MATERIAL OF TILE STUDY, NOMENCLATURE. The Material of the study is the coin (a word derived through the Freneh coin. die.' from the Latin cuncus, 'wedge'), which is, strictly speaking, a piece of »oda/ stamped with a /ego/ impress for public rirenlation. Isidorus (0Tioines, xvi. 17) well expresses this definition: "There are three essentials of a coin: metal, legal type, and weight. to the absence of any of these essentials. it will not be a coin." In its strict application, then, numismatics should con fine itself to the legal metallic currency of gov ernment, to the exclusion of all else. Rut there are many objects that hear so close a resemblanee in form or in usage to actual coins, that they are naturally and inevitably included in the study. Such are medals, struck in commemora tion of an event or a person, not for tion as money (see MEDAL) ; the ancient contor niates, the use of which is not yet fully under stood, though they may well have served as checkers in the games; the obscene spintria.; the so-called tessera' of ivory, bone, or lead; and in modern times, siege-pieces; jetons; hard times, tradesmen's, bank tokens, and paper eur reney, not to speak of such priMitive mediums of exchange as the cowry-shells of India and the wampum of the American Indians.
Numismatics has an exact terminology peculiar to its own needs. That side of the coin on which the face or main device is struck is called the obrrrse (Ger. 17anptseite. Fr. droit or avers, It. diritto), while the other side is known as the Tcrerse (Ger. Riiekseite or Kchrseite, Fr. revers, It. To/Toe/0). The characteristic device on either side, whether portrait, figure, or seene, is called the type. In describing the type, the terms 'to right,' to left' refer to the right and left of the spectator. Besides the 'type' there is often a small figure, or adjunct (especially in ancient coins), as a mint-mark, or the like, which serves to identify the coin more closely. This is called a symbol. The principal inscrip Aion of either side, which may be circular, fol lowing the line of the rim, or in one or more lines across the surface, is called the legend. That part of either surface left unoccupied by type and /egend is known as the field, and is often occupied by symbols, letters, or monograms. The lower portion of the field, separated from the rest by a horizontal line, is the excrgue. The term flan is applied to the disk, or blank, of metal, ready to be coined, and hence to the coin itself regarded as a metallic disk. Thus a coin is said to be struck on a broad or narrow flan. The diameter of the flan determines the modu/e, or measurement, of the coin. Three sys tems are in vogue for measuring eoints: (a) the so-called 'INlionnet's scale,' a purely arbitrary method based on circles of varying diameter, used mostly in the older works, and now obsolete; (b) by fractions of the inch; this is the reeog nized usage in England; (c) by millimeters.
The, last is the most scientific niethod, and is in use on the Continent of Europe and largely in this eon as well. The weight of coins is often a very important consideration, especially in determining the place of ancient coins. In England the weight is registered in troy grains. M the Continent, however, and largely in Amer ica, it is given in grains. One grain is equal to about fifteen grains. Patina is a technical term of ancient numismatics. Copper coins that have long lain in the ground, in connection with cer tain salts there existing, acquire a delicate surface-oxidation, generally green, which is called patina, and adds much to the beauty of the coin. Coins so oxidized are said to be patinatcd. There are two ways of making coins: (a ) by casting in molds, the more primitive method, after wards mostly confined to counterfeits; (b) by striking with dies. Even in the ease of struck coins, the flan is often prepared by casting.
The various metals used for coinage deserve a word of elucidation. (A) Gold was the standard metal of Asia Minor in the earliest times. It was rarely coined in Greece proper. but was largely minted by Alexander the Great and his immediate successors, by the Egyptian Ptolemies, in the Grwco-Bactrian Empire, and at certain West Hellenic cities, as Syracuse in Sicily and Tarentum in Italy. The Romans first coined gold for the payment of their troops en gaged in war against. Hannibal in Southern Italy (B.C. 214-202). During the Republican period gold was coined only at irregular intervals and in limited quantities. But with Augustus and his successors there were enormous issues of gold currency, until the third century, when it became rare, until again renewed by Constantine and the later Roman and Byzantine emperors. Again, during the Dark Ages, in Europe gold fell into disuse as money, to be revived in modern times. It is now the standard in most civilized countries. (B) Mech./on, a natural alloy of gold and silver in the proportion, roughly speaking, of 73 parts gold to 27 silver, found in the riverbeds of ancient Lydia in Asia Minor, was largely coined by the kings of that country and by the Grecian cities along the neighboring coast, especially Cyzicus and Phoea'a. An artificially made elec trum was used for coins at Carthage, at Syracuse, and by some of the Gallic. chiefs. Electrum has the color of very pale gold, whence it was some times called 'white gold (Xfusas xpuo-bs) by the Greeks, (C) Ph/thou? vas coined extensively instead of gold in Russia from 1828 to 1846.