, of the reverse, is simply Judaea, or Judaea devicta; on the brass, Judaea capta, Judaea devicta, and Judaea navalis. This coin refers to some victories gained over a body of Jews who had built a few small vessels and committed piracies on the coasts of Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt. On the brass coins which commemorate the conquest the captive sometimes appears guarded by a Roman soldier; sometimes a captive Jew stands on one side of the palm-tree, with his hands tied behind his back, and the female figure seated on the ground on the other. A coin of this kind was also struck by Domitian. SEE MONEY.
During the reign of the last emperor of the Flavian family the Jews were treated with great severity; and among the many acts of leniency which characterized the accession of Nerva, one was that he abolished the Jewish tribute, and struck a coin with the remarkable legend Fisci Judaici calumnia sublata, the words written round a palm.
But the Jews continued their rebellions, and in the reign of Hadrian a war broke out under the leadership of the celebrated Simon Barcochab (the son of a star). Of this leader we have, it appears, a curious and interesting series of coins, and they are the last ever struck by the Jews as an independent people. Till recently many of them, if not all, have been attributed to Simon the son of Gioras, whose money has already been noticed; but the fact that many are struck on Roman denarii of Trajan affords a proof not to be gainsaid that they belong to the later chief. They display the same types as the coins of the earlier revolt. Obverse, Simon, within a wreath. Reverse, the pitcher and palm-branch; The Deliverance of Jerusalem struck on a denarius of Vespasian, the legend of which is partly legible. Others of the same type exhibit traces of the legends of Titus, Domitian, and Trajan. Another type – Simon, round a cluster of grapes; reverse, The Deliverance of Jerusalem, round a three-stringed lyre. Another type Simon, as before; reverse, The Deliverance of Jerusalem, round two trumpets. Another type Simon, within a wreath; reverse, Second Year of the Deliverance of Jerusalem, a palm branch. Another has obverse, the cluster; reverse, the palm-branch. These all seem to have been restruck upon Roman denarii. A remarkable and very interesting coin appears also to belong to Simon Barcochab. It is a shekel, and may be thus described: Obverse, Simon, on the sides of a tetrastyle temple above, a star; reverse, The Deliverance of Jerusalem, the blab and ethrog. Another has the date of the second year. These coins have been attributed to Simon the son of Gioras; but they bear traces of being struck on coins of Vespasian, and the presence of the star above the temple seems to point them out as belonging to Barcochab. There is also a copper coin struck on a piece of Trajan, and identifiable in like manner: obverse, Simon, on either side of a palm-tree; reverse, The Deliverance of Jerusalem; a vine-leaf.
III. Christian Coinage. That with which we are specially concerned is the numismatics of the first centuries of our aera, or prior to mediaeval times. Strictly this ought to begin with Constantine the Great, because from his time the adoption of the Christian religion was recognized on the coins of the empire; but there are some anterior circumstances which scientifically prepared the way for this feature.
1. Christian Numismatics before Constantine. Three signs of Christianity have been noted by numismatists on the medals prior to the period in question: namely the monograph of Christ, the representation of the deluge, and the formula in pace. We will briefly recapitulate three leading facts relating to each in this connection.
a. A medallion with the effigy of Trajan-Decius, struck at Moenia, in Lydia, presents this very curious peculiarity, that at the top of the reverse, which represents Bacchus in a car drawn by two panthers, the letters X and P of the Greek word APX, which made part of the legend, are found combined in such a manner as exactly to form the monogram of Christ.
b. We have now to speak of certain medals of Apamea, in Phrygia, of the effigy of Septimius Severus, and of Macrerius and Philip his father, which bear on the reverse a double scene, usually referred to the deluge. On these medals we discover, first in the ark, and afterwards out of it, the figures of a man and a woman, which were formerly regarded as those of Deucalioni and Pyrrha; but the two birds in the same connection, and especially the dove with the olive-branch, are foreign to the story of the son of Prometheus. It still remains a difficulty to explain the relation of the Jewish tradition with the heathen city of Asia Minor, and with the early Church (Eckhel, Doctrin. Num. 3:137). Its occurrence in the Catacombs of Rome is probably to be explained as a symbol of salvation by the Gospel ark of safety. SEE NOAHS ARK.
c. Finally, there remains a bronze denarius of the empress Salonina, wife of Gallienus, on the reverse of which is read the altogether unusual legend, Augusta in pace, encircling the empress, seated, on the left, and holding in one hand a branch of olive, and a scepter in the other. Hence the presumption has arisen that Salonina was a Christian.
2. Christian Numismatics of Constantine the Great. A careful consideration of these coins leads to the following general conclusions, namely, that while his adversaries and competitors survived, this emperor tolerated on his medals the images of the pagan deities, which, in fact, often occur; but that from the time that, by the defeat of Licinius in 323, he became master of the Roman world, he excluded them altogether, substituting the commemorative types of his own military exploits and civil enterprises, and probably already some Christian symbols; and that when he at length founded a new metropolis of the empire, he freely placed upon his coins, and on those of his sons the Caesars, either the monogram of Christ or other signs appropriate to the true religion. See Cavedoni, Ricerche medaglie di Cozstantino (Modena, 1858); Feuardent, Essai sur les Medailles de Constantin (Paris, 1858); Garucci, Nunismatica Constantiniana (Rome, 1858). This last savant thus classifies the coins of this period:
a. A certain number of these bear the legend Virtus exercitus; and a fact worthy of remark, although but little observed hitherto, is that three of these pieces belong to the two Licinii. We are entitled to believe that the coins comprising this series were struck between the years 321 and 323.
b. To an age but little later belong a series of very interesting pieces with the images of Constantine, the father, and Crispus and Constantine the younger, bearing on the reverse several signs of Christianity, and the legend Victoriae laetae princ. perp. Several copies struck at Siscia or Arles have in place of the monogram two stars, composed of the letters I and X, i.e. Jesus Christ.
c. The legend Gloria exercitus is read on a great number of pieces of Constantine the younger; of the Constantii his sons, and of Dalmatius his nephew, with various Christian symbols, of the general type below.
d. There are, some pieces with the legend of Constantinople, or else of Rome or the Roman people, which have been assigned to Constantine or his sons. e. Finally, we have some medals of consecration, on which the title ducis is given to Constantine. Eckhel was not aware of this epithet being attributed to Constantine and a number of his successors after their death.
3. Numismatics of the Successors of Constantine lown to Julian the Apostate. The most important of the changes that appear in these coins, and one that seems to have taken place in the very year that followed the death of Constantine, is the introduction of the symbols of eternity, the a and w, gradually amplified, and with various legends and devices, as in the preceding and following example.
4. Christian Numismatics after Julian the Apostate to Augustulus (or the end of the empire of the West). Some antiquarians attribute to Julian a bronze medallion containing a figure of the Christian monogram; but if the piece be genuine it must belong to the very first portion of his reign. All his other coins, and they are very numerous, either bear no religious symbol, or else the figure of some of the pagan deities, as Apollo, Jupiter, Nilus, the Genius of Antioch, Anubis, etc.
Under Jovian, the immediate successor of Julian, Christianity resumed on the public coins its place, for the moment usurped, but not again to be lost. Jovian’s coins bear new Christian types, and various devices, some equestrian, and generally the legend Adventus Augusti.
Valentinian I, Valens, Procopius, Gratian, and Valentinian II introduced little modification into the signs of Christianity on their coins. The most common type is the ever-present labarum in the hand of the emperor, and the simple letter X in place of the full monogram of Christ. The following are notable examples:
Under Theodosius I, justly called the Great, and who had the distinguished honor of definitely establishing the Christian faith throughout the empire, few new types of coinage are found.
The medals of the tyrant Maximus, those of his son Victor, and likewise those of Eugenius, a usurper like them, have the marks of Christianity more rare, and those that occur are of the common type.
Honorius and Arcadius, on dividing the empire of their father, adopted the same types of money; it even appears that for a certain time the same coins served for both portions of the empire. A notable innovation is due to these two princes, namely, the introduction of the monogram of Christ on the scepter. The usual legend is Victoria Augg.
Two empresses bore the name of Eudoxia-one the wife of Arcadius, the other of Theodosius II. The common inscription is El. Eudoxia. A gold piece bearing the legend Salus Orientis, Felicitas Occidentis, is believed to belong to the former.
Under Placidia, a daughter of Theodosius, and successively wife of Ataulphus and Constantius, we may note hitherto unusual symbols of Christianity. The following is an example:
In the time of Valentinian II and Theodosius the younger the cross appears on almost all the pieces in various positions, and completely replaces the two forms of the monogram, of Christ. The latter prince, whoruled the East, was entitled to as little credit as his colleague for valor in arms. Nevertheless he obtained compliments on coins.
The brief occupancy of the throne by Petronius Maximus and Avitus has left no traces on numismatics. In the East, under Marcion and Leo, we see reproduced the familiar types of the preceding reigns. At Rome Majorianus is frequently represented with the monogram of Christ on his shield, or on a fibula upon his left arm, and on the reverse a subdued dragon.
Anthemius and Leo generally have a nimbus and toga, with a long cross like a spear and a globe; sometimes both emperors diademed and in military dress, clasping hands, with a tablet between their heads surmounted by a cross on which is inscribed Pax.
But in all that we have hitherto found, nothing perhaps has been so remarkable as the pious zeal exhibited in the legend Salus mundi surrounding the cross on a gold piece of Olybrius.
No innovation in the types of Christian coins occurs during the following reigns of Zeno, Glycerus, Julius Nepos, or Romulus Augustulus, with whom the empire of the West expired. The usual type of his money is a cross in a crown of laurel.
5. From the Fall of the Western Empire to the End of the Sixth Century. Under Anastasius I the early Roman type disappears almost completely from the coinage to give place to the Byzantine character, which it preserves, although with many modifications, down to the capture of Constantinople. Numismatic art fell thereafter, especially that in copper, into a great decadence, and after Honorius into complete barbarism. Anastasius ordered that his pieces. of copper should express their value in Greek or Roman numerals.
The coins of the Gothic kings who occupied Italy from 476 to 553, and those of the Vandals who reigned in Africa from 428 to 534, take their place in the Byzantine series, since they generally bear the effigy of the contemporary emperors of the East, Anastasius, Justin I, or Justinian I. They often have the cross on the reverse side. The same is the case with the autonomous medals of Ravenna and Carthage of the same period.
The coins of Justin II do not differ from those of the three preceding reigns,-at least when that prince is the sole figure on them. Occasionally, however, he is represented with his wife Sophia, and the legend Vita.
The reverse of some coins of Tiberius Constantine presents for the first time those elevated crosses, or on a globe, of which the type becomes very frequent a little later, especially after the time of Heraclius.
We thus arrive at the year 582, which is near the close of the, period we are considering. Indeed, up to the time of Phocas, who begins the seventh century. (602), Christian numismatics present no new feature. In the course of this century, that is to say, after Heraclius up to Justinian II, the legend Deus adjuta Romanis appears, with the cross very variously formed. Under the latter prince, too, Byzantine money began to bear the Constantinian motto in Greek, which appears afresh under Nicephorus I in the hybrid form Jesus Christus nica.
6. Coinageof the Last Period of the Byzantine Empire. In the eighth century the Byzantine money assumes still more decided marks of debased Christianity, by admitting, in place of pious legends, the images of Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary, angels, and the saints. We are passing the borders of antiquity in order to give a complete view of the numismatics of the Eastern empire. The following examples will suffice for the purpose…
IV. Literature. In addition to the works above noted, and those cited under COIN SEE COIN and MONEY SEE MONEY , see Bayer, De numis Hebsrceo-Samar. (Valen. 1781; with supplem. Vindicice, 1790); Hardouin, De nummis Her-odiazis (Par. 1693); Walsh, Notice of Coins illustrating Christianity (Lond. 1827); Ziebich, De numnis antiquis sacris (Viteb. 1745); King, Early Christian Numismatics (Lond. 1873); De Saulcy, Numismatique de la Terre Sainte (Par. 1874); Knight, Nummni veteri in Museo Britannico (Lond. 1830); Madden, Jewish Coinage (ibid. 1864); Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum (Vienna, 1795-1826); Miounet, Description des Medailles ahtiques Gr-ecs et Romaines (Par. 1806-1839); Henin, Numismatique Ancienne (ibid. 1830); Grasset, Alte Numismatik (Leips. 1852, 1853); Prime, Coins, Medals, and Seals (N. Y. 1861); Vaillant, Numnismata Imperatorum Romanorum (Par. 1674); Ackerman, Numismatic Illustrations of the N.T. (Lond. 1846); Cavedoni, Numismatica Biblica (1850-1855; transl. in German, with additions by Werlthoff, 1855, 1856); Levy, Jidische Miinzen (Breslau, 1862); Humphreys, The Coin Collector’s Manual (Lond. 1869).