Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 13, MAT-MIC

144 MED
Ancient gcild or filret coul(f liave been made ue of in thefe.
■ > °>C'' ■ The coins laid to have been (truck upon Corinthian
orals arc only done upon a modification of common
brafs •, of which we know, that in proportion to the
quantity of zinc made ufe of in conjunction with the
copper, the metal aiTumes a variety of hues. On the
authority of Pliny he informs us, that the coins mif-
taken for Corinthian brafs were no other than prince’s
24 metal.
Egyptian The Egyptian iilver coins (truck under the Roman
nlvtr coins, emperors are at firlt of tolerably pure filver •, but af-
terwards degenerate into a mixture of copper and tin
with a little filver. They are very thick, but many
of them arc elegantly (truck, with uncommon reverfcs.
There are like wife three fets of brafs coins belonging
to this country from the earliclt times of the Roman
emperors there. Some of thefe are of bell-metal or
pot-metal; and after the time of Gallienus and Vale¬
rian, the coinage of brafs rvith a fmall addition of fil¬
ver, becomes authorifed by the (late j the coins (truck
upon it, being called denarii cerei. Thofe of lead or
copper plated with (ilver have been fabricated by Ro¬
man forgers. Some coins of lead, however, have been
met with of undoubted antiquity : and an ancient wri¬
ter informs us, that tin money was coined by Diony-
(ius 5 but none has been found. The lead coins of
Tigranes king of Armenia, mentioned as genuine by
Jobert, are accounted forgeries by Mr Pinkerton and
other modern medallifts. Plautus, however, makes
mention of leaden coins, and feveral of them have been
found ; but our author looks upon them to have been
chiefly effay pieces, (truck in order to let the artift
judge of the progrefs of the. die. Others are the plated
kind already mentioned, fabricated by ancient forgers,
but having the plating worn off. A great number of
leaden coins are mentioned by Fricorini in a work en¬
titled Piambi Antichi, in which he fuppofes them to
have ferved as tickets for guefts } and coins of the
fame kind are alfo mentioned by Pafleri. <In the work
entitled Notitia Imperii Romani, there is mention of
coins made of leather, but none of them have ever been
found.
Sect. V. Of Ancient Money.
In confide ring the differerit fizes, values, &c. of the
Greek and Roman coins, our author treats of the me¬
dals as money ; a knowledge of which, he fays, is ef-
fentially neceffary to every reader of the daffies ; info-
much that it may almoft difpute the preference with
Knowledge the (tudies of ancient geography and chronology. Not-
of ancient withftanding all that has been written upon the fub-
mLf\Xim" je^> however, our author is of opinion, that the fcience
P ' is (till in its infancy, in as far as it relates to the real
money of the ancients. “ The ideal (fays he), which
is indeed the mod important province of difeuflton, has
bem pretty clearly afeertained 5 and we are almofl: as
well acquainted with the Attic mna or mina, and the
perplexing progrefs of the Roman fcjlertia, as with our
own 'pound*. But with the adtual coin of the ancients
the cafe is different ; and the ignorance even of the
learned in this point is wonderful.”
Our author now goes on, with great afperity of
language, to particularize the ignorant manner in which
modern authors have treated' the fubject of medals.
A L S.
“ Arbuthnot and Clarke (fays he), are, if poflible, more Ancient
ignorant of medals than Budaeus the very firft. The Money,
latter profeffes his love of medals, but quotes a con-
fular coin with the head of Cicero ; and looks upon
one of the 30 pieces of filvet, the reward of the treach¬
ery of Judas, and which was (aid to be preferved a-
mong fome relicks at Paris, to be worthy of reference
and commemoration. Arbuthnot, if we may judge
from his book, had never feen any ancient coins ; and
Clarke, it is well known, was quite ignorant of them.
The latter, with all his labour, Teems even to have
known nothing'of the theoretic part of the real ancient
money. Indeed Dr Mead’s catalogue feems to have
been almofl: the only booh on medals which had under¬
gone his perufal. On the other hand, the ignorance
of medallifts on this Tcore is no lefs profound. To
this day they look upon the didrachms of AEgina, fo
celebrated in antiquity, as tridrachms of TEgium ; and
upon the early obolus as a brafs coin. In the Roman
clafs the large brafs is efteemed the as, while it (hall
be proved that it is the fejlertius, and worth four afes.
The den arms is reckoned at ten afes even in the impe¬
rial times ; whereas it only went at that rate for the
firft 90 years after the coinage of filver at Rome.
The denarius aereus is taken for filver currency $ with
other miftakes, which evince that medallifts are as ig¬
norant of the theory, as the others are of the prac-
tice.”
In his account of the ancient Greek money, Mr Money fit#
Pinkerton obferves, that the light of fcience, like thatcoined in
of the fun, has proceeded from eaft to weft. “ It istheeaft>
moft probable (fays he), that the firft invention of
money arofe like the other arts and fciences 5 and
fpread from thence into the weftern parts of the world.
In its firft (hape it appeared as mere pieces of metal its firft
without any dated form or impreftion ; in lieu of rudft date,
which, it was regulated by weight. Even down to
the Saxon government in England, large fums were
regulated by weight j and in our own times every fingle
piece is weighed in gold j though with regard to filver
this nicety is not minded, nor indeed does it feem
practicable. Among the ancients, whofe commercial
tranfa&ions were lefs important and extenfive than
thofe of the moderns, filver was weighed as well as
gold ; nay even brafs, in fome cafes.
In Greece, large fums were determined by mna
mina ; and the moft capital fums by talents* In every ney.
country the mina is fuppofed to have contained 100
drachmae, or fmall (ilver coins, of that country, and
the talent 60 minae. The mina is fuppofed to be a
pound weight of the country to which it belonged.
The Attic pound, according to Dr Arbuthnot, con¬
tained 16 ounces, equal to our avoirdupois pound :
but Mr Pinkerton looks upon this as a very ahfurd
opinion, and accufes the do&or of having adopted it
merely that he may explain a paffage in Livy. He is
of opinion, that the Attic pound is very nearly the
fame with the pound Troy. The mina of Athens had
at firft 73 drachms j but by Solon it was fixed at 100.
The ancient drachm weighed the fame which it does
at prefent in medical weight, viz. the eighth part of
an ounce. The mina or pound of 12 ounces had con-
fequently 96 of thefe drachms •, but four of them were
given to the round fum to fupply defers in the alloy j
“ and indeed (fays our author), in confequence of a
common