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 ago by the ). OMONOIA. The participation in games is shown by KOINON (co 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 AAEEANAPOT, Alexander of Macedon, n.c.
474, and others. The title of king indeed appears with Getas, King of Hedonis, about 474 B.c., 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 Poleroo 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 (-pa/A/Acmes), archon (apx0w), mayor (espopos), prretor (o-rparnyos), proprmtor (amer7paTiryos), magis trate (rrpuTaveus), treasurer (ratuas), high priest (apxff pEos), priest (lepeos), or priestess (tepeta), president of the games in Asia (Acriapxos), director of the gymnasium (yeinmeriapxns), of the festivals (ravnye pwapXns), master of the games (aymo85Tqs), theologian (OeoAors). 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 Achreans. On the coins of 11hicedon, after its subjection to Rome, the name of the people is in Greek, MAKELONCIN, that of the magistrates, AESILLAS, 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 regnal year till the time of Diocletian, and are preceded by L (Amager), or year ; the imperial coins often have dates preceded by ET or ETOT.T., " year "—especially those of the east— the chief mras found are the Seleucian commencing B.C. 312. in Syria, Phoenicia, and Judaea ; the Pompeian, B.o. 63, in Syria and Phcenieia ; the Caesarian, n.c. 47 or 48, in Syria; the Actiau, n.c. 31, in Syria ; the Egyptian, n.c. 300, commencing with Ptolemy I. ; and that of Pontus, B.O. 296.
The names of games, as KAICAPEIA, the Caesarian, 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 Caesarea, in Cappadocia ; and on a copper coin of Rhodes, APAXMH, or APArMH on those of Ephesus; and APAXMA ou a bronze coin ; A=APION, AVO, TPIA, HMIIV on the copper of Chios ; TPIOBOAO[N] on those of Samothracia ; HMIOBEAIN on those of ./Egium ; 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 Achim, • Y T) 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 leaps were doubled for a new series. The silver coins of Arsinfie 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 YEgean. A still more philosophical arrangement would be that of the coins of each stage of the currency. The coins of Britain and Spain are imitated or derived from the coins of Philip II. of Macedon, or iliero 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 Phmniciau, and they are supposed by some to have been issued as early as B.C. 200, by others as late as 13.0. 84-74, the date of the insurrection of Sertorius, and named the Oscense argentum, from Own, his capital. ( Livy, xxxiv. 10, 41, xli. 43. De Saulcy, Monnaies Autonomes do l'Espagne,' 8vo, Metz, 1840; Gailliard, Description des Monnaies Espagnols,' 4to, Mach., 1852.) The coins of Gaul are divisible into three periods. 1. Earliest mitating the staters of Philip II. & III. after the conquest of Macedon, a.c. 278. 2. Those with Latin legends apparently from B.0 100-21. 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 ns are the earlier coins of Mastitis or Marseilles, the type of a female head and lion of elegant workman t onging to the Greek series, consisting of the drachm and visions. The Coldish aeries contains staters, of drachms of nd potin of 6 copper, 2 lead, 1 tin, or copper of small o imitate :rpm, and the first are cast. Besides these are bronze of two colonies, Nernausus or Nimes, founded with veterans m the Egyptian campaigns, and having on the obverse the heads of Agrippa and Augustus, and on the reverse a crocodile bound to a palm tree, and Lugdunum or Lyons, with the head of victory and a lion. The earliest British coins, like those of the Gauls, are imitations of Philippi, and are followed by those of chiefs and kings of A.D. 100, the most remarkable of whom are Cynobehin, Tasciovanus, Dubnovellannus. They are in all metals, of small size, on the Greek standard, and exhibit great local differences : two cities are named on these coins, Verula mit= and Catnalodunum.