At first, only the Roman coins were inscribed with the Latin language. But when the Romans, in the course of time, sent out colonies into the conquered provinces, they made their own language predominant. In Corinth, for example, as soon as it was converted into a Roman colony by Julius CRsar, the money was coined with Latin inscriptions, although this town was situated in the centre of Greece. With this exception, however, the Romans left the Greek cities full liberty to retain their own language on their coins. During the decline of the empire, the Greek cities ceased to coin money ; and afterwards certain towns were ap pointed to coin money for the use of the provinces, and the pay of the soldiers, and upon these coins the Latin language alone was employed.
The other languages anciently- used upon coins in Europe were the old Spanish, of which the alphabet is unknown; :Ind the old Gaulic, composed of Latin cha racters, frequently mixed with Greek, borrowed partly from the Romans, and partly from the Greek colonial town of Marseilles, in Gaul.
In Asia, the Hebrew language occurs upon the coins of Judea, which consisted of shekels, and their subdi visions. The inscriptions, however, are in the Samari tan character, as in the specimen we have given, Plate CCCCXX. Fig. 19. On the one side is represented a vase, with the inscription : Shekel Israel, " Shekel of Israel ;" and on the other, a tripartite flowering sprig, with the words: Jerusalem Kedoschah, " Jerusalem the holy." All those shekels, bearing an Hebrew inscrip tion in Assyrian characters, such as are used in the printed Bibles, are entirely modern forgeries. The nscriptions in the Parthian language, on the coins of the kings of Parthia, and the Persian on the coins of the kings of Persia, have not been explained by antiqua rians.
In Aftica, we have inscriptions in the Numidian lan guage on the coins of Numidia, which perhaps has some affinity with the neighbouring Punic.
With regard to the imitations and forgeries of coins, these are either of ancient or of modern execution. The former are what we might call false or bad money: the latter have been executed with the view of passing for genuine antiques. The forgery, in ancient times, ap pears in coins of copper, iron, or lead, covered over, very artfully, with a fine coat of some more precious metal. On this account they are called suberati, nr nellicutati; and the base metal, which constitutes the substance of the coin, is called aninza nutni. lt is sel dom that we find forgeries of this description in the gold coin, because the deception would be easily detect ed by the deficiency of weight. But the number of forgeries in the Greek and Roman silver coin is enor mous.
An immense deal of ingenuity has been employed, in modern times, in counterfeiting ancient coins, so as to pass upon the inexperienced connoisseur for genuine antiques. Ile who is not aware, that since, in modern times, the montnnents of antiquity began to be prized, not individuals only have devoted themselves to this trade, hut that in Italy, France, and even in Asia, regu lar manufactories have been established for the fabrica tion of these articles, must naturally be astonished af the extraordinary number of these forgeries. And what
is still more to be wondered at, not only have those rare pieces been imitated, the sale of which would necessa rily insure a large profit ; but even the most common coins have been frequently forged, which can be pur chased every day for nearly their intrinsic value.
In executing these forgeries, two different modes seem to have been adopted. The artist either invented a coin which never had an existence, or Ile counterfeited a real antique. 'co the first class belong the coins of Ju lius C:esar, with the inscription Veni, Vidi, Vici ; those of the queen Artemisia with her Mausoleum ; of Dido with the city of Carthage ; the heads of .1iltiades, The mistocics, &c. A very superficial knowledge of numis matological science will suffice to detect them. Much. art and ingenuity has been employed upon the second species of forgeries. The most common method is, to form a mould from a genuine coin, and to pour into it liquid metal. But as all ancient coins, with very few exceptions, are struck from a die, all those which are thus cast may at once be declared to be forgeries. But this inode of fabrication is easily detected from the ine qualities which are observable on the surface of a cast coin ; for in coins struck from a die the surface is al: was perfectly smooth. Air Pinkerton mentions, that in order to obviate this, the small sand-holes in cast coins were filled up with mastic, the letters retouched with a graver, and the whole covered with varnish. But in gold and silver medals there can be no deception of this kind ; and even in those of brass and copper the quality of the varnish betrays the imposition. On cast coins, too, the letters and figures are never sufficiently sharp, and on their edges may be observed marks of the file. As this kind of forgery, therefore, is easily detected, other methods have been adopted. A real antique has been taken, and, with the assistance of the graver, tilt: head of an emperor, and the inscription, have beer, sr altered, that a very common imperial coin has been con verted into a rare and precious coin of some other em peror. Or two genuine antiques are sawed asunder through the middle, and the reverse of the one soldered to the obverse or the other. But the most ingenious device tvliich has been fallen upon, is that of manufac turing false dies after genuine antiques,—a mode of for gery which was practised with great success in the 16th century, by Cavino and Bassinno of Padua, whose imi tations are at this day held in high esteem, on account of their wonderful execution.
It would be endless to detail all the artifices which have been resorted to, with a view of imposing upon connoisseurs, by offering false antiques for sale. Those who wish for more information upon this subject, may consult Beauvais and Pinkerton. Nothing, however, can supersede correct knowledge and a practised eye. We would only caution ignorant collectors how they purchase a coin of Otho in brass, a coin of Pescen nius Niger, or of Gordianus Africanus; for of these there are a thousand counterfeits for one genuine, and, as they are extremely rare, they are sold at a very high price.