In the French collection, however, there is a complete sequence of Attic gold coins, consisting of a stater, drachm or hemistater, triobolon, diobolon, obolos, and heiniobolon, supposed to have been issued about the time of Pericles ; gold obols of Argos, of gra. ; triobolon of Carystus, with head of Hercules and a bull, of 49.3 grs.; others of Aetolia, on the Attic standards, a triobolon of larotia, of 5915 grs., and a drachm of Acarnania, are known. But the principal ancient gold coins are, the Doric, of 129 grs., with an archer and incuse square, worth 15-20 Attic drachms—the coins with which the Persians bribed the orators of Athens and Losotia ; the stater of Cyzicus, worth (n.c. 35o) 28 Attic drachma, and mentioned as the monthly pay of a soldier by Xenophon, with the adjunct of a fish as its normal type ; the stater of Ph:acme, of 138 grs., and distater of 276 gra., and submultiples, tetarto 4th, hekte and hemihekta worth S obols; ;staters of Lampaacus, with the head of Poseidon or Priapus, and the winged sea-horse, of 129 gra.; and at Cyrene, gold octodrachins or tetrastaters, and the large issues of staters and its multiples by Philip 11. and his successors, on a standard of 133 gra. ; and the large gold dekadrachms, tetra dracluns, pentadrachins, and other pieces of the Ptolemies. Many of these later pieces of Ionia, in the finest style of the art, are of electrum, and were issued as submultiples of an electrum stater. The largest piece was the 16-staters of Lysimachue.
The Greek autonomous silver coins have been divided into three periods, the first from B.C. 895 to 471, from Midden of Argos, or the Lydians, to Alexander I., of Macedon, the type simple and ;musket's, often only animals, inscriptions short and monosyllabic, pieces thick and globular, engrailed rings like borders of Etruscan searahwi, the reverses with hollow squares made by striking on a jagged die. 2. Front Alexander I., n.c. 478, to Philip II. the art is much improved, the shape flatter and thinner, the inscriptions more complete, types are introduced on the reverse in the hollow square, which disappears under Amyntaa III., B.C. 371 ; the types are surrounded by an engrailed ring. 3. From Amyntas Ill., to B.C. 100, about 300 years, the finest period of the arts, types on obverse and reverse complete, the age of Phidias, Zeuxis, Polygnotus, and Praxiteles, _names of magistrates and engravers appear; portraits are introduced by the successors of Alexander the Great. This is also a great epoch for gent engraving. Greek gold and copper coins fall into this period. 4. With the rise of the Roman power the gold and silver disappear, a few imperial mints, such as Ciesarea in Cappadocia, Antioch, Amisus, and Tarsus alone con tinuing to have the privilege of striking either 'tertian denarii or larger pieces till the time of Hadrian. The mint of Alexandria struck silver or potin, till the time of Gallienus. The letters follow the rule of
inscriptions, the titles are pompous. In this last period only copper was coined with the name of the cities.
The principal coins which have been found are, the dekadrachnis, or large silver coins of Athens; the dekadrachtns, or Syracusau medal lions; octodmehins of Macedonia, the Athenian tetradraelims, called the stater or Atticus—a long series extensively imitated by other cities and by princes; the didrachms of 2Egina and Corinth ; the dracluns used all over Greece and Asia Minor ; the tctrobolou or drachm ; the triobolon, or hemidrachm ; the diobolon, or drachm ; the trihemiobolon drachm; the obolos, or , drachm, struck by cities prior to the introduc tion of copper; the hemiobolon, cir drachm; .and the # obolos, or drachm ; and I obolos, or t, drachm, the smallest of all silver coins struck at Athens. In the Attic standard, the drachm weighed gra., and the 269508, and of this coin, the dollar of antiquity, called the -yaat'i Aaupacruc.), or Laurian owl,' from the mines of silver, and the type, 4 went to the gold stater, or chrysos; 25 to the mna, and 150 to the talent. Of these tetradrachno, which are the monetary standard of measure of antiquity, there are two types, the archaic coin, with the head of the archaic Athene, and the reverse an owl and olive branch, which continued till almost, the ago of Alexander ; and those of later than his reign with the helmed head of Athene of Pheidhus, and the owl on an amphora, with the names of the three magis trates. These continued till the age of Mithridates, and even of the Romans.
In all the transactions of commerce, the drachm was the unit of value; the Attic standard was used at Corinth, Acarnania, Arnpliilo chia, Leucadia, Epirus, Acanthus, Sicily and ey relic ; but under different forms, the Athenian coin was the tetmdraelim, the Corinthian the didrachin—higher values are abnormal exceptions. The other stand ards were the tEginetan, consisting of 96 grs., introduced by Pheidon, from some Phoenician source, and the dick:whims stamped with a tortoise which were called chclonai, tortoises, or pachriai, thick, by the Athenians ; they prevailed in Breotia, Arcadia, Elia, Skyou, Argos, Locris, and some of the isles. The other principal drachm was the Xecedoninn of 53 gra, which was used till the time of Alexander the Great, who substituted the Attie standard. Of Chios, there were penta drachnus, of 236 gra., supposing the drachm to have been about 47 gra. But the fact is, that it is still requisite to study the monetary history of each Greek state per se, as the currency was always slightly changing according to political circumstances and the rate of value, and the ancients had not probably the trial per pyx, or even a very accurate manner of determining the weight of their pieces, the irregular shapes of which offered tempting facilities for filing or paring.