The leading coin of Greece and the Greek colonies was the stater, so called because founded on a standard of weight generally received before the introduction of coined money. There were double staters, and half, third, and quarter staters, and the stater was equivalent in value to six of the silver pieces celled drachma?. The obolus was one sixth of the drachma, at first struck in silver, in later times in copper.
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 it portion of them, were after wards added, the name, when in full, being in the ssenitive 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 drachinie) of Alexafider I., of Macedon.
Among the early coins of Asia,. one of the, most celebrated is the stater Daricus or attic, named from Darius Hystaspes, It had for symbol an archer kneeling on one Irnee, and seems to have been coined for the Greek colonies Of Asia by theirPersian 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 com plete coin is a beautiful medal struck at Syracuse, with the head of Proserpine accom panied 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 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 pretence of deification, Lysimacbus 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 Seleucidm, in Asia, of silver, and of the Lagidw or Ptole mies, in Egypt, of gold.
In Palestine there is an interesting series of coins founded on the religious history of the Jewish nation, and assigned to Simon Maccaltwus. They are shekels and half shekels, equivalent to two attic drachmae and one drachma respectively. The shekels •
bear on the obverse the pot of manna, with the inscription "Schekel Israel" (the Shekel of Israel); on the reverse is Aaron's rod with three flowers, and the legend " Ierous chalim kedoschah" (Jerusalem the holy). The inscriptions are in the Samaritan charac ter. The successors of Simon assumed the title of king, and placed their portraits on the coins, with inscriptions in Greek as well as in Hebrew.
• Roman coins belong to three different series, known as the republican, the family, and the imperial.
The so-called republican, the earliest coinage, began at an early period of Roman his tory, and subsisted till about 80 B.C. Its standard Metal was copper, or rather as or bronze, an alloy of copper. The standard unit Was the pound weight divided into twelve ounces. The ces, cis, or pound of bronze, is said to have received a state impress as early as the reign of Servius Tullius, 578 B.C. This gigantic piece was oblong like a brick, and stamped with the representation of an ox or sheep, whence the word petunia, from peens, 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 sex taus, or the sixth part, generally bears the head of Mercury, and the uncia, or ounce piece, 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 mytho logical 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 our penny, which was at first of the value of two and a half, afterwards tour 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 dupon dius was called the assaritnn, an old name of the as. The assarium is known to nutnis matists as the third bronze.