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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
During the last ten years no less than 4,361 coins of various parts of the Greek world have been added to the national collection. A certain number of these have been published year by year by Mr. Warwick Wroth in the Numismatic Chronicle, under the title ‘Greek Coins acquired by the British Museum.’ A still larger number are described by Mr. Barclay Head, the Keeper of Coins, in the annual Parliamentary Return of the Accounts &c. of the British Museum. As the former publication is not seen by all who are generally interested in classical studies, while the latter suffers the fate of most Blue Books, it has been suggested that a short paper on the subject of these additions might be interesting to readers of this journal. I need hardly say that the selection here given is not meant to be representative. Had I attempted to give a full report of the acquisitions during the last ten years, these notes would have reduced themselves to a mere catalogue. It has been necessary therefore to choose out a very few coins from among the more important acquisitions.
page 78 note 1 See the statistics given by Wroth, W. in his forthcoming article in the Numismatic Chronicle, 1897Google Scholar, part ii. (‘Greek Coins acquired by the British Museum in 1896’).
page 79 note 1 These other pieces have a similar obverse type, but on the reverse either a head of Heracles or a helmet. The dies are interchanged, which proves that all these coins belong to the same place and period. The hoard contained also an archaic tetradrachm of Mende of the usual type, and the presence of this coin at first suggested Chalcidice to Mr. Head as the district to which the coins might belong. He however rejected this suggestion, mainly for the following reasons: (1) ‘there seems to be no city of Chalcidice to which such a type as a bunch of grapes would be appropriate’; (2) ‘the reverses of all these Chalcidic coins consist merely of incuse squares, either quartered or subdivided into triangles. None of them in the earliest period exhibit a device upon the reverse, and at a later period, when reverse-types first make their appearance in Chalcidice, they are never enclosed, as on two out of the three coins now before us, in a dotted square.’ In the Museum is another coin which should be considered in this connection [B.M. Cat. Macedon etc. p. 136 no. 2: Figure running to r.; 1. arm raised, holding wreath; wings attached to waist by belt, from which hangs a short skirt; on feet, winged talaria; in front a flower r.: border of dots. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. Note: ‘This coin was procured by Mr. Borrell at Salonica?, to the neighbourhood of which town he attributed it.’]. Babelon, (Rev. Num. 1885 p. 397Google Scholar) has attributed this coin to Cyrene, but its probable provenance is in favour of a Macedonian origin, and Dr. H. Weber possesses a specimen which was certainly found in Thasos. The small flower may be compared with that which figures on the coins of Acanthus [e.g. Berlin Beschreibung der ant. Münzen Bd. ii Pl. ii 17]. With regard to Mr. Head's objections to a Chalcidic origin, it may be pointed out that the bunch of grapes might well be the type of some wine city of which we have no other coins; and that the helmet on one of the series is most suitable to Macedonia. Mr. Wroth (l.c) has suggested some objections to the attribution to Cyrene.
page 80 note 1 Gardner, Types, Pl. I. 1. For other parallels see Babelon, , Rev. Num. 1885, p. 395Google Scholar ff.
page 80 note 2 Kyrcne, p. 24
page 80 note 3 Knapp, , Nike in der Vasenmalerei, p. 64Google Scholar, à propos of the British Museum Vase, B 1. I owe the reference to Mr. Walters.
page 80 note 4 See Reisch in Pauly-Wissowa, Real Encycl. s.v. Agon. The figure on this coin is clearly not to be classed with the ‘Eros-figures of later times with agonistic attributes, which have been explained as Agon, on Athenian tetradrachms (Beulé, , Monn. d'Athènes, 222Google Scholar), intaglios (Arch. Zeit. VII. Pl. 2. 2) and sarcophagi (Müller, O., Hdbch. d. Arch. 2. ed. p. 668Google Scholar)’
page 81 note 1 De Ectypis quibusdam aëncis quae falso vocantur Argivo-Corinthiaca, p. 68.
page 81 note 2 According to Löschcke, (Ath. Mitth. xix. p. 516Google Scholar) this also should be classed as Chalcidian.
page 81 note 3 The object which the charioteer holds is described as a spear, but a goad would be more in keeping with his function and with other similar representations, e.g. no. 1 and the tetradrachm of series (a).
page 82 note 1 Cf. Gerhard, A. V. iv. Pl. CCXLVIII.
page 82 note 2 Head., H.N. p 184Google Scholar; Berlin cat. Pl. V 43.
page 82 note 3 B.M. Cat., Central Greece, Pl. XX. 7Google Scholar ff.
page 82 note 4 Num. Comm. p. 85, R XIV.
page 82 note 5 Brit. Mus. Return 1895, p 85.
page 82 note 6 VIII. p 387.
page 83 note 1 Herberdey u. Kalinka, , Ber. über zwei Reisen in S. W. Kleinasien, 1896, p. 27Google Scholar, No. 26.
page 83 note 2 Rev. Num. 1874–77, p. 325 ff.; see also Gardner, P., Num. Chron. 1873, p. 183Google Scholar ff.
page 83 note 3 Plin., N.H, xxxiv. 80Google Scholar: Naucydes Mercurio et discobolo et immolante arietem censetur.
page 83 note 4 Gardner, , Types Pl. VII. 8Google Scholar.
page 84 note 1 Cat., B. M.Central Greece, p. 77Google Scholar, 78, Pl. XIV 1, 2.
page 84 note 2 E.g. Berlin Cat. 2538, Gerhard, Auscrl. Vasenb. Pl. 327.
page 84 note 3 Griech. Münz. No. 813.
page 84 note 4 I p. 2701 ff. Drexler-Stoll.
page 84 note 5 See Peter in Roscher's Lex. I p. 916: sacrifice by Augustus to Ianus, Salus, Concordia, and Pax; coin of Galba with the head of Salus on obv. and Concordia on rev. (Cohen. Monn. Imp. 2 I p. 342 No 357); cf. Lucan IV. 190: mixli salus Concordia mundi. Cf. also Sospcs Concordia (Roscher, I. p. 920)Google Scholar.
page 85 note 1 Gardner, , Types Pl. V 37Google Scholar.
page 85 note 2 Ibid. Pl. V, 40.
page 85 note 3 Brit. Mus. Return, 1894, p. 87.
page 85 note 4 Cat., B.M.Mysia, Pl. xix. 2Google Scholar; Head, , Coins of the Ancients III A 18Google Scholar.
page 85 note 5 Cat., B.M.Mysia, Pl. xix. 1Google Scholar.
page 86 note 1 Head, , Coins of the Ancients, IV C 1Google Scholar.
page 86 note 2 Cat., B.M.Thessaly, Pl. X 13Google Scholar.
page 86 note 3 Gardner, , Types, Pl. VII 36Google Scholar.
page 86 note 4 Cat., B.M.Mysia, Pl. VI 6Google Scholar; Greenwell, , Cyzicus, Pl. I 25, 26Google Scholar; Babelon, , Rev. Num. 1892 Pl. IV 3Google Scholar.
page 86 note 5 See Wroth in B.M. Cat. Troas. etc. p. lxv.
page 87 note 1 Head Cat., B.M.Ionia, Pl. I 19Google Scholar, III 19.
page 87 note 2 Cat., B.M.Lycia, etc. Pl. VIII. 3Google Scholar.
page 87 note 3 Head, Cat., B.M.Ionia, Pl. I 19Google Scholar, etc.
page 88 note 1 For other illustrations of the car see Head, Cat., B.M.Ionia, Pl. xiii. 13Google Scholar, xiv. 11.
page 88 note 2 For references to the illustrations on vases see the article ἀπήνη in Pauly-Wissowa, Real. Enc.
page 88 note 3 Gr. Inscriptions in B.M. No. 481, p. 132.
page 89 note 1 See Head, in Num. Chr. 1875, p. 281 ff.Google Scholar; Cat. Ionia, p. xx. ff.
page 89 note 2 Cat., B.M.Lycia, etc. Pl. XVI 5Google Scholar.
page 89 note 3 Cat., B. M.Caria, p. 272Google Scholar, no. 28 A.
page 89 note 4 But it may be merely a magistrate's signet.
page 90 note 1 Num. Chr. 1893, pp. 15, 16.
page 90 note 2 See Babelon, , les Perses Achéménides, Pl. xiii. 11Google Scholar; B.M. Cat. Lycia, Pl. V.
page 90 note 3 B.M. Cat. Lycia, p. xxxiv.
page 90 note 4 Jahrb. 1896, p. 284 ff.
page 90 note 5 Cat., B.M.Lycia, Pl. VI. 6Google Scholar, xliv. 9.
page 91 note 1 Imhoof-Blumer, , Griech. Münzen, Nos. 314 ff. Pl. VIII 31–34Google Scholar. I take this opportunity of pointing out that the type of a coin of Adada in Pisidia, which I have described as an altar (Cat., B. M.Lycia, etc. p. 172Google Scholar, No. 6 Pl. xxx. 4) is probably a cista mystica with the dome-shaped lid which sometimes occurs, as in Imhoof-Blumer l.c. Pl. VIII 30. 33. Huber's reading ΒΑΧΧЄΙΑ (Cat. Lycia, p. cxviii.) is thus quite appropriate.
page 91 note 2 Roscher's Lexikon, s. v. Kuretes.
page 91 note 3 Cities and Bishoprics, I, p. 34.
