The Demos (or people), Syncletus (or senate), and Boule (or c appear on late coins. Alliances between the cities are indicated early period by the initials of two cities, at a later age by the OMONOIA. The participation in games is shown by KOINON (cc, munity).
The names of persons appear first on the archaic coins of the second period, and generally in the genitive, indicating the eponymous magistrates. The earliest names are those of the kings of Macedon, the archons of Abdera, as AAMANAPOT, Alexander of Macedon, B.C.
474, and others. The title of king indeed appears with Getas, King of Hedonis, about 474 B.O., but it forms an exception to the rule, the title of king being first assumed by Alexander the Great. His successors adopted titles in addition to their names, and Antiochus XII.
is called the King Antiochus, Dionysos, illustrious, father loving, Victorious. Besides the title of king, others appear, as the Ethnarch applied to Herod, and dynastes to Polemo of Olba. A rarer ad dress is that of Ern, " under," prefixed to the name of the magistrate, which occurs on the coins of Hicetas of Syracuse, but is commonly used on the imperial Greek coins. The inscriptions of these coins have prefixed to the names of the magistrates the offices which they held in the different cities, as the scribe (7papparcus), archon (apxcup), mayor (etpopor), praetor (o-rparnyos), propractor magis trate (srpuTaveus), treasurer (raptor), high priest (apxtepevs), priest (tEpeus), or priestess (cepcia), president of the games in Asia (Acriapxos), director of the gymnasium (navacrgapxns), of the festivals (runny PaPrns), master of the games (a7coroecrns), theologian (ecoAors). Some coins from the imperial times have inscriptions recording their dedication by individuals or magistrates to a district or city, as Hosti lius Marcellus, priest of Antinous, has dedicated it to the Achteaus. On the coins of Macedon, after its subjection to Rome, the name of the people is in Greek, MAKEAONI1N, that of the magistrates, AES1LLAS, in Latin.
Subordinate to the names of princes and magistrates are dates first introduced by the successors of Alexander. The Egyptian coins are dated in the Egyptian renal year till the time of Diocletian, and are preceded by L (Awcal3os), or year ; the imperial coins often have dates preceded by ET or ETOTE, " year "—especially those of the east— the chief urns found are the Seleucian commencing BA 312, in Syria, Phoenicia, and Judtea ; the Pompeian/ B.G. 63, in Syria and Phoenicia ; the Ciosarian, sac. 47 or 48, in Syria; the Actian, B.C. 31, in Syria ; the Egyptian, B.C. 300, commencing with Ptolemy I. ; and that of Pontus, B.c. 296.
The names of games, as KAICAPEIA, the Cusarian, ATTAAEIA, the Attalian ; and many others are inscribed on imperial coins.
Inscriptions recording the value are seen on a few rare imperial coins, as AIAPAXMON, a didrachm, on a silver coin of Nero, struck at Cusarea, in Cappadocia ; and on a copper coin of Rhodes, APAXMH, or APAINH on those of Ephesus; and APAXMA ou a bronze coin ; AI1APION, AVO, TPIA, HMIV on the copper of Chios ; TPIOBOAO[N] on those of Samothracia ; HMIOBEAIN on those of lEgium ; XAAXOT/ on coins of Antioch ; AIXAAKON on those of Chios.
Single letters besides the names of magistrates and cities, and ligatures of letters called monograms, are of frequent occurrence on the coins.
Sometimes the names of cities are thus compressed, as Parium ; ' ' X Achma • Y Tyre ; or the name of the eponymous magistrates ; A dates are rarely thus expressed. On the coins of some cities and
princes, solitary letters are used to indicate the order of the issue of the coins from the mint, the letters being used in alphabetical order, and when the series was exhausted the letters were doubled for a new series. The silver coins of Arsinoe have single, and the gold double letters to mark the order of issue.
It has been usual to consider the currency according to the system of Eckhel, or a geographical order from west to east, while the actual chronological sequence is from east to west, the earliest coins being of Asia Minor and the Isles of the rligean. A still more philosophical arrangement would be that of the coins of each stage of the currency. The coins of Britain and Spain arc imitated or derived from the coins of Philip II. of or Hiero II. of Sicily ; the types of the copper are rude portraits of Greek gods, and symbols, as grapes on the coins of Acinippo, alluding to the name of the cities. The gold and silver are copied from the Roman aurei and denarii of the Consular period, and of a similar standard and type as the Dioscuri ; even the copper have the uncial globules which mark the subdivision of the as. Their legends are in the Celtiberian characters, derived from the Greek and Phoenician, and they are supposed by some to have been issued as early as B.C. 200, by others as late as B.O. 84-74, the date of the insurrection of Sertorius, and named the Oseense argentum, from Osca, his capital. ( Livy, xxxiv. 10, 41, xli. 43. De Saulcy, Monnaies Autonomes de TEspagne; 8vo, Metz, 1840; Gailliard, Description des Monnaies Espagnols,' 4to, Madr., 1852.) The coins of Gaul are divisible into three periods. 1. Earliest Imitating the staters of Philip II. & III. after the conquest of Macedon, B.C. 278. 2. Those with Latin legends apparently from n.o 100-21. 3. Those with the names of cities and chiefs on each side, the inscrip ;ions either in Greek or Latin, or both mixed. These last, two classes mitate the Consular silver, but with great provincial variety. Besides century the study had so progressed that 200 cabinets were known in IleHand alone. In the 15th century they were first introduced into literature by Angelo l'oliziano, in 1490 ; and a series of writers the chief of whom were Fulvius, A.D. 1500; 31azechi, A.D. 1526 ; Veio, A.D. 1560; Golalus, A.D. 1526-83; Agostino, A.D. 1586; Urainus, A.D. 1600; and Patin, A.D. 1633; wrote chiefly upon and illus trated the Imparial Roman series. In England the study commenced with Speed, A.D. 1522, and Camden, in 1586. The works of this century are not remarkable for their accuracy, and it is not till the following that the study of numismatics began to acquire the rank of a science. FrSlich, Corsini, and Cary availed themselves of medals to write history of the Bactrian, Armenian, and Bosphoran princes; but the most remarkable writers of the 17th and 18th centuries were Morel], A.D. I 7113 ; Valliant, A.D. 1706 ; Spanheim, A.D. 1661; Peilerin, A.D. 17a2 ; Hardouin, in 1729 ; Patin, in 1695. In the ]Sth century the critical Eckhel completely reformed the study of numismatics, A.D. 1787-180a, while Mionnet, in 1770-1342, gave a complete list of Greek coins, and Ilasche, a lexicon of important use for the study.