Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be pro per to say a few words respecting another species of coins, which have been called (signa incusa.) By this we understand a second, but in com parison much smaller impressions made at a later period, upon one or other of the sides of a coin already struck. These second impressions, or counter-marks, consist of figures or inscriptions, sometimes of both together.
wo or three of them were sometimes struck upon the same side, often without the smallest regard to propriety, in so much that the finest portraits are frequently spoil ed. An example of this will be found in the coin, Plate CCCCXX. Fig. 16. That this coin belongs to Side in Pamphylia, is evident from the pomegranate. In the middle or the countenance there is a small countermark, representing a bow and quiver, with the inscription : IIEPTA, being the first letters of the city or Pergamus in Alysia. The counter-marks on Roman coins consist, for the most part, merely of inscriptions ; e. g. TI, AVG. or VES. that is, Tiberius .dugustus, Vespasianus Imperator. They freqtiently exhibit the puzzling in scription, NCAPR, of which no antiquary has hitherto been able to give a satisfactory explanation. The pro bable reason for making these countermarks was to ren der a foreign coin current in the countty into which it was introduced. Of another description are those me dals which seem to have been re-coined, by making a fresh itnpression upon both sides. In them, the new stamp took effect only on the more prominent parts ; and hence the deeper traces of the old coin are still perceptible. These coins are called, in Latin, ?Mini rccusi.
With regard to the languages used in the inscriptious on ancient coins, those most worthy of noticc are the Phccnician, the Creek, and the Latin, not only because they appear upon the greatest number of ancient coins, but also because they were extensively employed in foreign countries. The Phccnician language was com monly used by the towns in Phcenicia, before it was expelled by the Greeks, under the successors of Alex ander the Great, and afterwards. As the Phcenicians, in the most ancient times, carried on an extensive trade, their language was understood along the greater part of thc coast of the Mediterranean. Indeed, we have coins of several towns of Spain, particularly of Godes, or Cadiz, which they founded, bearing Phernician in scriptions. The Punic dialect, which was spoken at Carthage, also founded by a Phcenician colony, was.a daughter of the Phccnician, and is found on the beauti ful gold and silver coins which were struck in the Carthaginian portion of the island of Sicily. We have
given a specimen of one of these in copper. Plate CCCCXX. Fig. 17. No great progress, however, has yet been made in explaining the inscriptions in these MO languages.
The Greeks, originally a small tribe, whose proper country was bounded on the North by Thessaly, and on the south by the Peloponnesus, rapidly extended them selves in all directions. They first peopled all the islands of the Archipelago ; then, proceeding farther, they occupied Sicily, the coasts of lower Italy, of Epirus, Illyria, Thrace, Asia Minor, and the Euxine sea, as far as Tauria and Colchis, with their colonial towns. In Africa, they founded the splendid Cyrene ; in Gaul, Alarseilles; and in Spain, Emporia and Rhoda. Along with their religion, their manners, and their arts, they every where introduced their OW11 language ; and nu merous specimens of the most ancient coins of all these colonies are still preserved. Hitherto, as we have seen, the Greeks contented themselves with occupying the coasts. But, in the course of time, Alexander the Great penetrated into the very heart of Asia, and proceeded in his wonderful career as far as India. 'file .Macedo Man generals, who divided his conquests amongst them after his death, introduced every where the Greek lan guage ; and from this period, the countries of Lydia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, Syria, Phamicia, Egypt, and CVC11 some of the provinces situated beyond the Euphrates and Tigris, employed this language in the inscriptions on their coins.
The orthography of the Greek language suffered many changes, from the period when Cadmus intro duced the Phcenician alphabet, to the time of Alexander the Great. 'Without being aware of this, we should often be liable to commit mistakes in reading the in scriptions upon ancient coins. Thus, the word 1-11 AIERA, which occurs upon the most ancient coins of the town of Himera in Sicily, (Plate CCCCXX. Fig. 18,) might easily be taken for Latin ; while, in reality, it is genuine, though old, Greek. For among the most ancient Greeks the H, before it came to denote tile long E, was, as in Latin, an aspirate ; and the old Greek Rho was perfectly similar to the Roman R. The mode of writing IMEPA, therefore, is more modern. AIany such examples are to be found upon coins ; and they confirm what Pliny asserts, viz. that the most ancient Greek characters were the same as the Roman.