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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
FROM
The Trustees of the Hunterian Coin Catalogue
Fund
DATE DUE
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
wii
Cornell University
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092536634
With the Compliments of the Trustees of the Hunterian Coin Catalogue Fund.
The Hlunterian Museum,
The University, Glasgow.
Catalogue of Greek Coins in The Hunterian Colleétion
This Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the Hunterian Colle@ion University of Glasgow has been presented to the University by
James Stevenson of Hailie
CATALOGUE OF GREEK COINS
IN THE
HUNTERIAN COLLECTION
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
VOLUME I. ITALY, SICILY, MACEDON, THRACE, AND THESSALY
BY
GEORGE MACDONALD, M.A.
LECTURER IN GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS Publishers to the Anibersity
1899 .e)
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YQ ‘ Vos Cp, Oey: ya
MEMORIAE
GVLIELM!I HVNTER CVM AESCVLAPII TVM MVSARVM CVLTORIS INDEFESSI NECNON ALMAE MATRIS FILI] OPTIME MERIT! DDD
PREFATORY NOTE
BY THE KEEPER OF THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM
THe Catatocue of which the first part now appears owes its existence to a suggestion made some thirteen years ago by Mr. James Stevenson, that the Greek coins in the Hunterian Collection should be made more available for study by being catalogued and photographically illustrated, that suggestion being accom- panied by a munificent offer to bear the whole expense of printing and _publica- tion. At the time it seemed impossible to meet Mr. Stevenson’s wish in a manner worthy of the Collection or of his generosity: indeed, the scheme remained in abeyance long enough for most people to have given up interest in a proposal which was not carried out. Mr. Stevenson, however, did not lose sight of the matter. Accordingly, when Mr. George Macdonald accepted my invitation to under- take the work, the responsibility for the offer made nine years before was promptly and cordially accepted, the necessary sum being shortly afterwards placed in the hands of Mr. Macdonald, Mr. James J. MacLehose and myself as trustees, and every arrangement made by Mr. Stevenson to facilitate uninterrupted progress.
Since Mr. Macdonald began work in 1894 no time has been lost: rather the progress has been remarkable when account is taken of the difficulties. To begin with, the Collection had to be completely rearranged, a geographical order being substituted for the alphabetical one in which the coins had remained since they reached Glasgow. Again, Combe had described only the autonomous pieces, but it was now necessary to include the imperial and regal coinages for the same areas, while additional trouble was caused by the fact that since Combe’s time the trays had got somewhat out of order, not everyone who had to do with them having been careful to replace specimens in the right compartments. Lastly, there was a large, too large a gathering of Nummi Incerti, which had to be cleared up, as far as possible, before confidence could be felt in the finality of the
arrangement. The uncertainties are now mainly specific rather than generic, being b
ii PREFATORY NOTE
chiefly confined to difficulties of attribution within an area or an epoch. The preliminaries were in a sense the chief work of the Catalogue, and their settlement warrants me in calling attention to the comparatively short time taken to deal with these, to meet the critical questions raised since Combe wrote, and to make the selection of coins for illustration. In inviting Mr. Macdonald’s assistance, I had no inducements to offer beyond the pleasure of the work and the credit which its successful accomplishment was sure to bring. These were sufficient to one who combined scholarship with archeological tastes; and I gladly take this opportunity of acknowledging the fidelity with which Mr. Macdonald has discharged his wholly honorary task, and the unsparing energy which he has given to its accomplishment.
The selection of Collotypes as the mode of reproducing the coins is one for which I take the sole responsibility, and my confidence in Mr. James Gardner’s skill has been amply justified. In the first conversation I had with Mr. Stevenson publication in Glasgow was made a condition, but it was found desirable to place the printing with a firm which already possessed most of the specialities of block and type required.
The succeeding parts will be issued with the least possible delay.
JOHN YOUNG, M.D., Keeper.
Honrertan Museum,
Universiry or Grascow. 2ist January, 1899.
PREFACE
Tuis CaTaLoave has but few features in common with Charles Combe’s well-known Descriptio. It was with genuine regret that I found it impossible to build upon that time-honoured foundation, But the alphabetical arrangement had of necessity to give place to the geographical, while among other changes demanded by modern methods was the inclusion of several series that Combe had set aside for separate treatment. As a consequence of this extension the whole number of coins to be dealt with has been much more than doubled. The geographical order followed is practically that laid down by Eckhel. For Northern Greece, however, the important modifications suggested by Head have been adopted, while considerations of mechanical convenience have led to the Aes Grave being gathered into a group by itself. In addition to the weights of the gold and silver pieces those of the autonomous bronze coins are recorded. The brief notes that accompany the chronological headings make no pretence to completeness. They are mere finger-posts to guide those who are not specialists through what might otherwise prove a confusing wilderness of detail. Assistance of a like kind is furnished in Index XI., where will be found transliterations of legends in unfamiliar scripts such as Oscan and Phoenician. In inserting aids of this sort, I have not been without hope that the book may serve to quicken an interest in the study of ancient history and art among the students of the University of Glasgow, the direct heirs of William Hunter’s noble bequest.
The second volume, with which considerable progress has already been made, will comprise the remainder of European Greece, the Islands, and the greater part, if not the whole, af Asia Minor. Should space permit, a place will be reserved in the third and last for the ancient coins of Spain, Gaul, and Britain, all well represented in the Cabinet, and also for an appendix showing precisely how each of the pieces described by Combe has been disposed of in the new Catalogue.
Scholars will have no difficulty in recognising the authorities I have used. Other works have, of course, been consulted, but the books most constantly in my hands have been Head’s Historia Numorum and the Coin Catalogues issued from the British Museum. The latter
have done more than provide me with a general model. The help I have derived from them b 2
iv PREFACE
has been so extensive and so varied in character as to render specific acknowledgment altogether impossible. And the same may be said of Mr, Head’s great treatise, wherein were laid down once for all the lines along which any attempt at the chronological classification of Greek coins must proceed. It is but natural that in the twelve years that have elapsed since its publication advances should have been made in various directions. Our knowledge of the coinages of Southern Italy, for instance, has been largely increased by the researches of Mr. A. J. Evans, All such recent results I have endeavoured to gather up, giving references to the books or periodicals in which they were originally published. Dr. Adolf Holm’s History of Greece has been fruitful both in direct and in indirect suggestion. The third volume of the same author's Geschichte Siciliens im Alterthum, with its valuable and exhaustive numismatic appendix, appeared while the following pages were passing through the press. As the footnotes will show, I was able to make some use of the latter in revising the proofs; but I cannot help regretting that it was not available at an earlier stage. Its value and interest are enhanced by the fact that it was prepared with the co-operation of Dr. J. P. Six. My indebtedness to the writings of Dr. F. Imhoof-Blumer will be more marked in the succeeding volumes than in this one, but even here it is heavy enough to call for special mention. In particular I may refer to the important list of corrections of Combe’s attributions, published in 1874 in the Zeitschrift fiir Numismatik. The earlier list of Dr. Julius Friedlaender (Numismatische Zeitschrift, 1870) was unfortunately not accessible to me until my re-arrangement of the coins was almost completed. Among aids of first importance I must also rank, so far as they are already issued, the Catalogues of the rich series of coins in the Royal Museum at Berlin.
To Professor Young, M.D., I am under a singularly deep obligation. It was he who as Keeper of the Museum invited me to compile the Catalogue, and the whole work has been carried on under the influence of his unwearying encouragement. His official connection with the book renders it impossible for me to speak as freely as I should wish. But I must at least be allowed to say that without his active assistance the preliminary re-arrangement would have been a much more laborious task than it actually proved to be, and that the success attained in the Plates is largely due to his taste and care. The casts from which the photographs were taken were all made with his own hands.
My debt to Mr. Head and his colleagues of the British Museum extends farther than their published works. Enquiries—sometimes, I fear, of a trivial nature—were readily answered, and casts furnished when necessary. Special thanks are owing to Mr. Warwick Wroth for help in connection with the Introduction. Besides sending me definite information on one or two points regarding which no materials for research were available here, he was good enough to read it in proof, and to give me the benefit of the criticisms and remarks dictated by his
familiarity with the history of coin-collecting in England.
PREFACE v
As regards the proof of the text, I have had to bear the sole responsibility for the correction of the greater part of it. For the remainder I have enjoyed assistance of a quite exceptional kind, Professor Behrendt Pick of Gotha and Dr. Hugo Gaebler of the Royal Museum, Berlin, have for a number of years past been engaged on a special study of the money of Northern Greece, in their capacity as editors of the first division of the monumental Corpus Nummorum of the Berlin Akademie der Wissenschaften. Early proofs of such portions of this Catalogue as concerned them were by request placed at their disposal. In return they most kindly sent me full notes of a careful revisal of each sheet, pp. 263—287 and 327—376 being read in this way by Dr. Gaebler, and pp. 377—448 by Professor Pick. The great accumulation of ordered material at their command made revision by these scholars extremely valuable, and I cannot be too grateful to them for the amount of trouble they have taken on behalf of the work of another.
Thanks are also due to Professor Gilbert Murray of this University for help of various kinds, and to Mr. W. M. Lindsay of Oxford and Professor R. 8. Conway of Cardiff for special communications regarding several of the Italic coin-legends. Professor Conway’s Italic Dialects
came into my hands too late for me to make almost any use of it in the text, but it was of material assistance in the preparation of Index XI.
In conclusion I have to express my warm appreciation of the keen personal interest with which the donor of the Catalogue has followed the progress of a work that owes its existence to his large-minded liberality.
GEORGE MACDONALD. Tue UNIVERSITY, Guascow.
January, 1899.
CONTENTS
Prefatory Note by Keeper of Hunterian Museum . : i Preface : : : : F ' iii Corrections and Additions. : ; ; : viii Introduction. The Hunter Coin Cabinet ; : : ; : ix Appendix to Introduction. Dr. Hunter’s Account of Purchases : ; xlv Signs and Abbreviations . : : : ; ; 2 TraLy ; = 3 Aes Grave : ; : 3 Etruria ‘ ; 16 Umbria ; ; 19 Picenum i ‘ : i . 20 Latium . 5 : ; ‘ 21 Samnium . . : : 22 Frentani . : 25 Campania : : 26 Apulia . : 53 Calabria : 61 Lucania : 85 Bruttium : ; ‘ ‘ : 120 Uncertain of Italy ‘ 150 Sicrty ; : : . ‘ 153 Macepon, THRACE, ETc. . : : ; : ey 263 Pangaean District ; : 263 Emathian District F ; : : ‘ 266 Bisaltian District é ; ; : ; : ; 268 Chalcidice : : , : : ! 270 Strymonian and Bottiaean Districts : : : : 275 Kings of Macedon : : ‘ ; . ' 283 Kings of Paeonia : ‘ : ; i : ‘ 348 Macedon Semi-Independent . ; ’ 3 350 Macedon under the Romans ; : ‘ 354
Southern Coast of Thrace . ' . é : , : 377
vili CONTENTS
Thracian Chersonesus .
Islands of Thrace : European Coast of the Propontis Danubian District
Tauric Chersonesus
Thracian Kings and Dynasts Inland Cities of Thrace
THESSALY
INDEXES . I. Geographical II. Kings and Dynasts : IJ. Roman Emperors and Imperial Pergsonages IV. Types V. Symbols VI. Countermarks ‘ VII. Magistrates’ Names on» Autonomous Coins VIII. Magistrates’ Names on Imperial Coins IX. Roman Magistrates’ Names X. Engravers’ Names : : : XI. Remarkable Inscriptions, Titles of Cities, ete. (a) Greek (8) Latin (y) Oscan (8) Etruscan (e) Punic
Table of the Relative Weights of English Grains and French Grammes
Table for converting English Inches into Millimétres and into the Measures of Mionnet’s Scale
CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS
Page xxiii, 1. 27, for octodrachms read octadrachms
», XXvii, footnote t, for this volume read vol. II. Pages 277 and 278, No, 22 should precede No. 21, following No. 20 directly Page 328, No. 303, fer A read AN
», 828, No. 306, for >E read SE
343, Nos. 1 and 2, add footnote: ‘The head may, however, be that of Perseus, Philip’s eldest son. See G. F. Hill, in Num. Chron., 1896, pp. 34 ff.
458, footnote, add: ‘See, however, Num. Chron., 1898, p. 286 (Plate xix. 1), where Mr. Earle- Fox, from a fine specimen in his own collection, shows that the nearer animal is u monster resembling a centaur but having the body and legs of a bull, while the farther one is a bridled horse.’
”
”
PAGE 385 388 393 405 422 425 438
449
461 463, 465 466 4.67 480 485 485 488 488 489 489 489 491 492 493 493
4.94, 495,
INTRODUCTION
THE HUNTER COIN CABINET
To the Eighteenth Century is mainly due the honour of re-discovering an almost forgotten aspect of Greek and Roman antiquity. The Italian Humanists and the men of the Renaissance had shown themselves possessed of a keen eye for the beauty of ancient works of art.* But in the Middle Ages such an interest was possible only for those who dwelt in lands strewn thickly with the wreckage of the past. The advance in civilisation that followed the concentration of power in the hands of central governments, changed all that. Communication between one country and another became easier than it had ever been before. Foreign travel was no longer left to diplomatists, traders and soldiers of fortune. Scholars and dilettanti from many quarters began to move with comparative freedom through the towns of Italy and the Levant; and, as a result, Europe suddenly woke to an enthusiastic appreciation of the scattered fragments that had survived the neglect of ages. The collecting of statuary, of vases, and of coins became a fashion, and numbers of these objects found their way northwards and westwards, particularly to England, whose rapidly increasing wealth gave her citizens the means of outbidding most of their continental rivals.
Conspicuous among the London collectors was Dr. William Hunter, whose cabinet of coins and medals remains the finest ever got together by a private individual. Its trays contain about 30,000 specimens, of which over 12,000 are Greek and nearly the same number Roman. Nor is it on the ground of size alone that it is remarkable. For, extensively as he purchased, Hunter did not purchase at random. Many of the coins are of extreme rarity, some are absolutely unique, while the great majority are in exceptionally good condition. Their owner, as he more than once explicitly states, possessed no scientific knowledge of numismatics. But he kept himself constantly in touch with those who did, and availed himself of the advice of experts in all cases where the instinct of the amateur was likely to be at fault. He collected in the first instance “for pleasure.” Being, however, a man of singular foresight and breadth of view
* We hear of coins as articles of merchandise in Venice as early as 1335. Mintz, Les Précurseurs de la Renaissance, p. 88. Cf. Dr. Rudolf Weil, Zar Geschichte des Studiums der Numismatik, in vol. xix. of the Leitschrift fir Numismatik.
c
x INTRODUCTION
im every department of intellectual life, he early became alive to the important part that coins might play in “the illustration and confirmation of history.” The more fully he realised the exceptional opportunities for study afforded by a large collection, the more generously did he spend money and labour in the endeavour to make his own as complete as possible. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that he regarded the possession of his Cabinet as a public trust, and its augmentation as a public duty. And when he bequeathed it in its entirety to the University of Glasgow, it was because he believed that such a step was most likely to lead to its resources being adequately utilised “for the improvement of knowledge.”
The story of the formation of the Hunter Cabinet is worth telling for its own sake, and incidentally it may throw light on the character of the man whose name the collection bears. In more than one respect posterity has done William Hunter’s memory scant justice. The materials for the following sketch have been drawn partly from the brief Latin preface to Combe’s Descriptio, and partly from unpublished papers and correspondence now in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow. As the references show, free use has been made of the ordinary “sources” for the private history of the Highteenth Century. Among the original documents, which are unfortunately but fragmentary, the most valuable is the autograph ‘Account’ of the sums expended in various years on the purchase of coins and medals; this will be found printed at length in an Appendix. All the more interesting letters are reproduced in the course of the narrative. Of the dealers’ receipts few are sufficiently detailed to yield any information of importance.
In 1770, Hunter, who was by this time the foremost medical man in London, removed from Jermyn Street to Great Windmill Street, where he had built himself a large house, including one magnificent room specially fitted up to serve as a museum. There is some reason to think that his taste for numismatics developed at an earlier period. But it was not until now that the foundations of the Coin Cabinet were really laid. The nucleus was formed by the collection of the Rev. William Dawes, who had lived some years at Aleppo,* where the whole of his coins were picked up. The catalogue of these has been preserved. As was to be expected from the locality in which they were gathered, they are chiefly silver and bronze of Syrian kings, and bronze, both autonomous and imperial, of Syrian cities. In all there are about 450 entries. The actual number of specimens is, however, considerably larger, as in many cases several coins are grouped together under one heading as “duplicates.” Unfortunately, a misunderstanding as to the interpretation of this word led to a serious difference of opinion about the terms of the purchase. The owner being dead, the sale was carried through by his brother, also a clergyman, the Rev. Arthur Dawes. The bargain was that Hunter should pay £220 and “return the duplicates.” But buyer and seller took very different views as to what the phrase meant, and the latter was grievously disappointed when he saw how few coins were sent back. Writing from Mile End on June 29th, 1770, he says indignantly :—“If your friends, w{h]Jether Duane Snelling or Sandwich,t I care not which, have found out some small letters, to prove a non Duplicity; I am sure when I left the medals at your house, you nor myself had any Idea of Duplicates extending or being multiplyed
* As we shall see, the Dawes Cabinet was not the only set of coins that Hunter procured from Aleppo, at this time the chief place of trade in Asia Minor.
+ For Duane, see p. xxii.; for Snelling, p. xiii.; and for Sandwich, p. xiii.
INTRODUCTION xi
to eight or nine, at least tis a way of reckoning I do not understand....... T am not satistyed, nor can I be, unless you return the Duplicates, or take the whole at 250, which 3 months ago I would not have thanked [you] for.”
How the matter ended is uncertain. The negative evidence supplied by his ‘Account’ of his purchases, which, however, is not absolutely reliable,* indicates that Hunter held to his position. In any event the dispute caused him much annoyance. The following reply to Dawes is so characteristic as to be worth quoting in eatenso, Like the other letters of
Hunter printed here, it is taken from an autograph draft of the original, preserved among his papers in the Museum,
“Sir
“From the character you bore, as well as from your behaviour, and from the character which I wish to support, I expected that in our bargain about the medals we should have no difference. I would fain hope that any difficulty which has happened may have risen from misapprehension. So far as that goes, I crave, and in my turn am ready to give pardon. But as we see the transaction in a very different light, and as the hints in your letter are of a serious and delicate nature, I will state my part towards you both in facts and opinions, and leave you to your inclination. I am determined that our impartial friends shall not be able to say that I am wrong. And this shall be the last time if possible that I shall give up my time to the subject. It has already taken up a great deal too much.
“1. It would give me pain to take your collection for less than what I suppose their value to be. What pleasure could it be (and I collect for pleasure) to look at coins for which you, or your children, ought to have had more money?
“2. I never meant, or wished to give more than their full value.
“3. I do not, nor ever pretended to judge of their value from my own knowledge—and I think you should not.
“4. IT was to be determined by Mr. Snelling or Mr. Duane; because I believed them to be capable and honest. Their characters are irreproachable; and, as you know, I was guided by Mr. Duane’s judgement in my bargain with Mr. Sadlert for £900, and I dare say the price is very nearly a proper one. I made the offer at once. It was accepted. I would not have given more. It is my Rule to offer at once what I will give, when I treat with Gentlemen. Gentlemen should always do so.
“5, You told me Mr, Snelling valued them at, or would give £200, and that they would bring nearly as much without the Duplicates.
“6. I gave you credit for this implicitly; and meant to give 10 cent. more. However, to put an end to the affair in the best way, I offered £230, which was 15 # cent. advanced, and I told Mr. Levett that I would give no more; for this reason among others that my pride would not let me higgle, and try to get them for less than I would really give,
* A comparison of the entries with such receipts as have survived, shows that items have sometimes been forgotten. If Hunter compromised the matter by a small additional payment, as seems probable from a second letter of Dawes, he may have neglected to note it down.
S . xiii. ; t See p a
xl INTRODUCTION
“Why did not the matter end here, when neither of us had had much trouble? I had taken my part. Surely you knew that I believed the whole collection was worth no more, and that I would not give more for the whole. If you did not know this, it was because you did not believe what I said, and while I was acting and speaking, as I think a gentleman would, you was supposing me to be going through the part of a dealer.
“7, You made me another offer, viz. to take £220 and the Duplicates. I told you that I should like that better, for that it would save me 10£, that I had no use for Duplicates, and did not imagine they were of much value. But I saw that chusing out the Duplicates might turn out (as it has) an affair of delicacy. I explained what I meant, viz. No medal was a Duplicate where there was a difference in the Dye; and two were not duplicates, when by injuries of preservation they were both necessary to make out the medal either in the Jigures or inscription. You agreed.
“The above fact is important; I am conscious and certain of it, Mr. Hewson remembers it distinctly; and I dare say Mr. Levet does, tho I have not asked him.
“7 [sic]. Then I paid the £220—received the medals—and, in case of accidents, gave you an obligation for returning the duplicates—or paying £30 more—or returning the whole; and was hurried out from you.
“8, Some days after, Mr. Levet told me you was rather uneasy about the last supposition viz. returning the whole. I said I meant it only for your security, if you did not like the Duplicates.
“9. Now Sir, I have kept to my agreement with an upright intention in every part of the transaction. So far as I know I have not kept one duplicate of one shilling value, and among the unimportant Brass of the lower Empire I dare say that I have both kept duplicates and given you likewise what I have no duplicate of for myself. I was tired of the labour, and would not do it again for £50. If our bargain should be void, that will be a considerable regret, I mean the loss of time.
“10. The collection was neither valued nor bought by the catalogue, but by Mr. Snelling’s examination of the medals themselves.
“Now Sir, my conscience tells me that I have not kept back one Duplicate, and that the whole collection is not worth £250. I will therefore keep my only promise viz. of giving 230 for the whole or 220 returning the Duplicates which you have, or I will give up the whole upon receiving back the 220. In this last case I shall think myself ill-used; but that would give me less uneasiness than it would to think that I had used you ill.
“This affair has grown so disagreeable to me that I must beg it may be finished as soon as your convenience will permit. I should have wrote sooner myself but I have been distress[ed] for time; and I wished to state the transaction distinctly.
“P.S. Lhave shewn to some Gentlemen and I shall be ready to shew you or any of your friends (indeed I must insist upon that before I part with the Collection) that there is not a duplicate in Alexr., Lysimachus, or Arsaces. These are the instances in your letter of my having kept 8, and 2, and 10, duplicates.
My Respects to Mrs. Dawes,
I am, &e.
INTRODUCTION xiii
“PS. If you are still dissatisfied there is a method (to which I shall readily submit) of discovering whether such dissatisfaction be reasonable or not. Submit the whole to two men of honour, and let Messrs. Snelling, Levett and Hewson give evidence. These three know every part of the transaction.”
While the negotiations with Dawes were still pending, Hunter was busy in other directions. English and Papal coins and medals to the value of £169 were bought from Thomas Snelling, a well-known dealer of the day, held in repute as the author of various papers on the coinage of Great Britain and Ireland.* About midsummer the new museum was enriched by the acquisition of the Cabinet of Thomas Sadler, formerly deputy clerk of the Pells. This had been brought together in the early part of the century, and some of its contents had been mentioned in the Catalogue of the Bodleian Coins,t others in Haym’s Tesoro Britannico.t As taken over by Hunter, the collection consisted of 2425 specimens, of which only about 350 were Greek. Of the remainder, 886 were Roman imperial denarii, 196 Roman consular denarii, and the rest chiefly Papal and English medals, or English, Scottish and Irish coins. The sum originally set upon it by Sadler's son, who was the seller, was £950, an estimate arrived at by adding about 12 per cent. to the prices his father had paid many years before. Duane, however, whom Hunter consulted, expressed the opinion that some of the coins were over-valued, and the purchase was finally concluded for £900.
It will be remembered that among those mentioned by Dawes as “friends” of Hunter there occurred the name of Sandwich. This was John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich, once one of the notorious monks of Medmenham, and subsequently known, from his “betrayal” of Wilkes, by the sobriquet of ‘Jemmy Twitcher,’ whose conduct during his eleven years of office as First Lord of the Admiralty was ‘‘as great a scandal to public as it had all along been to private morality.”§ To judge from their correspondence, the relations between him and Hunter were never intimate, such bond of union as existed being partly numismatic and partly professional.|| In the spring of 1770 Isaac Jamineau, British Consul at Naples, wrote to Sandwich, whom he knew to be a collector, and offered a number of coins for sale. There is a delicious touch of humour in his description of his wares. “I can venture to affirm that there is nowhere to be found in equal numbers so many rare medals and so finely preserved in any collection of the large and middle Bro[n]ze. They stand me in about 400 guineas. But then I have had the culling of more than one collection. Amongst others that of the Prince of Concha
* A list of these is given in Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, iii, pp. 619 f.
t Francis Wise, Nummorum antiquorum scriniis Bodleianis reconditorum Catalogus (Oxon. 1750). On p. x. of the Introduction the author says: “ Viri humanissimi Tho. Sadler Arm. nummotheca indies nobis patuit.”
f Niccolé Franceso Haym, Del Tesoro Britannico parte prima, overo il Museo Nummario, ove si contengono le medaglie Greche e Latine in ogni metallo e forma non prima pubblicate, London, 1719. An English translation appeared at the same time and place. No more was published; but a Latin edition, revised and enlarged, was issued at Vienna in 1762.
§ Prof. J. K. Laughton in the Dictionary of National Biography.
|| We find from one of the letters that Hunter numbered among his patients Sandwich’s mistress, Margaret or Martha Ray, whose murder by a rejected admirer created an immense sensation in London. She was shot as she was leaving Covent Garden Theatre on April 7th, 1779. The murderer, who was a young clergyman named James Hackman, was hanged at Tyburn. See Boswell’s Life of Johnson, under date April 16th, 1779.
xiv INTRODUCTION
mentioned by Vaillant for its rarity passed thro my hands, and that by the very accident that was provided to keep them from passing out of the family—for as they were entailed they could not be sold publickly for their value, but as the widow and son had access to them they each stole them from themselves and let me have them for half what they were worth. If I meet with a fair purchaser for the whole, I would not avail myself however of these accidental advantages.”
Sandwich found himself unable to afford the sum required. He therefore passed the offer on to Hunter, whom he considered “one of our most promising collectors of medals,” assuring him at the same time that Jamineau was to be relied upon. “I am very positive,” he says, “that if they are not worth the money, it is owing to his want of skill, and not to any design in him to impose, as he is a very honest man, and has expectations from me that such a conduct would interfere with.” Enquiry in other quarters satisfied Hunter that the bargain would be a good one, and he agreed to take over the collection for £400.* The coins, which were chiefly Roman, reached London in 1771. Shortly afterwards another Italian cabinet, that of the Marchese Leonori of Pesaro, was acquired for 200 guineas. Other additions of considerable value were made in the course of this year. These included twenty-eight pieces of Roman gold purchased from Mr. Daltont for £73 11s., as well as a number of coins that had been collected by Dr. Murdoch Mackenziet during thirty-six years’ residence in Smyrna and Constantinople.
In 1772 Snelling continued to buy freely for Hunter, who during that year paid him about £400. The cabinet of Mr. Peter Sainthill, a famous London surgeon recently deceased, was also acquired en bloc for £170. It consisted chiefly of English coins. More important was the unfortunate series of transactions regarding the Peralta Collection, which led to a somewhat heated correspondence between Hunter and Louis Dutens, well known in his day as a diplomatist and man of letters.§ Contrary to his usual custom, Hunter has preserved no record of the letters written by himself in the course of the dispute. Three letters from Dutens survive. Although they present only one side of the case, they show plainly enough that the whole trouble had its origin in a misunderstanding, and that the matter was
* As soon as Lord Rockingham heard of the projected purchase, he wrote Hunter begging for a sight of the catalogue. In returning it he expressed the hope that when the coins arrived he might be allowed to make an offer for some of the finest. Hunter’s answer has not been preserved, but it seems unlikely that he would accede to such a request.
+ Presumably Richard Dalton, “keeper of the pictures, medals, etc., and antiquary to his majesty,” who died in 1791. He had travelled a good deal in Mediterranean countries, and is best known by his sketches made in Egypt and elsewhere, The coins and medals which he possessed at the time of his death, were sold by auction by Gerard (Soho, London) on 20th April, 1791.
} It was he who brought from the East the rare coin of Gangra in Paphlagonia, which will be described in vol. ii. (See infra, p. xxiv.) He was the author of one or two scientific papers (Med. Obs. and Inq. for 1755), and he communicated to the Royal Society accounts of the plague at Constantinople, and also of an earthquake there (Phil. Trans. Abr., x., 229, xii., 102, 283, 548). On the present occasion he must have parted with only a portion of his collection. For in March, 1780, the sale took place in London of the Greek and Roman coins of “Dr. Mordach [sic] Mackenzie, deceased.”
§ Dutens, who was of French Huguenot extraction, died in 1812 at the age of 82. He was at one time British chargé daffaires at Turin, and was the author of Explication de quelques médailles de Peuples aa 3
de Rots, et de Villes, Grecques et Phéniciennes (1773). The most important of his other works was his edition of Leibnitz (Geneva, 1768).
INTRODUCTION XV
ultimately cleared up to the entire satisfaction of both parties. The longest document is a printed statement, covering four quarto pages, and evidently intended for circulation among friends. It is dated Ist December, 1772, and bears title: A State of Mr. Dutens’s Case with regard to a Commission given him by Dr. Hunter. From this we gather that early in 1772 Hunter, knowing that Dutens had been a good deal abroad, asked him whether he could tell him of any cabinets of medals anywhere, the owners of which might be willing to dispose of them. Dutens suggested the collection of Count Peralta at Milan. When he saw it some years before, it had been valued at £1,500. Now, he had heard, the owner was in financial straits and had pledged it for half that sum. A judicious offer might bring it to London; his only regret was that he was unable to buy it for himself. As a result of this report Hunter authorised Dutens to write to a banker friend in Milan, Castelli by name, and direct him to enquire whether Count Peralta would sell his coins for £850. Castelli, thinking that the instructions amounted to a commission to buy, and ignorant of Hunter’s interest in the affair, went straight to the Abbé in charge of the collection, concluded a bargain for £800, and drew a bill upon Dutens for the amount. Dutens, who had only £200 of a balance at his banker’s, appealed to Hunter as the real purchaser to relieve him of his responsibility. But Hunter’s suspicions had in the meantime been aroused. He determined to resist what looked like an organised attempt to force his hand, and he declined to disburse any money until the coins should be delivered in London. The position of Dutens was anything but pleasant. On the one hand, he had Castelli clamouring for repayment. On the other, he had Hunter threatening to repudiate all connection with the affair, and pointing out in detail the circumstances that were calculated to rouse distrust. The climax came when the cabinet arrived at Great Windmill Street. The packets of coins were opened in presence of Hunter and his numismatic friends. There were in all between 7,000 and 8,000 specimens, but many of them were false and many more were in poor condition. Such, at least, was the impression left by the first hasty inspection. Hunter's disappointment was great, and the alarm of Dutens increased in proportion. Fortunately, a second and more leisurely examination proved rather less unsatisfactory, and the remaining letters, both addressed by Dutens to Hunter, show that the money difficulty was amicably arranged. “I am sensible,” writes Dutens, “ you could have no other reason of delaying the Payment of the Collection but that of wishing to be satisfied about the Genuineness of it, since you agreed to take it, the moment you were convinced it was the real Peralta Collection, which I had seen in my passage thro Milan. I hope you will be persuaded, Dear Sir, that Nothing has given me so much concern as the disappointment you have met with in this affair.” In other words, all that Hunter wished to guard against was the possibility of being victimised by the Milan banker. He had to pay dearly for the mistaken estimate that Dutens had formed of the collection. But so far was he from bearing him malice on that account that he closed the unpleasant incident by presenting him with the most valuable medal that the unlucky cabinet had contained.
The payment for the Peralta Collection falls into the year 1773.* Earlier in the same year Hunter had paid Snelling over £600. More than half of this was for coins and niedals, chiefly English, purchased on his behalf at the sale of James West, a former President of the
* The amount at which it is entered is £680 plus a “ballance” of £39 9s. 6d. The sum paid by Castelli was £800. The difference possibly represents what Hunter was able to get for the duplicates.
xvi INTRODUCTION
Royal Society. The instructions given to Snelling on this occasion are preserved. They are in Hunter's own handwriting, and are very detailed. No limit is laid down as to prices. These facts combine to show the keen personal interest that Hunter took in the growth of his treasure-house, as well as the extent to which he relied on the judgment of his agent. It was the last transaction that took place between them. Early in May Snelling died. His friend John Thane, afterwards author of British Autography,* fell heir to a large measure of his patron’s confidence. A new adviser, however, now appeared upon the scene. This was Charles Combe, the future editor of the Descriptio. Born in Bloomsbury in 1743, and educated at Harrow, he studied medicine and qualified himself to carry on his father’s business of apothecary, to which he succeeded in 1768. Sixteen years later he received a licence to practise from the University of Glasgow, and speedily made a great reputation as an obstetric physician. No doubt his long connection with Hunter must have proved of benefit to him professionally.+ But its most important result lay in the facilities it placed at his disposal for the pursuit of his favourite study. With his friend’s coin cabinet to work upon, he became the most distinguished English numismatist of the century. Eckhelf selects him for honourable mention as one of the few men whose judgment on a question of genuineness was to be absolutely trusted, and his Descriptio, which the same authority§ speaks of as “catalogus a Combio erudite, nitide, et adewrate contextus,” is still cited with respect by scholars at home and abroad. From 1773 onwards he rendered Hunter great assistance in making his purchases, as is clear from the frequency with which his name appears in the ‘Account. The extent to which Hunter was dependent on his knowledge is apparent from the following curious note from Combe, which was probably written in 1776,|| and which is printed here precisely as it stands. “Perhaps y* Doctor will like to mention as a piece of numismatic news his having lately got a brass coin of y® middle size which appears to belong to y® son of Tigranes y* Great who was made King by Pompey it is Inscrib'd BAZIAEV= MEFAZ . NEOZ . TIFPANEI® . his head with a Tiara on y® reverse a female head & tt... BALIAEOV TIFPANOV . AQEAGH . y* Doct’ will please to examine y® coin and paper with it in regard to y® legend as in all probability Mr. C.’s memory is not good eno’ to be depended on.”
* London, 1793. Thane died in 1818 at the age of 71. His coins and medals, “Greek, Roman Saxon, English and Scotch,” with a few rings and antiquities, were sold by Sotheby in April and in December, 1819.
+ It was certainly this connection that procured him his diploma from Glasgow University. In the minute in which the matter is first mentioned (April 30th, 1784), he is described as “one of Dr. Hunter’s English Trustees, a Gentleman well known at London in the Medical World; and a person of very extensive Literature and distinguished abilities in many Branches of Science, as well as in the different Branches of Medicine.”
ft Doctrina, vol. i., p. exviii.
§ Op. cit., vol. i., p. clxx.
|| Though written on a separate slip of paper, it appears to be a postscript to a letter announcing that “Mr. Robinson of y* royal society is dead, he held ye place of Accomptant at ye british museum £12-0-0 ® annum,” and asking Hunter to use his influence with the Trustees to secure the appointment for Mr. Mathews, already engaged in the Museum. Mr. Warwick Wroth, who has kindly made search, informs me that the Museum records do not take cognisance of the office of Accountant at that early date. In the absence of any definite authority, we may conjecture that “Mr. Robinson” was identical with John Robertson, Librarian to the Royal Society, whose death on December 11th, 1776, is recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xlvi., p. 579.
INTRODUCTION xv
The acquisition of the Peralta Collection brought the total number of ancient coins in Hunter's possession up to close on 10,000. Of these, as we learn from a jotting dated May 30, 1773, about 1,500 were Greek and over 8,000 Roman. The additions during 1774 were comparatively small, and consisted chiefly of modern coins and medals. But it was the opportunity rather than the will to purchase that was wanting. We get a glimpse of Hunter’s amazing energy in a letter dated Cadiz, March 21, 1774. The writer reports that Hunter's “list of names of Gent" who possess cabinets of ancient medals in Spain” had been handed to a certain John Hunter, employed in a business-house in that country. “Said J. H. will write to some friends at Madrid and Valencia immediately to procure some information regarding those who are situated near each of those places, and will also by means of his friends in Cadiz endeavour to get some account of those in Granada and other parts of this kingdom.—If any of them are willing to sell their collec- tions, Mr. H. will forward to the Doctor their catalogues so soon as he can procure them.”
These enquiries proved fruitless. And the same year had at least one other disappointment in store. Some time previously, probably in 1772, Hunter had made the acquaintance of Sir William Hamilton, the well-known antiquary and diplomatist, who for the long period of thirty-six years (1764—1800) held the post of British Ambassador at Naples. In the autumn of 1774 the following correspondence took place between them.
di St “Naples, Octr. 4th, 1774.
“As you seem’d to be desirous of augmenting your collection of Medals I send you the inclosed catalogue.* I do not collect medals and I have no commission to collect for the Museum, but as I think these medals, that belong to one of the first familys here, are as fine and as well preserved as any I ever saw I shou'd wish them to be in England. The owner must be tempted to part with them, the value he has set on them scems to me exorbitant, four thousand Roman Zechins—but that need not allarm you, be so good as examine the catalogue and let me know how far you would offer and I will endeavor to manage the matter for you. The owner is a gamester and a sum properly offer’d may do the business at a proper season. I shou’d be glad to enrich my country by this collection at the same time that I give you pleasure. Be so good as to send me an answer soon, if you do not intend to purchase more medals, give the catalogue to Mr. Duane, for I promised to give him information of any medals that cowd be got at here. The gold medals are every one as if they were just coin’d, and the Brass are likewise in most excellent preservation. Your new publicationt is eagerly expected here. I am Sir
with great regard and esteem your most obedt. humble servant Wn. Hamilton.”
* The catalogue is still preserved. The collection consisted of 181 gold pieces (of which 101 were Imperial), 400 silver pieces (of which 312 were Roman, and 88 Greek), 59 Roman medallions, and 523 bronze coins (all Roman). There were in addition two intaglios.
+ There can hardly be a doubt that the reference is to a catalogue of Hunter’s coins. Combe’s Descriptio was not published until 1782. But Hunter had long cherished the idea of a great series of publications. So far as I have been able to ascertain, this is the carliest definite allusion to the plan.
d
xvii INTRODUCTION
The draft of Hunter's reply shows that a residence of thirty-three years in London had in no way impaired his native caution.
“Sir “T am very sensible of this proof of the kindness which I have experienced before, being continued to me; and should be happy in my turn, to serve you in any way you may employ me.
“My collection of medals is now in such a state, that I wish more to procure finer specimens than to enlarge the number; principally from having had a large collection (the Peralta) from Italy almost all of which were in bad or indifferent preservation, and many of the more scarce were false. The collectors here are more nice about preservation than they seem to be in Italy. What we call fine preservation is elegant and beautifull; what I believe you call bellissimo and conservatissimo. And we allow neither false medals to be mixed, for filling up the series, nor even those that are suspicious. We say that if a medal is but suspected, it is good for nothing, because it proves nothing. And in the foreign collections which have come over here, there have always been numbers of false medals which by the catalogue appeared to be genuine. Thence it is, that we cannot pretend to calculate, any thing nearly, to the real value of a collection, by a catalogue; especially as the value is to be made out, principally, from the smaller number, viz. the more scarce. The same medal, in your catalogue, might be well worth 10 guineas if genwine and jine, for which I would not give 10 pence if false, or 10 shillings if in indifferent preservation. And, among the Italians especially, men of the fairest pretensions to honour, will cheat in recommending their medals, as they will here in selling horses, Thence Mr. Dutens was cheated by a very much obliged friend* in the collection he bought for me, and two other considerable collections which we have seen here from Italy turned out not worth more than the half of what was given for them.t
“Mr. Jamineau’s collection, from his having studied medals, was a good one: and the value was thought, by our best judges here, to be determined, upon the whole, reasonably. He is so kind as to give me his good offices, and sent me a small list very lately. I only desired that they might be finely preserved, and left the price to his judgement.
“Mr. Duane and Mr. Combe, both good judges, have calculated the value by the Catalogue and your account of the Preservation. They make it £511, without the Intaglio[s] and King[s], and 11 pieces of Italian gold money. But they allow that this sum may be at
* The reference is not to Castelli, but to the Abbé Recalcati, of whom Dutens says in his printed statement, “I have done him the greatest service that a man can do to another by my recommendation
to some of the ministers at Milan during my stay there.” He had charge of the collection, and must have known its character.
+ As the draft originally stood, the reference to the “two other considerable collections” was much more explicit. It ran thus: “thence Lord Morton's collection was not worth above half of what he paid for it. And from your not having studied medals, your collection at the Museum turns out almost worth
nothing, which is principally owing to the bad preservation or commonness of most of them.
I know indeed that you put little value upon them; yet I expected that many of them would have been in Jine preserva-
tion because I had imagined that you bought for the workmanship and beauty of which you are an excellent Judge.” As the next letter shows, it was Hamilton who purchased this collection for Lord
Morton; by “your collection” Hunter means the 6000 coins included in the museum which Hamilton sold to the nation in 1772.
INTRODUCTION XIX
least £100 too much, and perhaps too little: too much, if the preservation should not come up to our Ideas, or if some of the coins be false; and too little for the contrary reasons.
“We were more particularly at a loss to judge of the value of the Medallions; and of the coins of Magna Grecia, ete., which were only numbered, not specified.
“Now, as Mr. Jamineau is a judge of Medals and no doubt one who would be glad to oblige you, and is so good as to assist me, could not you contrive that he should see them, so as to examine the principal and form a general judgement of the rest?
“With these, the best Ideas I can communicate upon the subject, I will leave you to do whatever your Friendship to me shall tell you is best; and, for some time, I shall endeavour to keep as much money at Mr. Drummond’s as to be able to remit the Price to Naples upon demand, if you should buy them. Your own medals and Mr. Jamineau’s too were exceedingly well packed up. I should wish the 3 different metals to be packed up separately, that they might be weighed at the custum-hous as gold, silver, and copper; and I should chuse to ensure them at sea.”
Thus far the draft. The letter itself apparently closed with a promise that a copy of the “new publication” would be presented to Hamilton. His reply shows that the negotiations came to nothing. In view of what subsequently happened,* this can hardly be called a matter for regret.
“Naples, Jany. 2nd, 1775. “Sir
“Soon after I had the pleasure of receiving your Letter of the 14th of Novr., I went to examine the collection of medals with a person who has much greater knowledge in medals than Mr. Jamineau; for it is long, and for good reasons that I have had no manner of connection with Mr. Jamineau, except upon His Majesty’s service, and they were judged to be in general true and well preserved, some few dubious, but none, or not above one or two, that can be declared false. The gold collection is admirably preserved, the medallions are very fine and some exceedingly rare and the large bronze for the most part bellissimo and conservatissimo. In short if I cow’d get them, even for 100/. more than you mention, that is 6001., I shou’d not hesitate, as I am sure that they are particularly good and such as cannot easily be procured for money. They are not in a dealer’s hands, but one of the nobility whose Father was a great collector and a very judicious one. I have told him the estimation such as it cow’d be made from the imperfect idea that cou’d be formed from the catalogue, but as his pretentions are far beyond that sum, I thought it not the time to offer more, and that the best way is to appear cool about them; if the owner has bad luck at play, he will perhaps come to me, and at all events I will keep an eye upon him, as I realy shou’d be happy to do you a pleasure and secure such valuable monuments of antiquity
to our country. “JT never collected medals regularly and those that were lumped with my collection of antiquities in the Museum were such as I bought accidently with other monuments of antiquity. The collection I bought for the late Ld. Morton was a curious one, but I prefer
this little collection.
* See pp. xxix. ff.
XX INTRODUCTION
“T am greatly obliged to you for your kind intention of sending me a copy of your new work which I shall be very glad to see as I am convinced it will be perfect as everything is that has been directed by you.
I am Sir with great
regard and esteem, your most obedient
humble servant Wm. Hamilton.”
The gamester’s luck at play must have been better than Hamilton hoped for. Or possibly he found another purchaser. At all events, we hear no more of the plan for acquiring his collection. In the letter quoted above Hunter spoke of a commission given to Jamineau to be on the look-out for coins in Naples and its neighbourhood. The instructions sent on this occasion are worth reprinting. ‘Of the Large and Middle and Small Brass buy any that you meet with in elegant or very fine preservation be they ever so common, or tho you may know that Dr. Hunter has them. He thinks a number of medals in fine preservation a great ornament to a collection, and therefore wishes to change many that he already has for better, Of the Roman Gold buy only a single medal of each; and none but of fine or at least good preservation, Of Greek kings and cities especially of Magna Graecia Dr. H. has a Large Collection, yet would be glad that Mr. Jamineau would buy for him any that he meets with in fine preservation either in Gold, Silver or Brass.” In response to this request a parcel was despatched from Naples in the end of 1774. Its contents were almost entirely large brass (Roman), one gold piece being enclosed for transmission to Lord Sandwich, who had long before asked Jamineau to pick up for him the first specimen of the kind he might meet with. A few of the coins thus sent were taken over by Combe, who was at the time an independent collector. The remainder found a place in Hunter’s own trays.
A glance at the ‘Account’ will show that the year 1775, like its predecessor, was marked by few additions of importance to the Cabinet. There is, however, one entry that calls for explanation. On August 26th Hunter paid £420 to Mr. Sadler. No reference to this transaction occurs in the preface to the Descriptio, and none is preserved among the archives of the Cabinet. But it is hardly possible to doubt that the clue is to be found in the correspondence that took place five years earlier. We learn from the ‘statement’ then submitted by R. 8. Sadler regarding his father’s medals and coins that he did not part with the whole to Hunter in 1770. He retained a small number of the more beautiful for hinself, notably fifty-five Roman gold pieces, selected for the fineness of their preservation. In all probability it was this precious remnant that now followed the main body of the collection.
In April, 1776, the first donation of which we have any record was made. It consisted of twenty coins out of a hoard of 222 found in 1774 “in a Talook in the neighbourhood of Calcutta.” Apparently this gift was suggested by the following letter, a draft of which remains in the Museum. There is no indication of date or of direction. But it was evidently addressed to someone of influence in the management of the Honourable East India Company, by whose Directors the coins were presented,
INTRODUCTION xxi
“ Sir,
“The favour I meant to ask of the Directors through your interest is with the view of serving Literature, and of illustrating eastern history. Many important facts of the Greeks and Romans have been illustrated by their coins. Little of that kind has been yet done with regard to eastern countries. A friend of mine is now upon that pursuit, and I wish to furnish him with materials.*
“In the Persic Gulf there is a fine opportunity of picking up the antient coins of the great empires of the Medes, the Persians, the Parthians, and even of all the Eastern Greek and Roman colonies, and of the Arabs, particularly while Bagdad was the seat of the Empire. The labourers of the ground all about the Euphrates and Tigris, and all adjacent places, I am told, find innumerable antient coins and sell them for little more than the value of the metal. Would the Directors do me the honour to desire any intelligent servant there to collect all such coins as are in tolerably good Preservation, whether in Gold, Silver or Brass; and to send home the first parcel that may be collected as soon as may be convenient, that we may better judge of what may be expected or expedient? Till further orders not to exceed the sum of 200 or 300£. If the Gentleman who collects should happen to be a judge of antient coins, the price will be left to his own judgement; and if he does not know a very common old coin from a very scarce or valuable one he may be guided by the following rules
For Gold give 38 for 2.
— Silver — 2 le
— Brass — 38 or 4 — 1.”
The largest entries in the ‘Account’ for 1776 have reference to the acquisition of one of the chief glories of the Cabinet,—a splendid series of Ptolemaic gold coins, almost every specimen of which is as fresh as when it was issued from the mint. The most of these pieces were purchased from Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, who had brought them with him from Egypt on his return to England in 1774. Of this transaction we have no details. But a lengthy correspondence gives us full particulars as to how the remainder came into Hunter’s hands. In July, 1776, Charles Lindegreen, a Swede in business in the city, was informed by his correspondents at Marseilles, that a Frenchman, resident as a merchant at Cairo, had come home and was offering for sale eighteen Egyptian gold coins in magnificent preservation. Of these, fourteen were said to be of the weight of “eight Venetian sequins” each, while the other four were half as large. The price set upon them by the owner was 200 louis d’or or 4,800 livres. Lindegreen replied at once, sending instructions to buy, but to endeavour to secure a reduction in the price demanded. Shortly afterwards the Marseilles firm reported that the seller was obdurate. He understood perfectly what the coins were. “The famous Mr. Bruce who lodged at his House, has given him instructions about it.” And he had been so much insulted at a lower offer made him on behalf of the Abbé Barthélemy for the King’s Cabinet, that he threatened to increase his demand to 300 guineas. Lindegreen’s agents gave him what he asked, and the coins were despatched
* It is just possible that the friend was Combe.
xxii INTRODUCTION
to London, where they were immediately transferred to Hunter's Museum.* The amount expended on these two lots of Egyptian gold was over £530.
In April, however, there had been concluded a very much larger purchase, and one which rendered 1776 the most notable year in the history of the Cabinet. Prominent among Hunter’s numismatice friends was Matthew Duane, to whom allusion has more than once been made. He was a lawyer, of Lincoln’s Inn, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Trustee of the British Museum. During a long life he had devoted much time and money to building up a very fine collection of ancient coins. He possessed a good knowledge of the subject, but, like Hunter, he was too busy a man to turn his exceptional opportunities for study to account.t He was now about 70 years of age, and it was not difficult to convince him that the contents of his cabinet were likely to be more useful to scholars if they were under Hunter’s control. We cannot doubt but that the latter’s scheme for a series of descriptive catalogues had been discussed between them. To further it, Duane agreed to part with the whole of his coins for the sum of £8,000, to be paid in instalments as follows :—£1,000 at once, £1,500 in spring, £1,000 at Christmas, £1,000 in the summer of 1777, £1,000 at Christmas of the same year, £1,000 at Christmas 1778, and the balance of £1,500 at Christmas 1779. The character of this arrangement is interesting as indicating that Hunter had to trust to his professional income for meeting the expenses of his Museum; he had practically no accumulation of capital to draw upon. It should be noted that none of these sums is entered in the ‘Account’ until the whole has been paid.
Fate decreed that Duane should outlive Hunter by nearly two years. How great the fame of his collection was, is shown clearly by the prominence given to it in the epitaph on the mural monument to his memory in St. Nicholas Church, Neweastle.t It had been gathered from many quarters. Amongst the earlier collectors, a large proportion of whose ancient coins had passed into Duane’s possession, were Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, whose collections were disposed of in 1742, after his son’s death; Richard Mead (1673—1754), in his day the first physician in London§; Martin Folkes, President of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, and author of a work on “English Gold Coins”;|| and Philip Carteret Webb, from whom were purchased a “noble series of Roman gold (among which
* Lindegreen was himself a collector; but his letter announcing the arrival of the coins indicates that
in this transaction he acted simply as the agent of Hunter, who, it may be added, may possibly have heard of the coins through Bruce.
+ See letter from the Rev. George Ashby in Nichols, Literary Illustrations, vii., p. 402.
{ “He was of great eminence in the knowledge of the Law, and of the strictest integrity and liberality in the practice of it; at the same time the Friend and Patron of the Polite and Fine Arts; and particularly distinguished by his singular skill, judgment, and taste, in chusing and collecting a most complete series of Syrian, Phoenician, Grecian, Roman, and other Coins, now deposited in the Museum of the late William Hunter, M.D., for the illustration and confirmation of History.”
§ Nichols (Lit. Anecdotes, vi., pp. 212 ff.) tells us that Mead made from £5000 to £7000 a year, which helps us to estimate Hunter's professional income. His collections, which were sold in 1754-5, produced over £16,000, of which nearly £2000 was for coins and medals. For his connection with the curious doctrine propounded in Chishull’s tract, De Nummis quibusdam a Smyrnaeis in Medicorum honorem pereussts, see op. cit., i, p. 266. Chishull’s paper appeared as a ‘ Dissertatio’ appended to Mead’s Harveian Oration, delivered in 1723 and published in the following year.
|| See Nichols, Lt. Anecdotes, ii., pp. 578 ff., where a complete list of Folkes’s writings will be found. His collections were sold in 1756.
INTRODUCTION xxiil
were Pompey, Lepidus, &c.)” and a “collection of Greek kings and towns,”* ag well as “256 of Carausius, nine of them silver, and 89 of Allectus.” The coins of Carausius and Allectus here referred to had been the property of Dr. Kennedy, formerly of Smyrna, who died in 1760.¢ In addition to all this Duane had bought two entire cabinets. One of these had belonged to the Rev. Louis Dutens, who has already been mentioned in another connection. The other was the property of Gabriele Lancillotto Castello, Prince of Torremuzza, a distinguished Sicilian antiquary, who had published a catalogue of his own collection at Palermo in 1767, and who subsequently compiled a corpus of the ancient coins of Sicily. t It was doubtless from the last mentioned source that not a few of the specimens described in the present volume were drawn.
An idea of the proportions to which Hunter's collection had by this time attained, can be gathered from a jotting which records that on October 26, 1776, the “ Syrian series”’ consisted of 635 coins, five being of gold, 232 of silver, and the balance of bronze. It is probable that all of these were distinct specimens. For Hunter was in the habit of systematically ridding himself of the many duplicates which the wholesale additions to his Cabinet naturally left upon his hands. Between December, 1775, and August, 1776, he sold superfluous coins to the value of over £500.§ In October of the latter year we find him opening a correspondence with the Abbé Barthélemy, then in charge of the Royal Cabinet at Paris, in the hope of being able to establish a regular system of exchanges. One or two friendly letters followed, but the very richness of the two collections concerned made it difficult to apply the method of barter. Ultimately Hunter sent a list of his chief desiderata to the Abbé, giving him a general commission to purchase for him as he saw opportunity, at any price he might deem reasonable. In the meantime he had decided to put the remainder of his duplicates to the hammer. The sale took place in January, 1777, and occupied eight days, the total amount realised being £1,337 17s. 6d.|| As might have been expected, the lots were of the most miscellaneous kind, the Greek coins being drawn from all parts of the Hellenic world. ‘The highest individual prices were got for two Ptolemaic gold octodrachms, one of which was knocked down at £36, the other at £27.
A month or two before the sale Hunter had his first recorded transaction with John White, of Newgate Street, from whom, as the ‘Account’ shows, he purchased freely in subsequent
* See Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, ii., p. 280.
+ See Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, v., p. 451.
£ Steiliae populorum et urbium, Regum quoque et tyrannorum veteres Numi Saracenorum epocham antecedentes. Panormi, 1781. The statement as to the catalogue of the Prince’s own coins is made on the authority of the Preface to Combe’s Descriptio. A second collection formed by Torremuzza excited the admiration of Goethe, who saw it at Palermo and found in it “etn unendlicher Friihling von Bliithen und Friichten der Kunst.” (Italienische Reise, under date 12 April, 1787.)
§ See p. lii., footnote.
|| These figures are taken from a priced copy in the Hunterian Library. As the entries are in the handwriting of the auctioneer (or his clerk), the total is probably correct, though it differs slightly from that given in the British Museum marked copy. Hunter's name is not mentioned on the title-page, which runs—A Catalogue of a valuable Collection of Antient and modern Coins and Medals Containing Very large and rich Series, in Gold, Silver, and Copper, of Greek Kings, Cities and People, Roman Families, and Imperial Coins, besides a considerable Number of Saxon, English and other modern Coins and Medals Which will be Sold by Auction by Mr. Gerard At his House in Litchfield-Street, St. Anne's, Soho, on Thursday the 23rd of January 1777 and the seven following days (Sunday excepted).
XXIV INTRODUCTION
years. On this occasion there were bought English and Saxon coins to the value of over £170. Neither he nor his advisers appear to have entertained the slightest doubt as to the honesty of White, whose reputation has since undergone a mysterious eclipse. It seems impossible ‘at this distance of time to discover the details of his misdeeds. We know that in 1776 he professed to have in his possession “a coin actually found on the coffin of Hardicanute in Denmark”*—a decidedly suspicious provenance. And Nicholst in recording his death, which took place on November 17th, 1787, describes him as “the celebrated Collector (and supposed Fabricator) of Ancient Coins.” Something like a definite charge is preferred against him by Edward Hawkins, who was likely to be well informed. That numismatist, in his Silver Coins (8rd ed., p. 4), warns his readers that the plates called Withy and Ryall’s (published in 1756) are not to be depended upon. “They are supposed to have been engraved under the inspection of Mr. John White, and coins are represented which either never existed, or were altered by his ingenuity, to suit his fancy and impose upon collectors.” Beyond this, authorities are strangely silent as to his history. But the fact that he is frequently spoken of as “the notorious” Mr. White is of itself sufficient to cause one to regret his association with the Hunter Cabinet.t He does not, however, appear to have dealt much either in Greek or in Roman coins.
It had now become generally known that Hunter proposed to publish a full account of the contents of his Cabinet, and this proved a means of inducing smaller collectors to part with any rarities they might possess. Amongst those from whose trays specimens were thus culled, was Dr. Patrick Russell, who had been in practice for many years at Aleppo, and whose account of the plague there is still a medical classic.§ A payment of fifty guineas to him is recorded on November 2nd, 1776. In a similar way, early in the next year, Combe, who had hitherto been an independent collector, transferred into Hunter’s Museum practically all his coins, which, to judge from the phrase used in the ‘Account,’ must have been chiefly Roman.|| It is hardly probable that the motives responsible for the most important transaction of 1777 were equally public-spirited. Rather, the air of mystery surrounding it suggests that they were purely mercenary. The entry in the ‘Account’ merely tells us that on August 20th £770 was paid for “A Cabinet, valued by Mr. Combe.” On turning for light to the Descriptio, we find little to help us. The collection is spoken of vaguely as “ ingens monetarum copia viri cujusdam apud exteros praenobilis.” Tt is clear that Hunter had laid himself under some obligation to keep the name of the seller secret, clear too (it may be added) that he contemplated the possibility of his ‘Account’ being one day exposed to public
* Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, vi., p. 179. t+ Literary Illustrations, v., p. 187.
f Mr. Warwick Wroth, to whose kindness I owe the reference to Hawkins, writes that there is in the Medal Room of the British Museum a priced copy of the sale catalogue of White’s collections, sold by auction in London in February and March, 1788, and that the contents of the catalogue suggest that the owner was a dealer, not a private collector. This conclusion is quite borne out by the records of his transactions with Hunter. It is curious that the latter never dealt with White directly, as he did with Snelling, Thane, and others. The receipts are always made out in the name of Combe.
§ Published in London in 1791.
Il ‘The very rare coin of Gangra in Paphlagonia, which will be described in vol. ii., was, however, at one time in Combe's possession. It was originally brought from the East by Dr. Murdoch Mackenzie. (Cf. p. xiv.) Sce Pinkerton, Essay on Medals (2nd ed., London, 1789), vol. i., p. 252.
INTRODUCTION XXV
scrutiny. Again, while letters or memoranda relating to such extensive purchases have as a rule been preserved, any correspondence that may have taken place regarding this one has disappeared. If the disappearance is due to deliberate destruction, as one is almost tempted to suppose, then the precaution has been in vain. For a clue has after all been allowed to survive. Among the financial documents is a promissory note bearing date 16th August, 1777, signed by Hunter, and duly endorsed by the party concerned. It reads as follows: “I promise to pay on demand seven hundred and seventy pounds to The Earl of Sandwich or order for value received.” The date and the sum named make it plain that the “value received” was the cabinet referred to in the ‘Account.’ This can have been no other than Lord Sandwich’s own collection. We saw incidentally that as early as 1770 he found himself unable to spare money for its extension. Now he must have let it go altogether, stipulating apparently that his pride should not suffer by the fact of the sale being blazoned abroad. From one or two references that occur in the correspondence with Jamineau in 1770 and 1774, we may perhaps infer that the Sandwich Cabinet consisted largely of Roman coins.
This was not the only important acquisition made in 1777. In May of that year the Rev. Dr. Browne, Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, wrote Hunter on behalf of Mrs. Swinton, widow of the late Keeper of the University archives,* offering for sale a collection which had belonged to her late husband. Browne had often urged his friend while still alive to approach Hunter “as a gentleman of a very generous turn, and who I believe, was often purchasing chiefly with a view to Public Utility”; and he had reason to think that only Swinton’s illness had prevented that step from being taken. The widow was anxious to sell now, and had hopes that the coins might be worth as much as £300. Hunter replied to the effect that the subject had been broached to him before Swinton’s death by a mutual friend, and that he was prepared to carry through the negotiations then begun. He did not anticipate that there would be any difficulty as to terms. ‘‘ Let Mrs. Swinton send [the coins] up, sealed, to any friend in London. They shall be examined by Mr. Combe, before Mr. Duane, or Mr. Cratchrod,f or any, or as many of her friends, as she may think proper, (yourself when you come to Town) and carefully sealed wp again in their presence. I will then give her what she asks, or more, provided Mr. Combe says they are worth the money. Or, I will refer the price to two men of known character; one to be chosen by her, the other by me.
* John Swinton (1703—1777) entered Wadham College as a servitor, and subsequently became a scholar. In early manhood he travelled abroad a good deal. Afterwards he was appointed chaplain of the gaol at Oxford, and in that capacity he figures in an anecdote in Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson (under 1754). He was one of the most learned men of his time, and wrote much on historical subjects. See Gentleman's Magazine, liv., p. 892. He communicated to the Royal Society a series of papers on ancient Ttalian coins (Phil. Trans., li., 858; lii, 28; lviii., 253; lix., 482; Ixili, 22), which is noticed by Eckhel, Doctrina, i, pp. 103 ff. A complete list of his writings on numismatic and other subjects occupies three-quarters of a column in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. In the Latin preface to the Descriptio his death is said to have taken place “sub finem hujus anni.” As a matter of fact the real date was April 4th. See Gentleman's Mag., xlvii., p. 195.
+ Rev. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode (1730—1799), of Christ Church, Oxford, a well-known collector, and a Trustee of the British Museum, to which he bequeathed his medals, coins, books, privts, &e. He was on terms of friendship with Hunter, and more than once acted as his adviser in regard to his purchases. For a biographical sketch, see Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, ix., p. 666. A sarcastic notice of him as “a much admired literary sun” will be found in Nichols, Zit. Idlustrations, vi. pp. 773 ff, where an estimate of the value of his collections is given. ;
XXvV1 INTRODUCTION
Mr. Combe shall be mine. She can have yourself, or Mr. Duane, or Mr. Cratchrod, or Mr. Southgate.* I have bought several collections in this equitable way; and have had no reason to think, in any instance, that I paid too little, or too much. Mrs, Swinton would not wish to get more from me than the value of the medals and I am sure that I should not wish to get the property of a Widow, under its value.”
Mrs. Swinton accepted the latter of the two alternatives, and nominated Duane to act in her interest. The result surpassed her expectations. The estimate placed upon the collection by the valuators was £330, which was promptly paid over, and she showed her appreciation of Hunter’s fairness by presenting him with a number of Etruscan vases from among her late husband’s effects. Some two months later there were added to the Cabinet the coins of Joseph Smith, formerly consul at Venice, which were purchased from his widow.f We have no details as to the composition of this collection, but the price paid exceeded £500. No doubt Smith’s cabinet contained many varieties of which Hunter already possessed specimens. For by February, 1778, the accumulation of duplicates had become so large as to necessitate a second auction sale. It took place at Gerard’s on Tuesday, the 24th, and two following days,t the total amount realised being £508 16s. 6d.
The largest item in the ‘Account’ for 1778 is a sum of £321 paid on March 6th to “Mrs. Ayre.” There can be no doubt that this refers to what the Descriptio speaks of as “numismata Viri Reverendi Roberti Hyre S.T.P.” Probably the person meant is the Rev. Dr. Robert Eyre of New College, vicar of Whaddon and rector of Brightwalton, Berks.§ But we get no hint as to the character of his coins. Side by side with Eyre’s collection the Descriptio mentions that of Samuel Samuel of Lincoln,|| which consisted of English and Saxon pieces, some of them very fine. The price was over £200, and according to the ‘ Account’ it was paid in September, 1779. Earlier in the same year a parcel of specially rare Greek coins had been acquired for £77 through Owen Salisbury Brereton, an antiquary of some repute.{ While these were the more important purchases of this time, the great number of small transactions carried through is even more instructive, as showing how unresting was Hunter’s activity. He brought to bear on the augmentation of his Museum the same strenuous energy that characterized him in his more strictly professional work. For some years he bought
* See p. xliii. f Smith was also a book collector. His library had been sold in 1773.
} The title-page of the catalogue is as follows:—A Catalogue of a large Collection of Antient and Modern Coins and Medals, in Gold, Silver and Copper, consisting of Phoenician, Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Savon, English, Papal, Sc., Many of them exceeding rare and in fine Preservation, which will be sold, ec.
§ He was the brother of Willis Eyre, serjeant-at-law, sometime fellow of New College, Oxford, who at his death in 1765 bequeathed to Winchester College “a very noble collection of gold and silver Greek, Roman, and English coins.” (Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, v., p. 507.) This identification is, however, not free from difficulty. Nichols states (Lit. Anecdotes, vi., p. 195) that Robert Eyre died in 1779. Now, if he was alive in 1778, why should his wife sell his coins? It is possible that in “writing up” his ‘Account’ Hunter may have made the entry under the wrong year. Colour is lent to this supposition by the fact that in the Preface to the Descriptio the years 1778 and 1779 are hopelessly confused, or rather are treated as if they were one and the same.
|| Smaller transactions took place with Samuel in subsequent years. But he can hardly have been a regular dealer, for—with the possible exception of White—no dealers are honoured by being recorded in the Preface to the Descriptio.
F See Observations on Round Towers (1779). Brereton died in 1798.
INTRODUCTION XxVil
practically everything that came into the London market, besides all that he could hear of on the Continent. We get an interesting picture of him as he appeared to a rival collector, in a letter from Francis Carter, author of A Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga, etc. (London, 1777). Carter, writing to Nichols under date November 28th, 1780, says: “I return you many thanks for the Catalogue of Coins. I think the date of it should have been mentioned, and some account where the Coins were disposed of, and in whose hands they now remain. In all probability they sank into the Devonshire or Pembroke Cabinets, as all now do into Dr. Hunter’s. God grant I may be able to keep mine from his clutches! He had the impudence to tell me, in his own house, last winter, that he was glad to hear of my loss by the capture of the Grenades, as it might force me to sell him my Greek coins: an anecdote that should not be forgot when you write his life.** Evidently Carter could not appreciate a joke at his own expense.
In 1780 specimen pages and specimen plates were prepared and approved of, and arrangments completed for the issne of the first volume of a complete catalogue of the contents of the Cabinet, the text being undertaken by Charles Combe and the engraving by Charles Taylor.t Collectors showed their interest in the forthcoming work by donations of coins for which they knew that a place would be found. George the Third, for instance, came forward with the gift of an Athenian gold piece of such excessive rarity that Eckhel, in spite of his strong faith in Combe’s judgment, declined to believe it could be genuine.t This royal munificence was doubtless due to the influence of a royal patient, Queen Charlotte, to whom the book, when it did appear, was dedicated.§ Horace Walpole was another liberal benefactor, inasmuch as he allowed Hunter to select from his rich cabinet any coins that would be useful for filling gaps in the Greek series. All the while, as we can see from the ‘Account,’ buying went on apace. Thus in October, 1780, £1000 was paid to Samuel Bosanquet for the collection made by his father, an Aleppo merchant. The description we get of these is vague and general—‘‘ nuwmmi haud pauct vetustate swa insignes et pretiosissimi.” Perhaps, however, the mention of Aleppo justifies us in supposing that they were Greek rather than Roman.
We learn from the Descriptio that filial piety made the younger Bosanquet hesitate about parting with the whole collection. He wished to keep for himself the coins that he knew his father had treasured most. That his scruples were finally overcome was due mainly to the influence of the Rev. Thomas Crofts, Chancellor of Peterborough, who must have been a person of singularly
* Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, iv., p. 607. On p. 237 of op. cit. iii. we are told with regard to Carter’s book that “the many coins engraved in this Work were from the Collection of the celebrated Spanish medallist Flores, whose cabinet Mr. Carter had purchased on his death, and disposed of the duplicates to Dr. Hunter.” Hunter’s papers contain no allusion to the transaction here described, and there is no item in the ‘Account’ that corresponds to it. Nevertheless, it probably took place; the papers are fragmentary, and the ‘ Account’ is not exhaustive, while Carter’s name is recorded “ honoris causa” in the Descriptio as one who had helped to build up the Cabinet (see p. xli.). It is interesting to note that Carter's pious wish was fulfilled. He lived rather longer than Hunter. After his death his coins and books, the latter chiefly Spanish, were sold by Gerard (February, 1784), the coins realising £334 16s. Od.
+ Monthly Magazine, vol. lxviii., p. 486.
t “de [ejus] fide arbitrentur qui viderunt.” (Doctrina, ii., p. 206.) Eckhel then goes on to prove that the Athenians struck no gold money, a conclusion that has been refuted by the discoveries made since the publication of the Doctrina. The piece in question is figured in this volume (PLATE xxxill. 23).
§ Hunter’s MS. diary of his attendance on the Queen is in the Hunterian Library.
e 2
XXVill INTRODUCTION
attractive character.* Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he went out to Aleppo immediately after taking his degree. Not improbably it was there that he made Bosanquet’s acquaintance. Subsequently he travelled through Europe on three different occasions, bringing back with him to England singularly well-chosen collections of coins and books. Dibdin speaks of his library in the highest terms, and a biographer tells us that he was “distinguished for a most rare and critical knowledge of books.”f All the most valuable of his Greek coins are in the Hunter Cabinet, whither a sense of public duty moved him to transfer them, when the plan of the Descriptio was laid before him. The price paid for them was over £425. He did not, however, live to see the publication of the book in which he had taken such an interest. He had long been in poor health, and the end came on November 8th, 1781. After his death his “second collection” also passed into Hunter’s Museum.t
The purchase from Crofts, which was concluded early in January, was only one of several large transactions that fall into the year 1781. In March £300 was paid for the complete collection of one James Sotheby, recently deceased, who had given his attention chiefly to Greek coins. Again, towards the end of the year, Hunter, for a consideration of £160, was allowed to select such specimens as he pleased out of a number brought home from Smyrna by a certain James Lee. Abyssinian Bruce, too, now reappears, on this occasion generously presenting Greek coins which he had declined to part with when he sold his Ptolemaic gold. Unfortunately, our knowledge of these acquisitions is confined to the little we can glean from the bare statements in the Descriptio and the ‘Account.’ It is otherwise with regard to a much less satisfactory piece of business. Under date September 12th, 1781, we have the entry, “A collection by Sir Wm. Hamilton—£333,” which is fully explained by an interesting series of letters preserved in the Museum. The first of these is frum the Ambassador at Naples, and runs as follows :—
“Naples, June 23rd, 1741. “Sir
: “The collection of medals of which the catalogue is inclosed was sent lately
from the country to be offerd to this Court, but as it does not abound with money the purchace has been declined and it is now offerd to me. I still persist in my resolution of not entering upon this branch of virtu, but as the collection is realy very fine and as the Owner has reduced his demands greatly rather than send them back, I have prevailed on him to wait the return of the Post. The medals are in ebony cases, well arranged and the price is 2800 Neapolitan ducats, under 350£. I have shewn them to Mr. Byres who is here at present and who thinks them very cheap indeed. The silver collections are very fine
* The eulogy passed on him in the Preface to the Descriptio deserves quotation here, for it is clear that Hunter wished to perpetuate his memory. “ Vir insuper reverendus Thomas Crofts (desiderio ejus quis sit unquam modus ?), qui ad suavitatem morum egregiam literas eas antiquas et ea humanitatis studia adjunserat, quae hominem ingenuum ornare quacant, et amicis jucundum Sacere, operis specimine tantum delectabatur, ut, quan- quam harum rerum amantissimus, nummos quotquot habuit Gtraecos (habuit autem preciosissimos) in nostram possessionem transtulerit. Nee vero haec tanta tamque egregia liberalitas admirationem aliquam iis movit, gut viro optimo utebantur familiart. Testes ti sunt, quo ille artium amore SJlagraverit, et quam nihil sibt esse proprium optaverit, quod utilitati publicae aliquo modo inservire posset.”
+ Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, viii., p. 482.
} Naturally Hunter did not take over specimens of which he already possessed duplicates. A number
of coins and medals that had belonged to Crofts were sold by auction by Gerard in March, 1782. The prices realised were not, as a rule, high,
INTRODUCTION Xxix
and well preserved, among the large bronze he thinks there are some false, but many very valuable and well preserved. Upon the whole I realy think you will do well to purchase the collection as it may serve to compleat yours and the duplicates will perhaps pay all the expences. However all I have to desire is that you will send me your answer as soon as possible. I can assure you this is no dealer's collection, but is sold by the gentleman whose father and grandfather made the collection in this country.
I am with great truth and regard your most obedient
humble servant Wm. Hamilton.”
Hunter allowed one or two posts to pass before replying, possibly because he found it a little difficult to refuse without openly expressing his distrust of Hamilton’s judgment. Ultimately he wrote declining the collection. But it was too late. On August 21st, Hamilton wrote him a second letter.
“Sir
“Having waited two or three Posts for an answer to my former Letter, I was under the necessity of giving an answer to the proprietor of the medals, Having reduced the original demand one half before I sent you the catalogue and encouraged by the approbation of Byres who happend to come to Naples I ventured to pay the money, 1800 Neapolitan Ducats which is about 333£ thinking that if you did not take them I might greatly oblige some collector in England for to the best of my judgement, this collection is nearly as good as that which I purchased for the late Lt Morton here for 800£. The great Bronze are in a cabinet very neatly arranged and the Imperial silver and family medals in another well arranged also. As I have realy no taste for medals except a few on account of the perfection of the coin this collection is absolutely of no use to me, and I cannot in conscience think of drawing upon you, as you are so good as to allow me, for what you are in no want of— yet as it will not be very convenient for me to be long out of my money as the ballance I fear is against me in my agent’s acc’ (Messrs. Gray & Ogilvie) I shall be much obliged to you if you cou’d find any one that wou'd take the collection as I had it. I am sure it is worth double the sum. I woud keep them here until a safe opportunity offerd to send them home. We have sometimes large Swedish vessels that go from hence directly to England and I believe in case of the war continuing they are the best. I shall be thankfull for the description of the Greek Coins* and I hope I may be able to supply you with some having given a commission all over Sicily and Magna Grecia for well preserved coins. If you find a purchaser for this collection the sooner he pays into Messrs. Gray & Ogilvie’s hands on the Terras Spring garden, the sum £333—to be placed to my account, it will be the better for me as I pay 5 per cent. to them for what I have overdrawn. Excuse the liberty I take of troubling you with my private affairs and believe me Sir, on all occasions,
with a very sincere regard and esteem
yr most obt huml servt Wm. Hamilton.”
* In the letter to which this is a reply, Hunter had evidently announced his intention of sending a copy of the Descriptio to Hamilton as soon as it appeared.
XXX INTRODUCTION The tenour of Hunter’s reply can be gathered from Hamilton’s next letter.
“Naples, Octr 16th, 1781. “Sir “Your letter of the 14th Septr came safe to my hands and in which you tell me you have lodged £333 in the hands of my agents Messrs. Gray & Ogilvie. The medals shall be packed up exactly as you direct, as were those I sent to L* Morton and for which his L® paid 800£ tho’ as far as I can remember they were not either much more numerous or curious than this collection.* I flatter myself that you will find among these medals several worthy of a place in your Collection, and that the sale of the rest will prevent your being a loser. However should it turn out otherwise and there is to be any loss I beg it may be mine as the purchase was certainly made without your order and you have acted, as you always do, most handsomely on this occasion. A Swede or Danish ship will soon be freighted here directly for London, and I shall seize that opportunity of sending you a strong box with the medals safely packed according to your directions and shall send you timely notice with the bill of loading that you may have them ensured. T am Sir with great regard and esteem yr most obt humble sert Wm. Hamilton.”
“PS, As the cases in which the medals came to me are good but not worth the freight to England being old and cumbersome I shall not send them. The medals will certainly be much safer packed as you direct and will go in smaller compass.”
Some time elapsed before an opportunity for despatching the collection to England occurred. At length, however, Hamilton was able to announce that it had been sent off.
“Naples, Janry 8th, 1782. “ Sir “T have the pleasure of acquainting you that the box of medals packed with care
after your directions has been shipped on board a Danish vessel called the Graditta Cristiana Lars Wolding commander bound for London. The box is directed to Don Gasparo Russo Maestro di Casa del Principe di Caramanico the Neapolitan minister in London—which we were obliged to do as the captain wou’d not have taken it on board had he known it to be the property of a subject of Great Britain. I hope you will receive the box safe and in as good condition as when I sent it off, for it was packed as tight as possible. I hope also that in general the medals will prove to be to your satisfaction, but I repeat that if they shoud not, I beg they may be sold and I will readily make up the deficiency in case the produce of the Sale shoud not amount to the sum you have advanced, for it woud not be just that you shoud be any loser, as tho’ I certainly purchased them for you, yet it was
without your final order. Inclosed is the Bill of Loading and the list of the contents of the box.
* On the coins purchased for Lord Morton, see p. xviii.
INTRODUCTION XXX1
“T shall be very glad to receive your book of medals and will do my utmost to serve you with respect to any Greek coins of cities that you may be in want of. Since I sent off your medals I have received the Prince of Torremuzza’s Numismata of Sicilian medals and will send you a copy of that work, which is tollerably well executed for this country, by the next opportunity.
I am Sir with great truth and regard your most obedient humble servant Wm. Hamilton.”
The enclosure shows that the collection contained over 2000 Roman coins, 1248 being of silver and 999 of bronze. When the box arrived, Hunter’s worst fears were realised. The draft of the letter he wrote on the unpleasant occasion fortunately survives.
es “Windmill St. June 20, 1782. ir “Thinking it my duty to give you as little trouble as possible, I waited till the
medals arived, that I might once for all let you know the result. When that time was come round, the subject became so unpleasant and delicate that I could have wished to put it off for ever; and my indifferent state of health has contributed to the delay of my writing. But it is necessary, and I therefore sit down, tho with the greatest reluctance, to lay the whole before you. The Box arived in perfectly good condition, and excellently packed. The Com" of Customs did me the honour to pass it free of Duty. Mr. Combe was present at the opening, for he was impatiently waiting to see the medals. Then began our mortification: for the first general inspection made it evident that you had been most shamefully abused. We therefore took care to keep them so guardedly that both he and I should be able to declare upon honor or upon oath that not one single medal had been lost, taken away or changed. Then we had them examined in presence of the Rev’ Messrs. Cratchrod and Southgate both men of judgement in that way and of honourable characters. They were all of opinion that the value must be greatly under £100; that almost all the valuable medals which should have been were most miserably false ones or so ill preserved as to deserve a place in no cabinet ; that they could not have been the collection of a Gentleman for that reason, but more especially because there were not only duplicates and triplicates, &c., but 6, 7, 8, 9, and even 10 of some, and of course of the most common medals, without the smallest difference or variety. I took the resolution therefore of selling the whole, and acquainted Mr. Greville* with our proceeding and begged the favour of him to look at them in the exhibition. They were accordingly sold by public auction on the 10th of May, when the Town was full of company, for £83 -2-0.t The commission was £6 — 4-6, and the Duty on the sale £1 - 2-0 which reduced the real value or price to £75 — 15-6 out of which we are even to make the further
* Hamilton’s nephew, the Honourable Charles Greville.
+ A copy of the catalogue, with the prices marked, is in the Hunterian Library. The title runs :-—“A Catalogue of a valuable Collection of Roman Coins, in Silver and Copper, consigned from abroad, which will be sold by auction by Mr. Gerard, etc.”
XXxi1 INTRODUCTION
deduction of the Freight and Custom house fees for which the bill has not yet been received. The sum which I paid into your Bankers’ hands was £333. I need not say that I am sorry such scoundrels have found access to you, and at the same time think myself, Sir
your very much obliged
and most humble sert.”
Hamilton gave expression to his surprise and chagrin in the following terms :—
“Naples, July 16th, 1782. “ Sir,
“T wou’d have sent you a draught on Messrs Gray & Ogilvie for your reimbursement, had I known exactly the sum to be deducted from the 333£ you deposited in their hands, but as you have not received the Dill for freight and custom house fees of the unfortunate collection of medals, I cou’d only send an order which I have done, to the said gentlemen to settle that account with you whenever you shall call upon them, by paying you back the overplus after the small produce of the medals has been deducted. I have ever kept clear of collecting medals knowing my ignorance in that branch of antiquities, and indeed I purposely avoided acquiring knowledge therein knowing well how far such a taste may lead one, and I for my own pleasure collect none except a well preserved Sicilian or Magna Grecia medal for the beauty of the design. I was aware of the large bronze being ill preserved and of no great value, but I was made to believe that the silver Imperial and family medals which I sent were very valuable. I was therefore thunderstruck when I saw in your letter of the 20th of June that the whole collection produced no more than £83-3. I have been the Dupe of a rascally abbé, whom I realy did not suspect to be dishonest before—however tho’ the loss is not indifferent to me I will think as little about it as possible. In the class of antiquities which I understand I have been fortunate and have some very valuable additions to make to my collection in the British Museum as soon as we have peace when I hope to make you another visit. I gave the museum as much as cost me 700£ when I was at home last and have near the same value to add now, tho’ few people in England are aware of the real value of the collection at the museum and many are illiberal enough to think that I was a considerable gainer by the sale of them,* the contrary is certainly the case for I forgot to charge many little expences. When I am dead and gone perhaps the nation may do me justice and it is that which animates me rather to inconvenience myself than lose an opportunity of adding a piece of antiquity which I know to be of consequence to the collection. When I consider my small fortune, and the many disagreeable shifts I have been obliged to make rather than not be the possessor of some valuable piece of art which has offerd itself to me I wonder at my perseverance. I ought at this moment to hate the sight of fine things—but I did not intend to fill my paper with my own subjects—the whole intention of this letter [is] to beg you will go to Messrs Gray & Ogilvie as soon as you know exactly how to ballance our acct that they may refund [you} according to my order and I will think as little as possible upon the disagr[ee]able subject.
Your most sincere W. Hamilton.”
* The price paid Hamilton by the nation in 1772 was £8410.
INTRODUCTION Xxxill
Hunter's reply, for which a draft is again available, was written on August 23rd. Sir “Tn consequence of your order I took from Mr. Gray £200, for which I gave him a
receipt on the back of your letter to him upon the subject of the medals. The whole account is as follows. The freight and custom house fees was a guinea,
The whole therefore which I advanced was 3384 I received from the auctioneer £75 15 6 and from your banker £200 In all 275 15 6 275 15 6 Ballance 58 5 6
This Ballance I charge myself with for not having written at first by return of Post.
“T should, with you, wish to think no more upon the subject, except you could any way punish the authors of the imposition, which T should hope might be done one way or other. In that case I shall be ready to give any assistance in my power.
“Our Greek Cities will be published in Nov’. I will take care to send you a copy by the first conveyance that Mr. Greville can inform me of.
“As far as I know your Collection at the Museum is much esteemed by the public, and your generous additions have been received with much gratitude. If there is not such a spirit in the public, I shall be disappointed. For in making my collections I have had the public in view. I heartily wish you and LY H.* all health and happiness in the meantime, and at a proper time a happy return to your own country, being always Sir
your much obliged and most humble Sert
Without doubt it was Hunter’s well-founded suspicions as to Hamilton's ability to judge coins that had made him play the part of the careful buyer. He still spent money freely wherever he had full confidence in the discretion of his agents. Thus, concurrently with the Naples negotiations, he was carrying on a correspondence that ended in the acquisition of a collection formed by Louis Giraldi, a doctor in Rome. The Descriytiv places this in the year 1782, and we may assume that it was not until then that the coins reached Loudon. All the letters, however, fall within the previous year, and the owner’s receipt for a thousand Roman crowns (about £230) proves that the bargain was finally concluded on December 12th, 1781. From another document we learn that the collection consisted of ‘ Medals of the Magna Grecia,” and that there were in all 581 specimens, 3 being of gold, 483 of silver, and 95 of bronze, It is interesting to remember that the friend who acted for Hunter in the matter was Charles Townley (1737—1805), whose magnificent collection of sculptures is now in the British Museum, and that the correspondent in Rome who carried through the purchase, was Thomas Jenkins, an English banker, who rendered Townley material assistance in the formation of his own museum.t
* This was Hamilton's first wife, who died in 1782. He did not make the acquaintance of Emma, his eecond wife, till 1744.
+ Jenkins had no knowledge of numismatics. In order therefore to guard against imposition, he em loyed two competent experts to examine and report upon the coins. f
XXXIV INTRODUCTION
In 1782 the Cabinet received the largest addition ever made to it at one time, the Duane Collection alone excepted.
The negotiations regarding this transaction deserve particular notice from he fact that they give us a glimpse of Joseph Eckhel, already in charge of the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna and destined before long to place the study of ancient numismatics once for all on a scientific basis. In 1781 there had been published at Leipzig, in two parts, an elaborate account of a very fine museum of antiquities. The first part,* dealing with the gems and the coins, was edited by F. W. Reiz of Leipzig, who compiled the description of the gems. The description of the coins was by Eckhel, and occupied 164 pages. The original owner of the whole was Joseph de France, who had held high office at the court of the Empress Marie Theresa. He being dead, it had descended to his grand-daughter, Anna Catharina von Cannegiesser, the wife of Joachim Albert von Hess, himself a dignitary of the Austrian Empire. Neither Hess nor his wife had taste enough to value their precious possession, and they were anxious to tun it into money at the earliest opportunity. The catalogue mentioned above was accordingly prepared for the express purpose of making the contents of the museum known to persons likely to be purchasers of it.f
The book must have speedily found its way into Hunter’s hands. For in the spring of the year that succeeded its publication, the coins passed into his possession. On p. xviii. of the catalogue there had been printed a ‘“ Conspectus Numixmatum,” which gives us a general idea of the character of this great addition to the Cabinet.
“ Numi aurei Augustorum, Augustarum et Caesarum,t eorum numerus 695 Numi auret medii et recentioris aevi ov Numi argenter Familiarum, Augustorum, Augustarum, Caesarum 679 Numi argentei medii et recentioris aevi 21 Numi aenet maximi moduli Augg.& 77 Numi contorniati 17 Pondera, numi urbium et populorum omnis metalli 63 Numi regum omnis metalli 86
Summa numorum omniwm 1688 ”
It will be seen from this that the majority of the coins were Roman, and we may further conclude that, even allowing for duplicates, the Hess Collection is responsible for a large proportion of the fine series of Roman gold pieces now in the Hunterian Museum. The price paid to Hess was £2280, a sum which was considerably increased by incidental expenses. The money was remitted to Vienna in April through Mr. Drummond, the Austrian agent being the banker Stametz, who was to make himself responsible for the safe custody of the coins. Special arrangements were, however, required to secure their transmission to London,
* Musei Franciani Descriptio. Pars prior comprehendens numismata et gemmas. Leipzig, 1781, pp. xxiv. ; pp. 482. + The words of the Preface are: “ Hi jam hujus Musei domini, quod ipsis eo uti non vacat, et quod
gravantur onere inutilis possessionis, praesertim quum tn ea ingens pecuniae summa. sterilis Jaceat, vendendi illius constlium ceperunt.”
{ Roman Imperial and Byzantine gold pieces.
§ Among the ‘large brass’ of the Roman Emperors are included some ‘ Greek Imperial’ coins.
INTRODUCTION re
and for assistance in this Hunter had recourse to a scientific friend, Dr. Jan Ingen Housz, a Dutch physician, then residing in the Austrian capital. Ingen Housz, author of Experiments upon Vegetables, &c., ke. (London, 1779), was a native of Breda, He came to England about the year 1767 to study the Suttonian method of inoculating for small-pox, and in 1768 he was engaged to go to Vienna to inoculate certain members of the Imperial Family. So satisfactorily did he perform this duty that he was appointed “ Body Physician and Counsellor of State to their Imperial Majesties." He was in London again on a visit in 1779, on which occasion he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Latterly he made his home in this country, remaining here till his death, which took place at the seat of the Marquis of Lansdowne in 1799,*
The letters he wrote regarding the Hess Collection have about them a certain quaintness that renders them of peculiar interest. It would appear that Hunter opened the correspondence by requesting Ingen Housz to see to the proper packing of the coins, and to their despatch to England. With this view he was to call on Hess and also on the Abbé Kckhel, whose name doubtless suggested itself on account of the part he had taken in preparing the Catalogue. Here is his first report, reprinted verbatim.
“Dear Sir
“T was very happy to find myself honoured with your lettre. I went immediately to mr Hess and mr Ekhel on purpose to communicate to them the contents. mr Ekhel very willingly agreed to examine with me the medals, you purchased, to fold them up as you desired, to seal them and secure them in the hands of mr Stametz. As mr Ekhel sends often such things into foreign countries and recieves them very frequently, i found him advising the same precautions as you advise in wrapping them up. we performed the have of this business last Sunday, and will finish the rest to-morrow. and as soon as the ordre comes to mr Stametz, we will deliver the parcels in hands of mr Stametz, where they will repose, till you send ordres how to dispose of them. i should thinck such precious things should not be sent but by a messenger of the ministry. mr Fox, Lord Shelburn, or Rockingham will willingly give ordres for it, and in this case i will take care that everything be well secured, and i will in the mean time speak sir Robert Keitht about it. 1 rejoice to see you continue your old friendship towards me, as you can give me no prooves more satisfactory of it than in employing me and affording me thus an oportunity, by which i my show you, how much i value your commands, and which may make me some what useful to a gentleman to whom i profess to owe respect and gratitude. I send you back the inclosed lettre of credit of five hundred Pond of which i did not dare to employe more than what was the value of the oarst you recieved many years ago; as i know your collection to be since many years so valuable, that it would be difficult to meet with pieces, which would have a change to deserve a place in it. if you should think it good, you may send me an other of a fresher date. I never had seen before this time the collection of mr Hess, and was astonishd at such an
* These particulars are taken from a brief notice of Ingen Housz in Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, viii., pp. 47 f. In printing ‘Ingen Housz’ instead of ‘Ingenhousz,’ I follow the model of his own signatures.
+ Sir Robert Murray Keith, Envoy at the Imperial Court.
+ Hunter had evidently put £500 at the disposal of Ingen Housz, to be used at his discretion in purchasing rare minerals for the Museum. re
XXXV1i INTRODUCTION
uncommon treasure worthy of a souverain, in the hands of a man who looks upon it as a dead body.* 1 saw his gemms, described in his catalogue, as well as the rest, and think them is be all together far superior to any collection in that kind i ever beheld. i think by what i may judge of mr Hess and his wife’s manner of thinking, they would sell the whole at a very reasovable rate, or even a part of it, as for instance the gemms. you may easily judge of it by the catalogue.
“Tt would perhaps give you some satisfaction to adorn your library with a singular work of mr Jacquin, Professor in Botany hier, my brother in law. it is a work in folio atlantico, of which were made only twolf copies, of which only one single copy is left unplaced, and which 1 requested him some days ago, not to dispose of, till i had got an answer of you about it. it consists of 264 very fine pintings after nature of the most beautifull plants of hot climates, all done by hand, without ingraving. the text is Latin bemg an ample description of those plants. the price of it is 340 flor. Vienna money, which will be about 387 Pounds St. according to the cours of exchange. the rest of the copies are mostly in hands of souverain Princes. you will be so good as to inform me whether you incline to it or not.
“IT hope to see you once more in your country, for which you know my partiality. i remain the same laborious Dutch man as ever, and continue to work closely. a new work is published this weak here of myne containing sixteen different treatises, but it is in german, translated from my M.S, my original edition in french being not yet priuted in Paris by negligence of those that have the care of it.
I am respectfully dear sir your obedient humble Vienna this 17 April 1782. servant J. Ingen Housz.
“N.B. Mr Drummond must strike out of his book the copy of the inclosed lettre of credit.”
The next letter in the series shows that the first had crossed one from Hunter.
“ear sir
“I was favoured with your second lettre dated London April 12. after the reciet of your first, i have had three meetings at mr Hess’s house with abbé Eckhel and have with him examined the medals you purchassed. we have carefully wrapped them up in rows doubled over one an other according to your direction, so that the medals cannot touch one an other nor moove in the least. we took a double sheet of tough paper to wrapp the meals in; this paper is wrapt up in a sheet of strong writing paper as tight as could be without taring it. this sheet of paper is folded over on both extremities. each of us has put his seal upon one of them; after which I have corded over very tightley each of these
paquets and sealed the nod, so that each paquet, containing generaly six rows of six meddals
each, viz. in all 48 medals, is secured by it self. of all the paquets containing goold medals
* Ingen Housz’s judgment contrasts trangely with the grandiloquent description of Hess given by the
editor of the catalogue of his collections— J; quem et splendor amplissimae dignitatis, et marimarum laus virtutum inter paucos illustrant.” :
INTRODUCTION
XXXVii
we made again one, which we both sealed again.
we did the same with the silver medals and allso with the brass, only for security’s sake,
i made an inventary of the whole.
“T have agreed with sir Roberth Murray Keith to meet mr Eckhel and mr Hess at mr Stametz one day this weak, to open the three different parcels to examine each of them, if they are in the same condition as mr Kckhel and i put them, then to wrap them one after an other into a good deal of tow and shut them very tightely into a strong wooden box, which we will seal all three, and dress a declaration* signed by us that in that box have been put such paquets. which declaration will intitle mr Stametz to pay the money to mr Hess according to your direction. in the mean time mr Stametz will probably have drawn som of the money upon mr Drummond on purpose to have a better marked for the bills, for the sum is too large to find purchassers for it at once without overrunning the market; but mr Stametz will not deliver a single penny without the box beying put save into his hands and he being first authorised by our attestation.
“Thus far your ordres will be punctualy fulfilled. what remains to be done will require more circumspection, the more so as your advise of sending those things by some or other messenger, or even a traveller, is entirely disaprooved of by sir Roberth, as being unsave in many respects. His advise is, that the whole quantity of the medals should be pacquet up in one box well secured, and delivred in hands of mr (frosser here, who is a correspondent of mrs Frederic Romberg et compagnie of Ostend. Those gentlemen, who make it their business of undertaking such like commissions, and perform them actualy for your east india company with silks brought over Constantinople and Vienna, answer for the whole. Sir Robert thinks that this parcel must be kept at Ostend under the care of mrs Romberg till you or mr Drummond will appoint a man, who being authorised by you may recieve the box and carry it over to London, or till you give your ordres to mr Romberg to deliver it to the
commander of their own vessels which goe continualy from Ostend to London and vice versa under neutral flage.
“j join in opinion with sir Robert that this is the safest and the most expeditious way of sending those things to you. But as you are to consider the thing your self and to give your own ordres about it, the box will remain in hands of mr Stametz till you, or mr Drummond in your name, give your expres ordres to him how to proceed in this business.
“As soon as you will have let us know your intention, it will be punctualy fulfilled. but the explicit order must be given to mr Stametz him self for it his he in whose hands the box will be at that time. it.will be allso necessary to give ordres to mr Stametz, to what sum he must rate the value of the whole, for the commissionary is to answer for the
whole. The expenses of this expedition are very moderate. i get my self every thing tfrom England or Holland by the same whay.
“this is the inventary of the medals
id 14 parcels each containing 48 medals o 1 1 parcel containing 25 medals ¢ total 702 pee 1 containing 5
* This declaration, with the signatures and seals of Eckhel, Sir R. Keith and Ingen Housz, is in the Hunterian Museum.
XXXVIl1 INTRODUCTION
silver 14. parcels each containing 48 medals 2 total 690 medals ( 1. parcel containing 18 ) 7 parcels containing each 12 medals brass medals Py pated total 93 1 parcel — 20 1 parcel — 1 -—— / 1 parcel containing 31 medals , medals of | 1 30 | different metals 1 —— 25 —— |[ total 147 gold silver 1 eee os 94. —___— bronze | 1 pee 23. —— 1 — 144 — ! I am with the greatest estime dear sir
your obedient humble servant Vienna May 1th 1782.
J. Ingen Housz.” There was some delay or misunderstanding about taking the steps suggested in Ingen
Housz’s letter. Not improbably the unsatisfactory state of Hunter's health was responsible for nothing being done. Two months later Ingen Housz wrote again.
“Dear sir
“When i communicated to you the advise of sir Robert M. Keith about the surest and safest way of conveying to you the box with medals, i made no doubt but mr Grosser would immediately take care of it and insure for the value as sir R. M. Keith had told me in
absolute terms, that mr Grosser himself had assured him he undertook without difficulty
any envoye of whatever value. But mr Stametz found him as yet very unwilling to undertake
it, because he got no advise whatever about it from mr Romberg, which indeed i thaught he would have received as i made no doubt but you or mr Drummond would have corresponded about the affair with mr Romberg, who is so near at hand. However i fancy with sir Rob: that this delay is reather a lukky event considering mr Romberg has had no intelligence of the whole affaire.
“Now, as the expedition is of a considerable value, it will be absolutely necessary, as sir R. and i think, that you or mr Drummond should write about it directely to mr Romberg at Ostende, and settle the whole affaire in a clear manner with him, as wel in what manner mr Stametz aught to proceed in the business, as for what premium of insurance and other charges he will undertake it. it will be necessary also that mr Romberg sends you a model of the insurance bill, of which if approoved, you will be so good as to send a copy to me or mr Stametz, on purpose to meet with no new difficulties. mr Romberg aught to write everything in the frensh language, that mr Stametz may understand it. Sir R. thinks, that as mr Romberg is at hand, the whole business must be settled in a clear way between you and him before full orders are to be given to mr Stametz, who is a very carefull and zelous man. you may transact more business with mr Romberg in 2 weaks than we in 2 months,
INTRODUCTION XXX1X
and as you are to give your sanction to every article of the transaction, it would only tend tu retard the fulfilling of the business, if mr Stametz or i should correspond about it with mr Romberg.
“Tho i am somewhat mortifyed at this unexpected refuse of mr Grosser, yet i think, by considering the affair, he could not undertake it withot the concurrence of mr Romberg.
“Mr Stametz got an other box made to receive the sealed box. i ordred the inward box to be wel secured with tow so that it can’t stirr.
“be sur, sir, that i will doe everything in my power to oblige you and that you can not doe me a greater favour than to employ me in anything i am able to execute.
“I work as fast as i can in experimental philosophy, and, as i think, with som succes. i would have send over the manuscript of my second volum on vegetables, if i had not been kept back by a rude attack of Dr Priestley and mr Cavallo against my doctrine. Polemical writings are very disagreable. it seems Dr Priestley takes as much delight in this kind of quareling business as i have an aversion of it. His unaccountable itching for criticism goes so far, that one of his prooves by which he undertakes to contradict my saying that our bodies evaporates air as wel as moist, is, that anatomist have never found aerial vessels to perform this evaporation of air from the skin. the cutaneous evaporation of moist does not want organised vessels to be carryed on. where moist is, evaporation takes place, even from a blotting paper, im which the Rev? Doctor will not look for organisation to believe in the evaporation from its substance. good seltzer water and champain yield a good deal of air without any air vessels. i can scarce think a man being of a very sociable disposition if he takes delight in criticism for the sake only of quareling.
“T am sorry my paper on the subject of my doctrine came too late to be red at the R. 8. i make no doubt but it contained a full answer to Dr Priestley’s and mr Cavallo’s objections.
I am most faithfully dear sir your obedient humble servant Vienna July 3th 1782. J. Ingen Housz.”
Hunter did write direct to Romberg, who expressed his readiness to undertake the conveyance from Vienna to London. He reserved to himself the right of choosing his own agents in Austria, declining to have anything to do with Grosser. The whole sum to be paid by Hunter, including the premium of insurance, was £100. For some reason or other it proved impossible to carry out this arrangement. The difficulties in the way of transferring so much treasure overland were too much for the ordinary means of transit. It turned out that nothing short of a special messenger would serve the purpose. Some months elapsed before a fitting opportunity occurred. Finally, however, in the beginning of 1783 Ingen Housz was able to write Hunter as follows :—
“Dear sir “Since my last sir R. Keith look’d continualy out for a propre oportunity to send you the box with medals. But as he did not meet with a good one till now, he advised me to abstain from writing you, as it would have answered no other end than to make you wait for it in uncertainty. He found at last such a one as will. answer the purpose. one
xl INTRODUCTION
John Macdonnald known particularly by Sir Roberth by his honesty, having been a sergeant in his regiment this 15 jears, retwns to England, will take charge of it. Mr Eward takes the man in his own carriage, and sets out next friday, jan. 17th from here in full speed for Brussels, where john Macdonnald will deliver it in hands of mr Romberg, who will be informed of the transaction and of the description of the box, and, will after due examination of the identity of the same, give a discharge in writing to the said john Macdonnald and pay him by order of sir Roberth for his care and trouble twenty guineas. mr Romberg will be desired to act with it farther according to the orders he will have recieved from you or from mr Drummond. as John Macdonnald will not touch London but proceed directely to Ireland, sir Roberth thaught it advisable to let him have the reward directely at Brussels, and as you gave him full powers of acting in the business, i have abided by his resolution and make no doubt but you will approove of it. some difficulty had started about the medals goying out in such large quantity out of the country, which is against the law; but i got over it by taking full power from the imperial mint office, whose president is my friend. Tho the chest is so stuffed up with tow that there is no possibily of any thing within it moving in the least about, yet i would not allow it to be put in a trunk, which being upon the wheels would be too much tossed. i persuaded mr Eward to put it with him in the carriage, where it will give him som inconvenience; but it will be very safe in every respect. i ordred over every thing a waxed cloath to be put, and over that a strong leather cover. The box itself is not only very strong, but, on purpose to give it every possible security, 1 got cross iron barrs fixed over it so that it is secured against every accident. it is such havy and cumbersom box, that i adscribe the willingness of mr Eward in giving it a place in a great manner to the particular regard he bears you.
“JT am very glad your vexations about this transactions will now be over. But thow 1 bestowd a good deal of care upon it, this must not prevent you of employing me in any other transaction you may think me fit to fulfill for you. i can not by any such like services give you prooves strong enoug of my sentiment of respect gratefullness and friendship which i bear you. I should wish to have the satisfaction to see this new treasure adorn your museum, which must by this time be an astonishing one indeed. if my old imperial mistress was still a live, i would very certainly soon appear again in your metropolis, as i feel more and more i was destined by Providence to live and die there. i must acknowledge however that after i return’d here last, i did live as comfortably and contented as ever, and as i coud wish; and when the empress died, i did not harbour in my breasth the smallest or the most distant apprehension, that, if i shused to remain here, the Present Emperour should diminished any of the advantages which were given me with having in the least sollicited them, nay which i accepted but after having been sollicited during 4 months to accept of them, to which i consented even very reluctantly as Dr Huck-Saunders will remember very well. one of the conditions, and even one of the most engaging, was, that i should have a convenient free lodging during life. and yet i lost it; even after making respectfull remonstrances against it, which i thaugt, on advice of the first ministres, to have a right to make, having for security the Royal word and even an express promis of the Emperour confirmed by shaking hands with me that 7 could depend upon his lasting friendship towards me. it is to me but a poor consolation that allmost every one is in the same case, as 1 was perhaps the only one to whom it was solemly promish’d as a condition. it makes an odd of about 100 Pound st. a year, which is too much for a man
INTRODUCTION xli
who is not rich and is to late in life to repair the loss. indeed i can live without it; but what vexes me in the affair, is, that there was no reason for it, and that i find by it, that, the first step being made, there is no impossibility of an other. it makes me often low-spirited and unfitt for serious and deep reflexions, and it makes me regret to have neglected to improove my small fortune when i had the oportunity. if i had, be sure, i would willingly sacrifice every thing for quietness of mind, as fear is more distressing than real misfortune. qui timet, bis maser est. by all this i work night and day and find the most solid consolation and comfort in the pursute of wisdom. This all I communicate you as a friend, whose discretion i know, and who knows that silence and patience are the savest remedies against such evils, which no human prudence can avert or foresee.
“Mr Eward did me the pleasure of writing about the printing of a second edition of my book and a second volum, to a bookseller in Edinburg ; but i am afrayd he will get no answer before he sets out. if this will not succeed, i must give it up, and will write no more in english. there is actualy a book of myne in the press at Paris and in Holland, in which are several new discoveries in natural philosophy. i would have translated it in english if i had not been discouraged by the loss of tast for discoveries, which seems to go in England a pace with the loss of America. The tast of the Germans for them seems to be increased. i am glad you keep up the tast for valuable antiquities with your magnificent work on medals.
I am with great estime Dear sir your most obedient humble servant Vienna Jan 13th 1783 J. Ingen Housz.”
The “laborious Dutch man” was not the only friend whom Hunter pressed into the service of his museum. The names of many who aided him have already occurred in the course of this introduction, and a number more will be found in the ‘ Account.’ There remain a few whose specific contribution it is no longer possible to identify, but who are included in the list of those mentioned “honoris causa” in the Preface to the Descriptio.* These are—Willoughby Bertie, fourth Earl of Abingdon, a distinguished Whig politician ; Robert Austen of Shalford, Surrey, whose collection is mentioned by Pinkerton ;t William Bidle, M.D.,
* It may be as well to print this list in full, premising that it professes to include only the less important among the benefactors of the Collection. The services of the others are recorded in more detail in the body of the brief narrative that precedes. The words of the preface are: “ Sed et aliis gratiae nostrae merito jure persolvendae sunt, qui symbolam suam quast in commune aerarium contulerunt, operis hujusce et ret nummariae fautores. Itaque honoris causa nominentur,— Willoughby Comes de Abingdon, Robertus Austen arm., de Shalford in com. Surr., Geor. Baker Baronettus, Reginae Med., Joannes Ballard arm., Southamptoniensis, Benj. Bartlett arm., de Hartshill in com. Warwic., Gulielmus Bidle M.D., Windsoriensis, Franc. Carter arm., de Woodbridge in com. Suffolk, Rev. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode, M.A. Aedis Christi Ovon, alumnus, Gulielnus Cuming M.D., Dorcestriensis, Joannes English Dolben arm. Gulielmi Dolben Buronetti filius, Joannes Mac Gowan arm., Edinburgensis, Joannes Jackson, civis Londinensis, Steph. Leeson, de Southwark in com. Surr., Richardus Miles, civis Londinensis, Rev. Richardus Southgate, Clericus Londinensis, Bernardus Turner, Patricius Londinensis.” Some particulars with regard to most of these persons will be found either in the Introduction or in the notes to the ‘ Account.’
+ Essay on Medals (London, 1789), vol. i, p. 11. g
xiii INTRODUCTION
of Windsor ; William Cuming, M.D., educated at Edinburgh High School and University, afterwards in practice at Dorchester; John MacGowan of Edinburgh ; Stephen Leeson of. Southwark; and Bernard (or Barnard) Turner, Alderman of London.
We saw from the last letter of Ingen Housz that the Hess Collection was to leave Vienna on January 17th, 1783. It can hardly have reached London before February. The same month witnessed the last purchase recorded in the ‘Account,’—-“ Feb. Gold Medallion of Alex &e.—£10 10.” For some time Hunter’s health had been unsatisfactory. He had suffered much from gout. But with characteristic determination he exacted from his weakened frame the same labour it had rendered in its prime. Towards the end of March there came the seizure that was to prove fatal. With the hand of death actually upon him he insisted on rising from his bed to lecture to his students. The effort greatly aggravated his illness. Thence- forward he sank rapidly. On March 30th he passed away, after saying to his friend Combe: “Tf I had strength enough to hold a pen, I would write how easy and pleasant a thing it is to die.” By his will, which is dated July 23rd, 1781, Hunter left his Museum, which included not only his coins, but a very valuable collection of books, minerals, shells, &c., as well as all his anatomical preparations, in the hands of three trustees—Dr. George Fordyce, Dr. David Pitcairn, and Mr. Charles Combe. These trustees were to hold it for twenty years on behalf of Hunter’s nephew, Matthew Baillie, of Balliol College, Oxford, During this time they were to “make it useful to the Publick,’ so far as they could do so without injury to the contents. At the expiration of twenty years, or at such time thereafter as the College authorities should “have got ready a dry well aired and convenivnt House built on purpose” to contain it, the trustees were to hand the whole over to the University of Glasgow, to be employed in the manner “most conducive to the improvement of the students of the said University of Glasgow.” By a codicil dated August 31st, 1782, the term of years during which the Museum was to remain in London was extended to thirty. By a ‘disposition’ signed on September 12th, provision was made for a permanent endowment. The sum of £8000, one half of all the money Hunter was possessed of at his death, was set aside for the maintenance of the Museum. It was bequeathed to “the Principal aud Faculty of the College of Glasgow,” who were to pay the interest of one moiety to the trustees for upkeep, so long as the collections remained in their hands. ‘The interest and (should it seem fit) any part or parts of the principal of the other moiety were to be applied “in or towards” purchasing a site for a building and erecting the same. At the end of the term of thirty years the interest of the whole of the capital sum that might remain was to be devoted to extending the usefulness of the Museum.* :
The terms of Hunter’s will bear testimony to his public spirit. There could hardly be a more signal proof of his greatness than the insight into the methods of scientific scholarship which is revealed in his scheme for publishing to the world a complete account of the contents of his coin cabinet. The idea took possession of his mind at an early stage. We found it
* “To establish such Lectures and Lecturers and also from time to time to alter such Establishments and to keep the said Collection in such good repair and to make such additions thereto especially in adding to or compleating if possible any useful series under such rules and regulations as I may direct by any Deed or Writing for that purpose, Failing which, All as the said Principal and Professors and their successors
in office shall from time to time judge most conducive to promote the Utility of my Collection to the Students in the University of Glasgow and to the public in general.”
INTRODUCTION xliii referred to in the correspondence with Hamilton as far back as 1774. But it was not till the very end of 1782 that Combe’s Descriptio appeared. The merits of that work are so generally acknowledged that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them here. Suffice it to say, that it was far ahead of anything known at the time. To mention only one point, it was in this book that there was adopted for the first time the plan, now universally followed, of printing the weight, metal, and size of every coin in parallel columns on the margins. Although the Descriptio has spread the tame of the collection among numismatists of all countries, it is only a fragment. According to the plan outlined in the Latin preface there were to be other six volumes. Of these one was to contain coins of the same class as those actually published ; a second was to deal with the money of Persia, Phoenicia, Samaria, Palmyra, and Carthage, as well as with other coins “ guorwm literae minus cognitae sunt”;* a third was to concern itself with the coins of the kings, a fourth with imperial coins struck in the colonies and Greek cities, a fifth with unpublished Roman coins, and the remaining volume with Saxon and English issues.
Combe’s close association with the Descriptio has led to the preface being read as if it were his voice, and not Hunter’s, that speaks; and hence it has been supposed that he was to be responsible for the whole of the seven volumes. That is not so. Hunter’s intention was to make use of the best available specialist in each department. No doubt, under such an arrangement, several of the volumes would have fallen to Combe. But the only other with which any progress was made, had been entrusted to the Rev. Richard Southgate. This divine and antiquary (1729—1795), who was latterly assistant librarian at the British Museum, had made a special study of Saxon coins, of which he had himself a notable collection. Glimpses which we have had of him in the course of the preceding narrative have shown him as one of Hunter’s numismatie advisers. That he had been selected for definite and distinguished
service is proved by the following interesting extract from the Gentleman's Magazine for 1782 (p. 519).
“We are happy to annownce to our readers the following intelligence on a subject of National as well as Literary curiosity.
“It is proposed to publish the noble collection of Saxon coin preserved in Dr, Hunter's museum, illustrated with notes and historical observations. This work is intended to elucidate a part of the English history, at present involved in much uncertainty and obscurity. The proprietor is desirous that this work should be as perfect and useful as the subject of it will permit; and he flatters himself, that amongst those who are possessed of a few Saxon coins, and do not intend to complete the series, there are many who will be glad to encourage this undertaking; and if they will favour the proprietor with any which are not in his museum, an handsome equivalent will be returned in money, or in other coins, and their names will be mentioned in the work with the coin which they shall obligingly contribute. Perhaps it may be a further inducement to noblemen and gentlemen to be assured that this collection is intended as a lasting repository for the inspection of all persons of taste and literature, who are desirous of examining such authentic remains of their remote ancestors. ;
“The description of the coins, we understand, will be given by the Rev. Mr. Southgate.
* Doubtless the ancient Spanish coins, which are well represented in the Cabinet.
g 2
xliv INTRODUCTION
Within a very few months after the appearance of this semi-official notice Hunter died, and the plan was in consequence abandoned. Southgate continued to work at the subject, and contemplated publishing a general treatise on the Saxon coinage. But the book was never actually written.* Nor were any serious steps ever taken towards completing the catalogue of the rest of the collection in accordance with Hunter’s design. He had indeed given express injunctions to his Trustees that the compilation of such a catalogue was to be one of the first tasks to which they should address themselves. But the master spirit that had conceived and directed the enterprise was gone, and those who remained behind lacked the means or the energy to carry it through. Besides, Combe now became a regular medical practitioner, and his success was so marked that he can have had little time to spare for numismatic pursuits. The supplementary list of coins which he drew up in manuscript, is meagre and unsatisfactory ; and some years before the period fixed by Hunter had expired, he and his fellow Trustees voluntarily renounced their right of retaining the Museum in London. In the meantime the authorities in Glasgow had been preparing for its reception. The fine building, designed by Stark, which was for so long a familiar feature of the old College precincts, had been erected, and by 1807 all was ready. In the summer of that year the Principal and Faculty entered into the possession of their heritage, which, along with much that is precious in the eyes of the bibliographer and the man of science, included such an apparatus for historical research as is at the disposal of no other University in the world.
* See Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, vi., p. 112, where we are told that “his progress in it (for some progress he had made) was retarded by his diffidence.” Cf. Pinkerton, Essay on Medals (London, 1789), vol. i., p. xli. An interesting biographical sketch of Southgate, written by Charles Combe, is reprinted in Nichols, op. cit., pp. 859—379.
xlv
DP ey NADL Xs
An account of my purchases in medals independent of presents &c.
1770. First year.
Feb. 6 The Revd. Mr Dawes, for his Brother's collection made at Aleppo... = 4 ast Wits i . 220 — — July 4 To Samuel Jessopt ao ed te _ - _ 165 12--— July 21 : To first payment for Mr Sadler’s collection, often mentioned by Haym ty ies bey on a . 600 — — Sep. 3 Mr Snelling _... es on ee on ts 58 — — Nov 6. Do. see we es has ae a =e a 77 09 — 10 Mr Sadler, 2d payment sek tes on . 400 — — 19 Mr Snelling... se he a oe fe 8 33 12 «6 Total of 1770 or 1st year ae de .. 1305 18 6
* The original of the following document, in Dr. Hunter’s own handwriting, is in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow. It did not come north with the collection, for a note written at the top states that it was ‘“‘sent down by Mrs. Baillie in 1824.” The other papers made use of in the Introduction appear to have reached Glasgow in the same way. A copy of the ‘Account,’ made by Taylor Combe in 1802, is in the Medal Room of the British Museum. Arithmetical errors, more or less considerable, show that the record was kept as a matter of interest rather than as a matter of business. There are also some accidental omissions. Thus, two receipts given by Snelling in 1770 have no entries to correspond to them, One is dated Aug. 18, and is for £17 11s. 6d.; the other acknowledges payment of £108 on Sept. 1, “for a collection of English Gold Coins.”
+ Apparently a dealer, Several transactions took place wit him, particularly in 1773,
xlvi INTRODUCTION
1771. Second year.
April 29. Mr Snelling... ee xe sae oi oe hes 31 18 6 May 23 Do. ne re ae ia a oe ane ts 33 19 6 July 10 Mr Jumineas Collection at Naples, especially L. & Mid. Br. 400 — — 15 Mr Snelling... sfc See ee ae on eg 86 OT Marquis Leonori’s Collection ... ee fae ae . 210 — —
Aug. 16 Mr Dalton, for Roman Gold* me oes ve 73 ll — 27 Mr Snelling... sad oS ss a fae bes 69 — — Pretender’s family med. fr. Rome... 8 Ag 2 11 6
Novr 26 Dr. Mackenzie from Constantinople ... ee ce a 30 — — Decr 21 Mr Thane is ae te on se = 4 9 — Total of 1771 or 2d year ... a .. 891 16 6
Add of 1770 or Ist year... - la0a: 13) @
Total at this time rae ue ler 210) =
or of two years
* The most valuable of the 28 pieces in this lot was a coin of Caligula priced at £10 10s. One of the coins bearing the name of Coson (doubtless one of the two specimens described in this volume) was classed as belonging to the gens Junia, and valued at £2 2s,
APPENDIX xlvi
1772. March 30 Mr Snelling... so 2 ss ed see 90 -— — May 2 Do.* i oi ad ee i ee .. 10 — — June 20 9 Mr Sainthill’s Collection ee - es . 170 — — Mr Snelling ..- ... it se me . 164 — — Aug. Mr Molinit A Diadumenian ae fe oe bcc] 3.13 6 Dr Bromfield for English Gold se fe th bak 9 6 — 1s Mr Thane oe eh be pu 28 on sie 2 % 6 Septr 26 Insurance for Peralta Collection ZS ia ces ihe 12 — — 13 Freightt &e. for Do ... ae: sis ba ee Jet 4 2 3 3d year. Total of 1772 ... am - d95 9 8 The years 1770, & 1771... Ba? .. 2197 10 — Total at this time me .. 2792 19 3
or of 3 years
* It may be noted that, while no receipt corresponding to this entry has been preserved, there is one of date 1st May, 1772, acknowledging payment to Snelling of £284 lls. It is probable that the two transactions are identical, the difference being made up by exchanges. The papers show that when Hunter dealt on this principle, it was his habit to record only the money actually disbursed. Similarly, while there is no receipt for the next entry in Snelling’s name (£154), there is one for £302 18s. 6d., signed by Snelling, and bearing date 12th August, 1772.
+ Molini was a bookseller. Many of the volumes in the Hunterian Library were procured through him.
t The receipt for this item is one of the few that enter into full details. It runs thus :—
14 6
“Waterman i 2 6 Tyde Waiter ... sis 2— Warehouse Keeper 5 — Going by Water wae 0 9 Porters in the Warehouse 1 — Land Waiter ... ate 2— Writing off 1 — Landing & W[hl]arfage 2 Self... 5 — Freight ... ea ow. 216 — Carriage home a3 5 —
li 6 4 2 3”
xlvii INTRODUCTION
1773. or 4th year.
Mr Snelling owing since Augt ae ee - .. 802 18 6
Feb. 6 Do. at Mr West's sale* oe oe 3%; ve .. 883 9 6 May 26 Mr Jessop Sus sly ee ve a3 aa oo 16 16 — 12 Mr Dutens for Peralta Collection tnd. deine. oes .. 680 — —
19 Mr Jessop sth a: on So or is sa 1 10 —
Mr Forster for 3 medals 4% ae es i ae 1 10 —
Mr Jessop for one of Palermo bet _ =< as 2) 2
Mr Thane for sundries ihe sed eh , a 15 15 —
June 3 Mr Dutens, Ballance ... ~_ _ S on 39 9 6 Mr Shiells for a Gold medalt ve ou ae ae 8 18 6
July 16 Scotch Gold, by Mr Coombe... ie a zee ne 15 15 — Aug Do. by the Paper Mercht ... au a 184 be 4 4 — Septr 18 Hamerani’st Lead, by Mr Coomb _... oh ous 15 — 21 Imperial Denarli by Do. oe Sg 1 at ee 1 6 —
A Medallion of Commodus by Do. ... ae “= oe 3°03 —
Octr 8 Mr Thane 2 “ue wi se hea — 22 10 6 Total of 1773 or 4th year... ee .. 1450 2 6
The 8 preceeding years... pi .. 2792 19 3
Total at this time £4243-1 9.
* Hunter's purchases included 56 lots, the highest price paid being £22 6s. for “one of Henry VII.” The sale tuok place at Langford’s,
+ This medal was one of “Chas. II. and queen.”
{ Ferdinando Hamerani was an Itwlian dealer. The Stuart Medals bought in 1771 came from him.
APPENDIX
xlix 1774 or 5th year. March 3) Mr Thane ve . i a TO) 10 == Mr Coombe . 12 6 Mr Millar, for Seotch ee - - : 12 12 — Apr. 17. Two Roman Gold bes ae i a 2 lf — 20 Myr Thane at Mr Gerard’s* sale ae a8 as 6 6 Proofs &e. of George TIT Guinea Peices at the Tower at different times — - os oe 10 18 6 Apr. 29 9 Mr Thane Fe ihe ee pf fs W715) 6 An inedited Scotch by Mr Coombe i . — 1 6 An English Crown __... Se, ne b. we La SS 5 — May Three Gold, of Henr. VIII. Mr Bartlett 1 10 — Three Cardinals by Mr Combe 2 4 — June 20 Mr Pingo’st 2d Proof Guinea a 25. Mr Combe 2 English medals 2 6 10 July 7 Do. for Mary's sixpence = ia 2 2 — Two medals ‘Bi a cy citi as = ao 6 6 14 Four medals by Mr Combe ... a ve ee . — 17 6 £72, 7 «(108
* John Gerard of Litchfield Street, Soho, the auctioneer whom Hunter afterwards employed to sell his duplicates.
+ Benjamin Bartlett, at one time an apothecary in Bradford, was a collector and on terms of friendship with Hunter in London. In the list of those mentioned “ honoris causa” in the Preface to the Descriptio, he is designated as ‘of Hartshill in the county of Warwick.’ He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and must have died before the spring of 1787. His coins, &c., were sold by Gerard, in April of that year.
t Thomas Pingo, Assistant Engraver of the Mint, died December, 1776. Two of his sons, Lewis and John, became Engravers of the Mint. A third, Benjamin, was one of 15 persons killed in attempting to get into the pit of the Little Theatre in Haymarket on February 3rd, 1794.
§ This total should be £72 11s. 10d.
h
July 20 Aug. 10 14 18
23 Septr 2 15 16
Octr 8
22 23
INTRODUCTION
of 1774 brought over. .
Mr Combe for a William
Do. for several English
Mr Bartlet for Css of Dorset
Mr Thane for sund[r]y English
Dr Irwin for a 5 Guineas
Mr Combe for sundry English
Do. for Do., Kirks «ec...
Do. for Do.
Do. for Do. a s) ie An unpublis[h]’d Charles 2d & Queen Mr Combe for sundries
Mr Belchier’s* recom. Ann
Mr Combe for sundry English
My Servant for English silver
Mrs Bayntun...
Mr Combe for various English
A new Guinea ... es ue
Mr Pingo for several Eng ...
* Perhaps John Belchier (1706—1785), Surgeon at Guy’s Hospital.
38
FPO Or rFP OF Aw D&O
= we oO
204
aonnorn
11
Hr 20
10 16 15
eH OR Dw es
12
13
10
1774
Novr 3 28 Decr 28
APPENDIX
Brought over
Mr Do. Mr Mr Mr
Combe for sundry Englis[h]
Thane for English... es a Charleton for Greek & Roman ... Whiteside for Cabinet
5th year, Total in 1774 The four preceding
May
June 17 Aug. 26 Oct. 3
Mr Mr Mr
Do.
Mr Mr Mr Mr
Total at this time
Sixth year.
Jaminau’s Parcel, \ Combe’s substracted Thane
Pingo. Proof Thane
Sadler Thane
* This total should be £517 14s. 6d.
204 13 10 4 15 5
4 1 —
ll 7 6
1 ol —
38 16 — 264 14 9 d243 1 9 4507 16 6 20 38 — 10 13 6 10 lt 6
1 1 0
40 lt 6 £220 0 — 144 8 — 517 14 9*
h 2
hi
1775 Brought over
INTRODUCTION
Octr 3 Mr Martyn, 4 silver M.
Novr Mr Combe, several Mrs Strange
The five preceding years
Total at this time, |. or of six years.*
Medal Drawers.
517
* It will be convenient to print here the following note relating to the sale of Duplicates.
“ Account of money received for Duplicates, &c.
Dee. 1775 Sold by Mr Gerard... sin ww £201 18° 6 Jan. 1776 Currency taken out... sits = 20 0 0 April Do. of ip ve a 3 6 6 0 English Gold sold by Mr Combe ... 105 13 3 June Mr Duane for Gold Greek Dup. ... 59 17 O Aug. Mr Duane for Syrian Duplicates ... 134 13 0”
APPENDIX litt
1776 Seventh year. 26 April To Langford,* by Mr Combe... = ie ios as 24 8 0 1lthMay Sundry English by Do. ae a5 — ae are ey og. A) 21 Do. Two Popes by Mr Mathewt . . - ; 0 15 6 8 June Mr Bruce’s Gold be ‘<a s .. 316 17 0 Dr King 1 Crown... re a re - 20 — — Mr Combe, one Englis[h] 2: ae ai ai 2 12 6 19 Do. Do. for sundries. Mathew re the 12 14 -— Dr Orme, sundry English 26 5 — July Mr Newnham. Sundry Eng |. es ne ae ies 4 9 — Mr Combe for one ee igh ie bre aE 10. 6 Septr Do. Mee oh os ese is - Hee 17 — Octr 5 Mr Lindegreen’s Mgyp. Gold . = : 04 .. 214 15 0 Novr 2 Dr Russels addenda... = S va 52 10 — 19 Mr Southgate sundries .. ies 3 13 6 Mr Combe Mogul’s &e .. 4 19 Do. Two Roman Gold... 2. 2 == 694 15 0
* Langford was a London auctioneer.
+ Possibly Mr. Mathews of the British Museum, who was a friend of Combe’s. See p. xvi., footnote.
liv INTRODUCTION
Decr 2. Brought over... a - 7 sed _ 694 15 Mr White, for English 4m? ne Ay . Iv 138 6 Mr Wills an Eng. half Crown = _ a ee 10 10 0 16 Mr Bartlett. A Gold Aquitaine ms ie - ae 20 — — 20 <A Gold Aquitaine. Southampton* ... sie ; ea Mr Combe for sundries Say ik £24 Hs ie 2 12 6 Total for 1776 me tas ape tee EL, SERS The six preceeding years... ek os 904 .. 6089 2 9
Total at this time, besides the Duane Collection \ 5960 14 9
and 2 cabinets
* Amongst those mentioned “honoris causa” in the Preface to the Descriptio is a certain John Ballard of Southampton. We may conjecture that this entry refers to a purchase made from or through him.
23 March April
12
20 May 7
June 7
APPENDIX
Eighth year. George II. by Mr Combe
A shilling : ae
A proof shil. & 6 pences
A Gold Punic ... gh ae oie Mr Combe for Weights & large Brass Do. for Do,
Mr White
Christie’s sale
For Athenian Silver
At Gerard's sale
Mr Combe for sundries
Commission &c ...
Mr Gerard’s sale As
Mr White various by Mr Bartlet
Mr Young* for sixpences by Do. Sundry English by Mr Bartlet
Do. by Mr Combe
5 guinea piece by Do.
fae 98 I 8 = §
Y es 185 0 0 1 0 0
2 12 6
10 6
ll 11 0 15 14 6
5 2 6
0 10 6
5 14 it 3
2 6 $F =
8 6 0
5 5b 0
£349 9 6
* Henry Young, a dealer, “at the Star and Garter, near St. Paul’s, Ludgate Street.”
+ This should be £279 9s. 6d. an error of £70. repa the accidental omission of some item in copying the whole from a jotting.
preserved for the first four years,
Possibly the discrepancy may have been caused by
Such jottings have been
lvi
Decr
INTRODUCTION
Brought over ..
28
A 5 Guinea Piece
English by Mr Combe
By Mr Bartlet, sundry
To an Italian, Various, ae
Mr Thane, medal of George 3d
Mr White, various English
A Cabinet, valued by Mr Combe Mrs Swinton
Mr Combe for various .
Mr Thane by Do.
Do. at a sale a
Black Prince, Leopard ...
Various Greek at Sale... of Mrs Smith’s (of Venice) Collection ... Various by Mr Combe...
Total of 1777. 8th year Total before
Total now, exclusive of Duane’s
* This should be £2046 18s., an error of £410. The mistake may the figures being reckoned twice over, in different columns they are
manuscript.
49 2298: «6
5 10 0
1 11 6
7 12 «+O
It Oe Ss
303 —
25 14 —
770 — —
330 — — 2 8
2 9 —
5 4 —
27 — —
a
507 12 — 1 16 2456* 18
5960 14 9
8416 12 9
readily have originated in some of placed somewhat irregularly in the
APPENDIX Ivii
9th year Jan. 1778 Various by Mr Combe - as ll ill — March 2. Do. by Do. las sz ' " 16 6 —~ 3 Do. from Mr Sutton |. - 4 4 — — 6 Mrs Ayre we me nee y a .. 821 — — — 24 For two of Warin ... bee tie aes a be 10 10 — — 27 Mr White, various English ... Pi ee sta 31 12 — April 3. Do. on ae ees se tae ae ; 55 8 8 6 Do, for Patterns ae ae £35 a ae 38 17 — 17) Mr Dog Jennings.* Aug &e .. a re a 10 9 — 21 = Various English... Se - a re: i 1 10 10 26 =Do. Ss ae ae i oe = ei 203 — May 1 Do. it of as ‘Arey tee as oe 10 «6 6 Bellamy. Various Engl. ae 4 ‘3 ne a 7 10 — 8 <A Crown... ee ee a eas on —- 6 — 12 ~~ Bellamy various aks oie a an ay 5 17 — Do. Dei st See oh oa aS = f= 14. Mr White as as iat a wi a a 42 1 —
497 138 4
* Henry Jennings (1731—1819), a well-known London character and a very extensive purchaser of antiques and curios. He was called “Dog Jennings” from his association with a famous marble figure supposed to represent Alcibiades’ dog, now in Duncombe Hall, Yorkshire, the seat of Lord Feversham. Jennings bought it in Rome for 400 scudi (less than £80), and sold it on April 4th, 1778, a few days before this transaction with Hunter, for a thousand guineas. ‘A fine dog it was,” he is reported to have said, “and a lucky dog was I to purchase it.” (See also Boswell’s Life of, Johnson, under date April 3, 1778.) He ultimately died in the King’s Bench Prison.
lviii INTRODUCTION
1778 June... = 635 3 = = eg a . 497 138 4 17 To Thane fas a i “A - Aa 1
Various English ee a3 is ee wae 10 6
19 Mr White, various Engl... ne ce or = 10 15 —
26 An Italian, for various 1 15 —
July 3 Various by Mr Combe. . v e 7 2 138 4
— 15 Do. fe fay ve ' a : 1 11 6
25 An Anelo-Gallic AN by Dr Fordyce* 6 16 6
28 Mr White for various... ane é ; ; 5 ll 6
Kirk’s Lord Chatham ... ; a3 " 12 —
29 Proof of the 5 & 2 Guineas... an 7 16 «43
Augt 1 English & Saxon a ae v4 17 13° —
Do. from young Mr Whitet | oo x 1605 —
4 Mr Le Sage Rom. Silver & ee 7 7 —
7 <A proof Guinea.. : : : on 1 1 —
11 Mr White. Chatles 4 cn : = 2 2 —
Do.’s Nephew Do.’s Crown do ido =
582 4 3
* Dr. George Fordyce of Essex Street was one of the Trustees under Hunter's will. See p. xhi.
+ “Young Mr. White,” who signs “Joseph White Junior,” appears, from the last entry on this page, to have been a nephew of John White (see pp. xxiii. f.). Mr. Warwick Wroth informs me that a man named ‘White’ was «a large purchaser at the John White sale in 1788, and suggests that this was perhaps “Joseph White Esq. of Islington .. well-known for his numismatical pursuits and enquires,” whose books and coins (chiefly English) were scld, after his death, in 1810: the designation and description are quoted from the sale-catalogue. The contents of Joseph White's collection (which included a manuscript account of English coins by John White, as well as other books connected with him, e.g. four copies of Withy and Ryall’s plates) make it highly probable that he is identical with “young Mr. White.”
APPENDIX
Brought over...
Septr 8 1778 A crown of Ch. I 9 Dumfries Premium by Kirk ... Octr 2 Various English 23. Mr White various Do. .. Novr Morison & Miles bel Toplady’s Groat of Ed. IIT. &e. 5 Various English Decr 3 Do. sete ce 7 Mr South[g]ate 16 Mr White various 21 Mrs Kirk* for Medals ..
9th year, or 1778, in all ... Formerly...
Total at this time, or in nine years exclusive | of Duane Coll. & 2 Cabinets :
582
eo Oa teow 2 we es | —
645 8416
9062
17 12
10
| ee hee
lix
* The widow of John Kirk, the medallist, whose death probably took place in the course of this year, and not in 1776, as is usually stated. See Warwick Wreth in Diet. of National Biography.
+ This total is too small by 10 shillings.
ine
lx
28 April 2 27 May 3 8 June 11 July 10 30 Augt. 7 30
INTRODUCTION
Tenth Year.
Medals continued
Mr White various Ballance at Gerard’s sale Mr White various Eng. Mr Gerard’s sale
Mr White various Christie’s sale ...
Mr White, a half Crown arms supported ...
A Greek Parcel, Mr Brereton Mr White, Saxon from Hamb. Various at sales
Mr White
Lady Abdy, for two
Various from Mr White
At the Tower, Proofs ... Various Greek. Mr White
A Gold British, Mr White
A Groat of Ed. VI. to Do. \
9062
APPENDIX Ixi
Paid for medals exclusive of Duane’s ... ae 7 ae .. 93892 5 O08 1779 Septr 20 Mr Samuel a few ays its = sol ts 5 5 — 22 =-Do. for his whole Collection ... = ie eng . 216 — — 25 <A Gold Roman... oe ee 2 2 — Octr. 1 <A 5 G. piece of Charles IL. ... . is sil 5 10 — No 2 Various Mr White &c. ee aes bd ae: Me 1 4 6 Decr. 3 At Gerard’s & Christie’s. English ... 3°38 5 93 Antiochus J. Alexr. I. oD Total paid for medals in the first ten years, besides the Du- } 9626 11 64 ane Collection and 2 Cabinets Duane Collection a ee ane ay a ... 8000 9626 11 63
17626 11 64
lau
1780
Jan. 11th
Feb. 5 12
March 10
13 26
30 May 30
June 17 Octr 1
INTRODUCTION
The eleventh year
£ Some Greek, and Wm Conqueror ... a ar 3 A Cabinet from Mr Anstruther ve a .. 188 Some English | . os os ee ; ; 7 2 A Scotch David ie a - ; 21 English from Mr White ee 5 oi 6 Gerard’s sale & : or fe oe Dr Mackenzie’s sale* __. a :: 555 1 Gerard’s sale... me es ks ei : or 13 Mr Thane at Gerard’s sale ... wc a don Aes 25 Two 4 crowns, one changed ... ae Tygranes, three asses «ce. = oe ie - ay 7 A Saxon Queen, through Mr Dolbynt oe = sae 5 Thane Greek Kings... se a ae: re 16 Young, Two Greek Towns White, 3 Greek 1 English Sir Christ. Wren 2
-250
* See p. xiv., footnote.
for)
6
Ot
¥ Probably J. E. Dolben, son of Sir William Dolben, one of the Judges of the King’s Beuch. name is recorded “honoris causa” in the Descriptio.
t The total should be £248 15s.
His
APPENDIX
Lxiii 1780 Brought over es oe A vis si fh ee .. 250 15 0 Octr 23. Mr Bosanquet’s Collection a . 1000 0 0 28 Mr Martin, Greek Gold a 3 ane: 15 10 — Novr 20 <A Charles I. medal... Ss es as a 7 — Decr.10 Some Greek imperial ... ay ss Re ae 4 14 6 17 Mr White, English Townpiec a nae oa 10. 6 Mr Samuel, English ... ae - 2g ie 7 8 3 — Total in 1780... os eed .. 1279 13* — In the first Ten years, besides ‘ 9626 11
2 Cabinets and the Duane Collect. I : .
The Duane Collection B..5 ie ae ond sor si ... 8000 18906 4 64
* This total is too small by 7 shillings.
lxiv INTRODUCTION
1781 The 12th year Brought over... — ae es oN fe ., 18906 4. 64 Jan. 9 Mr Crofts ie ‘us as 2s ay] a .. 425 15 0 Feb. 12. Mr Brown,* English ... ve ns ee a 1 38 — March 1 Mr Sotheby’s Cabinet ... ve oe me 5a .. 800 — — April Several English... a 5 A Bes sh oe 5 7 — Some articles here forgot. Aug. 15 Two Greek cities silver = neh se a ais 0 10 6 — 26 Six Greek cities and Agathocles... fe am a 4 14 6 Sepr.12. A collection by Sir Wm Hamilton.t Ee ae an 383 T 9 21. Mr White for English... au on Si o 2 2 — Nov. To Mr Snelling’s Executors ... oe me we ne 5 5 — English, Mr Haynes 3.5 6 Decr 2 Some Greek & 2 English ‘i As ue ae S. eS 20 From Mr Lee’s Cabinet i, ae re _ . 160 — — 27 Sundry English... os Se oes ae aie Nes 1 16 6
20151 15 64}
* Probably the collector mentioned by Pinkerton (L’ssay on Medals, ed. 1789, vol. i., p. 11). + A large proportion of this was refunded. See p. xxxiii.
+ This total is too large by 10 shillings. The payment for the Giraldi Collection has been accidentally omitted; it amounted to £236 Os. 6d., including the commission to the experts who examined it. See p. x xxiii.
APPENDIX
1782 The 13th year.
Brought over...
Feb. April 15 22 May 9 June 31
July 10 30 Augt. 24 Septr 15 20 Octr. 25 Novy. Deer. 15
Various Roman and Gold
Myr Hesse’s Collection ... aes Mr Crofts, his 2d Collectiont New Trials of Tower Guineas A broken piece Dtto. ... Commission to Brusselst
8. Samuel, for various... ae A Gold proof of Charles I. ... A barbarous Gold Philip Several Greek & Roman Zacynuthus &e Greek
By Sir George Baker ...
Mr White &c nie Saxon &c. Mr Bartlet... Victor & Wm ...
Brought over
* The “carry over” is too small by £80.
=
Ixv .. 20,121 15 64* 5 6 6 2400 71 6 6 — 15 10 7 14 — 8 2 6 6 16 6 As, Ads) 16 2 2 — 10 10 8 68 7 8 5 17 qd 22664 14 43 22664 14 43
+ The receipt for this (see p. xxvili.) is signed by “John Crofts,” and is “for Medals valued by Mr. Cracherode and Mr. Combe.”
t This was probably part of the expenses incurred in the transfer of the Hess Collection.
lxyi INTRODUCTION
1783
Jan. Mr Jackson* British ... ne ee a a i 3 lt 6 Feb. Gold Medallion of Alexr &e.f she sed sah ‘tie 10 10
* A well-known collector of British coins. See Pinkerton, Essay on Medals (ed. 1789), vol. i, p. 11.
t I suspect that the “ Medallion of Alexr,” whose purchase is here recorded, was a gilded ‘Paduan’ medal now in the Hunter Cabinet, similar to that figured in Nwm. Chron., 3rd Series, vol. xvii., p. 316, where it is attributed by Dr. F. P. Weber to Alessandro Cesati (“11 Grechetto ”).
CATALOGUE
SIGNS AND ABBREVIATIONS
In printing the inscriptions the following conventions have been observed :—
(1) Square brackets indicate that the place of the letters they enclose is off the coin. Lig. ABHNAI[QN]
(2) Short strokes on the level of the line indicate an uncertain number of illegible letters. Eg. NE ---—
(3) Dots on the level of the line indicate a definite number of illegible letters, each letter being represented by one dot. H.g. TAPAN....N
(4) A dot placed beneath a letter indicates that, while the letter is certain, it is impossible to decide between two or more forms of it. E.g. AAEXZANAPOZ
In references for illustrations ‘B.M.C.’ means in each case the appropriate volume of the British Museum Series of Coin Catalogues.
Po ey
No. | WrIcHT pee OBVERSE | REVERSE AES GRAVE The Aes Grare of Rome and Latinm, which begins circa 350 B.c., in all probability formed the model for that of Etruria, Umbria, and other parts of Italy. Some towns issued no money until they came into the hands of the Romans. Evrruria VOLATERRAE After circa 350 B.c. Class I. (No type on reverse.) Sextans Head of beardless Janus, wearing a flat | {qoAgad running round e o cap rising to a point in the centre. : 1 294 | 12 Class II. (Club on reverse.) As Similar type. 140 ALAA Club, downwards; in field, 1., | 2 2412 | A 2°35 Semisses Similar type Similar; but ) 3 882 | A 1-75 4 B45 #18 ( J in inser.) Quadrans Similar type. 140 AJAI Club downwards, between : . and @ 5 544 i 1-4 Class III. (Dolphin on reverse.) As Similar type. (40 AJAA Dolphin1.; above, — 6 2295 Ai 25
B23
ITALY ! . Mrran R No. Weieur Sik | OBVERSE EVERSE Uneprta ARIMINUM * About 268 B.c, the Romans planted a ‘colonia’ at Ariminum in what had been the country of the Senonian Gauls. The coinage probably began then. After circa 268 B.c. Quadrans Bust of Gaul r., wearing torquis. | Ornamental trident ; in field r., b4 e 1 1473) A 1:95 Sextantes Similar type. Dolphin r.; beneath, e e 2 1134 | Al 18 8 1037 | AD 1:75 | | IGUVIUM Before circa 260 B.c. The heavy weight of the coins of Tyucinm shows that they were cast before the influence of the Triental Reduction at Rome (circa 268 B.c.) had made itself felt in Unbria. | | Sextans | 1 | ' Branch, within circle. © within circle. e L 397 AB 1-25 [Pate 1. 1.] | | TUDER+ | ! Class I. (Heavy Weight.) | | Before circa 260 x.c. | | Triens R. hand r., in cestus ; around, .° 3Qd34VV. Two clubs r.; around, =; | I L106 419 |
“ See also p. 19 t Sce also p. 19,
AES GRAVE
No. | WEIGHT OBVERSE REVERSE Class II. (Reduced Weight.) After circa 260 B.c. Semisses ae of inscr. Dog sleeping 1.; plain | Lyre; in field r., (; all on raised field ? order. 2 679 JQ3VVF Similar type; beneath, ) ; | Similar type; in field], ) same border. 3 479 Trientes Right hand r., in cestus ; around, : : JQ34V¥ = Twoclubs r.; around, : : 4 431 ( #illegible) 5 382 Quadrantes Toad ; around, traces of marks of value; | VE Anchor with ring at either end; in plain border. field r., Se 6 261 7 261 (only two marks of value visible) 8 212 Sextans Cicada, between @ and e; plain border. Inser. not visible. Ornamental trident, between e and e 9 186 Uncia Two-handled vase; above, @ ; plain border. | VV Spear-point ; in field l., © 10 97 TUDER ? The find-spot of coins of this class is Todi, the ancient Tuder. Ox r., with head facing. Fish-spine ornament. ll 20267
6 ITALY METAL No. WEIGHT Sine OBVERSE REVERSE UNCERTAIN OF UMBRIA (OR ETRURIA) Reduced Weight Almond-shaped Sextantes Club. e 1 431 AN 1°45 . 2 408 AB 1:35 3 313 ZB 12 or branch ?
[Puave 1. 2.]
AES GRAVE
ih METAL No. WIGHT Sizyr OBVERSE REVERSE | | | Picenum | | | HATRIA - | | The Romans occupied Hatria as a ‘colonia’ in 289 2.c. Its coins are all on the | heavy system. | | | After cirea 289 B.c. As HAT Head of Seilenos, facing, with | Dog sleeping r. long ears hanging down; wears wreath of ivy. 1 5537 4 31 Quadrans HAT Dolphin upside down 1. Fish (ray ?) r.; beneath, eee 2 1213 A 1:9 Semuncia H A€é 3* 258 # 11
* On the attribution of this coin to Hatria instead of Asculum, see Berlin Catal., m1. i., pp. 1, 16.
8 ITALY No. WEIGHT ect OBVERSE REVERSE Uncertain or Canrrat Irary The following series are all on the heavy system, which cannot have very long survived the Triental Reduction at Rome (circa 268 B.C.). Circa 350—250 B.c. FIRST SERIES (TIBUR ox PRAENESTE) Semisses Head of Pallas r., wearing crested Corin- | Same as obverse, 1. thian helmet; beneath, ay 1 2075 | HH 2 2 1990 | # 2-1 Sextantes Cockle-shell; above, ee Inside of shell rudely represented ; no marks of value. 3 751 | # 14 shell hollow. 4 570 | AX 1°35 shell flat. 5 563 | A I-4 shell hollow. Unciae P 373 | Bd Astragalos ; above, e Same type as obverse ; no mark of value. 7 319 | #1 8 308 | AD 1:05 | SECOND SERIES (TIBUR orn PRAENESTE) Quadrans Open hand ry. ; above, club r.; be- | Same as obverse, 1. neath, eee af lolz Al 16
AES GRAVE
No. WEIGHT poe OBVERSE REVERSE Unciae Astragalos ; above, club r. Same as obverse, 1. 2 364 «E 1:05 3 340 Ah +95 4 269 AG 1: THIRD SERIES (ARDEA ?) As Head of beardless Janus, bound with | Head of Hermes 1., wearing winged diadem, on raised field ; above, | petasos, on raised field ; above, | 1 4876 AG 2°8 Semisses Head of Pallas 1., wearing crested Corin- | Female head 1.; beneath, cA thian helmet; beneath, wa 2 2672 AB 25 3 2576 HH 2:2 4. | 2509 Ah 2:2 5 2259 A 2-4 Trientes Thunderbolt; on either side, $ and : Dolphin r.; beneath, e eee 6 1658 A 1°95 7 1347 “A 19 Quadrantes Open hand 1.; beneath, @¢@e Two barleycorns, in opposite directions ; between them, eee 8 1233 A 1:7 9 1168 AB 1°65 10 | 1077 | H16
VOL. I.
Cc!
10 ITALY No. WEIGHT oe OBVERSE REVERSE Sextantes Cockle-shell ; above, e @ Caduceus, between @ and @ 11 1020 AH 1°55 12 960 AH 15 13 913 fH 1:5 Unciae Astragalos ; above, e | e 14 457 1 15 440 | AB 1-15 i FOURTH SERIES (UNCERTAIN TOWN OF LATIUM OR APULIA) Semisses Head of Pallas 1., wearing crested Corin- | Female head 1.; behind, reaping-hook r. ; thian helmet ; beneath, wa beneath, wa 1 2053 ZH 2:2 2 1878 AG 22; Trientes Thunderbolt, between ® and ® Dolphin r.; above, reaping-hook horizon- e e tally placed, 1.; beneath, eeee 3 1374 LE 1-9 4 1261 ZH 1°85 Sextantes Cockle-shell ; above, @@ | Caducens, between e and e; on r.,, reaping-hook r. 5 788 ff 15 6 623 AN 14 FIFTH SERIES (FORMIAE, FUNDI, or FREGELLAE) Asses Young male head r., wearing narrow | Same as obverse, but type 1. diadem, on raised field; above, | 1 5369 | A 2-8 2 | 4916 | @ 27
AES GRAVE dl We | Wendue oe Saas eetabe Semis ss Se r.; beneath, §; all on raised | Same as obverse, but type 1. 3 2413 4G 21 Trientes Head and neck of horse r.; beneath, eeee | Same as obverse, but type |. 4 1840 9 di 21 5 1739 | 4 1-9 6 1405 “His | Quadrantes | Boar running r.; beneath, ee @ Same as obverse, but type 1. 7 1338 “1:6 8 1337 | 4 16 9 1297 | #16 10 1126 1-7 Sextantes Young male head r., wearing pilos ; Same as obverse, but type 1. behind, $ 1], 1083) | AD 15 12 917 | A 1:55 13 834 | 414 14 5380 | Al 1:3 Unciae Barleycorn ; in field r., @ Same as obverse, but mark of value 1. 15 264 | AD +95 16 258 | A 1 SIXTH SERIES (ALBA FUCENTIS ?) Dupondius Young head r., wearing Phrygian helmet ; Archaic wheel of six spokes, between two behind, = ; all on raised field. of which, |]; all on raised field, 1 8699 | Ad 3-4
12 ITALY No. | Weicur MaraL OBVERSE REVERSE Size Triens Horse galloping, 1.; around, ®®; on | Similar, with four dots as marks of value, raised field. oe each between two spokes. 2 1356 AA 17 Quadrans Hound 1., with raised head and forepaw; | Similar, with three dots as marks of value, beneath, eee; all on raised field. each between two spokes, 3 910 fH 16 Sextantes Tortoise; on raised field. Similar, with two dots as marks of value, each between two spokes. 4 686 LE 1-4, 5 673 AB 1:25 marks of value in opposite spaces. 6 566 | A183 only one mark of value visible.
[Prare 1. 3.]
AES GRAVE 13 METAL .No. | WEIGHT Size OBVERSE REVERSE
|
| | | : ! CAMPANIA
VELECHA
Third Century 8.¢. Triens Head ofyHelios, facing; on either side $ Head of ram 1.; beneath, eeee; above, and ¢ traces of CE dj: 826 AG 1°35
14 ITALY N METAL fa) REVERSE oO. WEIGHT Sian BVERSE APULIA LUCERIA * In the course of the Second Samunite War Luceria changed hands more than once. On its final capture by the Romans it was made a ‘colonia’ (314 B.c.). Heavy System (Circa 314—250 B.c.) Asses Head of Apollo 1., laureated; in front, — | Cock, 1. 1 3361 Zi 2:6 2 3182 | A 2°75 Unciae Toad. Ear of barley; in field 1., © 3 577 | Al 11 4 558 | AG 1-2 Triental System (After circa 250 B.c.) As Head of young Herakles r., in lion’s skin; | Horse trotting r.; above, star of eight beneath neck, club 1. rays; beneath, L 5 1411 A 19 Quincunx Nave and four spokes of archaic wheel; | Same type as obverse; between upper on raised field. spokes, %°° ; between lower, [; all on raised field, 6 555 AB 1:3 Trientes Thunderbolt, on raised field. Club r.; above, e@ee; beneath, [ ; all on raised field. 7 5388 | di 1-2 8 271 LA ‘95 (much worn) * See also p. 56.
AES GRAVE
% METAL No. WEIGHT Sin OBYERSE REVERSE UNCERTAIN (PRINCIPALLY OF CENTRAL ITALY) Heavy System (Circa 350—268 B.c.) As Head of young Herakles r., wearing lion’s Head of griffin r. skin. 1 4655 Af 3:05 Triens Wheel of eight spokes, each ending in | Crescent ; within which, star of eight double hook. rays; in field, eeee 2 1577 i 1:8 Quadrans Head of ram 1.; around, eee Head of dolphin 1.; around, eee 3 1143 Zé 16 Sextantes Anchor, between e and e Ornamental trident, between e and e 4 703 Af 1:5 Tortoise, between e and e Head and neck of snake r., with crest and beard ; on either side, e 5 661 Ai 1:5 Uncertain Denominations Bird 1. Plain. 6 436 #1 [ PLATE Ts 4] Head of caduceus. A 7% 107 A *85
* This coin is sometimes attributed to Asculum in Picenum, or to the town of the same name in Apulia. The find-spot of the two Berlin specimens points rather to Campania. See Berlin Catal.
IIL, i. p. 29.
ese
16 ETRURIA No, WEIGHT ne OBVERSE REVERSE Size STRUCK COINS The struck coinage of Italy is not necessarily later than the Aes Grave ; but casting was the easier and cheaper method of coining when large lumps of metal had to be dealt + with. The silver and gold of most of the Italian towns probably ceased to be issued soon after circa 268 B.c., when Rome, having established her supremacy over the peninsula, reorganized her coinage, and began to strike silver. In many cases the issue of bronze continued, sometimes lasting until 89 B.c., when the provincial mints of Italy, with the exception of Paestum, were finally closed by a Lex Plautia Papiria, ETRORIA POPULONIA* SILVER Circa 350—269 B.c. Euboic-Syracusan Standard (Reduced by Half) + Pieces of Twenty Units Gorgon’s head, diademed; beneath, XX; | Two caducei, in opposite directions ; in border of dots. plain field. 1 1382:9 Rd mark of value on r., off coin. [Puate tr. 5.] Similar type; beneath, XX; on either | Plain. side of which, small ring; border of dots. 2 123°5 | AM ‘85 [B.I.C., p. 8 (9).] Head of beardless Herakles, facing, wear- | Club, in plain field. ing lion’s skin; at sides of throat, X and X; border of dots. 3 130-2 RY mark of value on 1., off coin.
[Prate 1. 6.]
* My is not certain that all the following uninscribed coins belong to Populonia, Nos, 4 and 5 are later in style than the others, See Berlin Catal., III, i, pp. 36—39,
¢ The largest coins of this series aro about the weight of Euboic-Attic didrachms. The value- marks show that the monetary unit = yo = 6°6 grains, 7.e, about one half of the Sicilian silver litra.
POPULONIA—VETULONIA
METAL Size OBVERSE REVERSE Pieces of Five Units Head of Hermes r., wearing winged | Plain. petasos ; behind, ) ; plain border. a2 uncertain marks in field, eR °55 no marks. Bronze Third Century Bc. Earlier System Sextans Head of Pallas r., wearing crested Corin- | .VVJ... Owl r., on two balls (value- thian helmet; above, ee ; border of marks); above, crescent between two dots. stars of six rays. A 9 Reduced Weight Triens Head of (beardless ?) Hephaistos r., wear- | A UVI4V4 Hammer and tongs ; be- ing pilos bound with wreath and having tween which marks of value; border of a loop at the top; in front of forehead, dots. e ; behind, X; border of dots. AB 1:05 three value-marks visible. (Restruck on sextans of the Earlier System.) VETULONIA Bronze Third Century B.C. Sextans 1AqQ Head of Herakles r., in lion’s skin; | Trident; on either side of which, dolphin beneath head, @ e ; border of dots. downwards and @ ; plain border. B95 dolphin and value-mark on r., off coin. [Prate 1. 7.) D
18 ETRURIA No WEIGHT eae OBVERSE REVERSE . Size UNCERTAIN OF ETRURIA Bronze Unciae Wheel of six spokes; between two of ; Anchor, with ring at either end; on either which, e side, @ and >; border of dots. | 1445 | 4 9 2 143:5 | Al -85 ) instead of > [B.I.C., p. 23 (3).] Uncertain Denominations The types of Nos.383—5 possibly refer to Hannibal’s victory at Lake Trasimene (217 8.c.), when all his elephants had perished of cold, except the one which carried himself.* The head on the Obverse would then be that of the driver. Head of negro r.; border of dots. Elephant r.; border of dots. 3 75° Ai 75 beneath, AA 4 57: i 75 (border plain.) beneath, > 5 64:5 | Al -75 beneath, 4 (border doubtful). Head of youth r., wearing skin of animal | Dog (spaniel) running 1.; beneath, WA; (young Herakles ?); border of dots. border of dots. 6 42: Ai 6 [Poate 1. 8.] Head of Apollo r., laur., quiver at shoulder; | Owl towards r.; in front, < in front, < ; border of dots. 7 42°5 fh 6
* Polybius, iii. 79. See E, Babelon, in Revue Num., 1896.
UMBRIA 1 No. | WEIGHT pene OBVERSE REVERSE | | | | | | | | Umpria ARIMINUM * | | Bronze Cirea 268 3.0.
Bust of Hephaistos ]., bearded and having | Gaulish warrior, wearing torquis, advan- long hair; he wears pilos bound with cing 1., with drawn sword, under shelter wreath, and drapery about neck ; border of large oval shield, the boss of which of dots. ends in long ridge; sheath of sword
visible behind ; border of dots. ] 73° Es in ex., traces of inser.? 2 72-5 Av ex., off coin. [CE B.MLC., p. 25 (7).] TUDER + Bronze Circa 260 B.C. Head of Seilenos r., wearing wreath of ivy; | 343 AVF Eagle 1., wings open; border border of dots. of dots. 1 48° Aa 7 * See also p. 4. ¥ See also p. 4. ee | D2
20 PICENUM N Ww Mertan 7 R 0. EIGHT Size OBVERSE EVERSE Picznum* ANCONA Ancona, which had been founded by Syracusan eailes circa 390 B.c., was conquered by the Romans circa 290 B.c. The Reverse type is a ‘canting badge’ referring to the name of the town. BRonzeE Circa 290-—268 B.c, Head of Aphrodite r., laur., with earring; | ATKQIN Bent r. arm, holding palm- hair in knot; drapery about neck; branch 1.; above, two stars. behind, M,; border of dots. 1 106: i °8
[B.ILC., p. 40 (1).J
* See also p. 7.
LATIUM
METAL
No. WEIGHT Sine OBVERSE REVERSE Latium* ALBA FUCENTIS The Romans planted a ‘colonia’ at Alba Fucentis in 803 B.c. Circa 303—268 B.c. SILVER Nummus?P Head of Hermes r., wearing petasos. ALBA Winged griffin running r. 1 16-9 RR 6 AQUINUM Bronze Certain cities in Central Italy apparently had the privilege of striking bronze conceded them by Rome in 268 B.c. See under Cales, Suessa, Teanum and Uncertain of Italy. Cirea 268—217 B.c. Head of Pallas r., wearing crested Corin- | [AJQVINO Cock v.; behind, star of thian helmet; hair hanging down ; eight rays; border of dots. border of dots. 1 84- A 8
* See also pp. 8 ff.
SAMNIUM
METAL
No. WEIGHT Sissi OBVERSE REVERSE SAMNIUM AESERNIA Aesernia was made a ‘colonia’ by the Romans circa 263 B.c. Bronze After circa 263 B.c.
VOLCANOM _ Head of beardless | AISERNIN[O] (in ex.) Zeus thunder- Hephaistos 1., wearing laur. pilos with ing in biga r.; horses in high action. loop at top; behind, forceps; border of dots.
1 123: 46°85
VOL<ANOM Similar type; no loop | [AISEJRNI[NO] (in ex.) Similar type;
visible ; behind, forceps ; border of dots. but above, Nike flying r. to crown horses, which advance more slowly. 2 116- i 8
[AISER]NIO Head of Pallas 1., wear- | Eagle r., wings open, holding serpent in ing necklace and crested Corinthian its claws ; border of dots, helmet adorned with serpent; behind, club upwards; no border visible.
3 128- i +8
AESERNIA—SOCIAL WAR
23 M ay Weieut oa OBVERSE REVERSE | | COINAGE OF THE SOCIAL WAR The Ttalian Allies, during their final struggle for independence, struck silver coins of the weight of the Roman denarius. The head on the Obverse, in some cases at least, | represents Italia. The name that occurs on Nos. 4—6 is that of C. Papius Mutilus, who was one of the ‘consuls’ elected by the Allies during the war. The legend on the | Reverse of No.3 is in all likelihood also the name of a magistrate; but the precise reading is wncertain. | Circa 91—88 B.c. SILVER Denarii ith Oscan Inscriptions l | VINATE (downwards) Female head | Man standing facing, head r., wearing 1., laur., wearing earring and necklace ; helmet and cloak ; his r. hand rests border of dots. on the top of an inverted spear, his 1. grasps sword in sheath ; his 1. foot rests on small object lying on ground; at his feet 1. are visible head and chest of ox | reclining ; border of dots. 1 58-9 R15 inex, RN ! [Prare 1. 9.] | 2 59°5 A °75 | no necklace visible. in ex., | Similar type; in front of neck, X; border | [ JAIDVA-IW Similar type; in of dots. ex. N?; border of dots. 3 56-3 AR 7 traces of inscr. AVIRGSM3-METVM Younghead | [ ]IMIAINM-> (in ex) Youth kneeling 1, wearing ornamented helmet with 1, with head turned up towards r., crest and feather ; border of dots. holding in his arms young pig (head 1.); on either side a soldier, bareheaded, taking oath, leaning on inverted spear with 1, and touching pig with sword held in r.; border of dots. + 58'8 MR 8 VIN3TEHI Bust of youth r., whiskered; | ->- FHINNAN > (in ex.) Youth kneeling wears helmet with crest and feather, with pig, as above; on either side two and cloak; behind neck, x ; border of soldiers, bareheaded, taking oath, touch- dots. . ing pig with swords held in r., and grasp- ing sheaths with 1; border of dots. 5 59°9 R'8 6 | 5b R75
24 SAMNIUM No. WEIGHT — OBVERSE REVERSE IZE Female head 1., laur., wearing earring (and | Youth, as above; behind him, a standard ; necklace ?); border of dots. on either side four soldiers in same attitude as above; in ex., ANI ? ; border of dots. 7 65:5 R-7 With Latin Inscriptions Female head r., laur., wearing earring and | {TALIA (in ex.) Italia 1., seated on top necklace ; in front of neck, X; border of pile of three shields; leans on spear of dots. with r., and grasps with lL sword in sheath ; behind stands Nike, crowning her ; in field 1., [7]; border of dots. 8 60°5 R75 ITALIA Similar type; in front, X; | Similar type; in ex., uncertain letter, border of dots. 9 575 ® ‘75 A? Female bust r., laur., wearing earring and | Similar type; but Italia sits on edge of necklace ; drapery about neck ; in front, three shields, while Nike is larger; XVI; border of dots. border of dots. 10 54: RT traces of inser. ex., off coin. [Puave 1. 10.} ITALIA Female head 1. laur., wearing | Type similar to no. 7; border of dots. earring and necklace ; border of dots. ll 585 AR 75 inex, A | [Pate 1. 11.] 12 56°5 R 8 | inex. V
25
FRENTANI METAL . No. WEIGHT | Size OBVERSE REVERSE FRENTANI LARINUM Bronze After circa 217 B.c. There are coins of earlier date with Greek inscriptions. The following, with Oscan inscriptions, are struck on the Uncial Systeu, and are therefore subsequent to the Uncial Reduction at Rome. Quincunx Head of young Ares r., in crested Corin- | LADINOD Warrior on horse, galloping thian helmet; border of dots. 1.; spear couched, cloak flying behind him ; carries round shield with device; in ex., eee@ee ; plain border. 1 212-5 | At -95 [Puare 1. 12.) Triens Head of Dodonaean Zeus. wreathed with | LADINOD Eagle r., on thunderbolt, oak-leaves, r.; border of dots. with wings open and head thrown back ; underneath, eeee ; plain border. 2 1275 | 4-9 [B.M.C., p. 71 (7).] Sextans Head (of Dione ?) r., veiled and wreathed ; ‘LADIN OD Dolphin r.; beneath, ee ; wears earring; border of dots. plain border. 3 705 | AT Uncia bearded ?) youth, laur., r.; | LADI Cornucopiae, ending in head of se Seasnee of dots. NOD __ horned animal; in field r., e ; a plain border. 4, 60° A 6
VOL. I.
26 CAMPANIA No WEIGH ohn 0 REVERSE , T Size BYERSE CAMPANIA ALLIBA SILVER Litrae Circa 400—350 B.c. Head of Apollo r., laur.; around, three | Skylla r., dog’s head on either shoulder ; dolphins ; border of dots. she holds cuttle-fish in lowered r. hand, and shell (or fish?) in 1.; beneath, mussel; plain border. 1 108 AR 45 (dolphins only partially visible.) traces of inser. 2 92 R -45 (no border visible.) ANA ~~ - 3 8:6 R “4 (dolphins only partially visible.) Nass Bese (Barbarous work) + 10°4 LR 45 ” rT) | AAAAN--~-M (Very barbarous work) ATELLA The coins of Atella are on the Triental System, and are therefore subsequent to the Priental Reduction. The city joined Hannibal after Cunnae, and shared the fate of Capua in 211 Bc. The Obverse type of No. 1 should be compared with Capua Nos. 1 and 2. Bronze Civea 250—211 Bc. Triens : ; r : Head of Zeus, laur., r.; behind, : NQ3QN Zeus thundering in galloping ° quadriga r.; sceptre in 1. hand; behind, Nike as charioteer; in ex., marks of value; plain border. 1 377 AB 1:25
only three value-marks visible.
oc
t =I
ALLIBA—CALES
M No. | WertcHr a OBVERSE eee Sextans Similar type; behind, @ > plain border, JG3QN (in ex.) Two soldiers, bare- headed, and wearing cloaks and high boots, standing facing one another, with swords in uplifted r. hands, taking oath | over a pig which they grasp with 1,; in field 1, © ; border of dots. |} 2 + 808 | aa 1-035 ° [Puare 1. 13.] CALES Circu 334—268 Bc. The Romans made Cules «a ‘colonia’ in 384 3.0. SILVER Campanian (Phocaean) Standard * Didrachms | Head of Pallas 1., in crested Corinthian | CALENO (in ex.) Nike in biga, driving | helmet, with earring and necklace; on 1.; holds rems in 1,; with r. touches | helmet, small crest at side, beneath which horses with goad. serpent; behind, cornucopiae. | 1 | 1122 ) MR 85 | [Prare 1. 14.]
Similar head; on helmet, serpent, but no | [CA]LEN[O] Similar type; but Nike small crest; behind, club upwards ; holds goad stretched out in xv. ; front rail beneath, E of chariot straight.
2 109 MR °85 Similar head r.; no earring; necklace | CALENO Similar type; but front rail | doubtful. , of chariot rises to a point. 3 1075 | RM 9 on helmet, serpent ; behind, dagger. 4 R pl. 9 (same die) 5 106-6 | AM ‘85 on helmet, pentagram ; behind, bipennis. 6 112°2 | MR -85 on helmet, branch (?); behind, silphium- like symbol. (Prave 1. 15.]
* See under VBLIA.
= wo
28 CAMPANIA No. | Weicut oe OBVERSE REVERSE | Bronze CALENO Head of Apollo 1, laur.; | Man-headed bull r., showing full face; border of dots. above, lyre; border of dots. @ 1145 | A 8 behind, cock r. beneath, [ 8 92°5 | Al ‘85 5 on (inser., off coin). ay 9 98: 8 behind, aplustre. beneath, E 10 108°5 | AD °85 behind, helmet with cheek-pieces. beneath, I CALENO Head of Apollo 1, laur.; | CALENO (in ex.) Man-headed bull r., border of dots. showing full face; above, lyre; plain border. 11 99° ZB *85 behind, sword downwards. beneath, A 12 99°5 | AB 85 behind, club downwards. beneath, no letter visible. 13 116: JE ‘8 behind, spear-head upwards. beneath, uncertain letter or symbol ; (ex., off coin). 14 865 | #8 behind, thunderbolt. beneath, star of eight rays. Head of Apollo 1., laur.; at back part of | CALENO (in ex.) Man-headed bull r,, head, beneath wreath, portion of a dotted showing full face ; above, Nike flying r., diadem is visible ; border of dots. to crown bull. 15 99°5 | Al -85 behind, oval shield. 16 101: A 8 no symbol visible. 17 89-5 | AB 75 Tae: CALENO = Head of Apollo 1, laur.; | CALENO (in ex.) Man-headed bull r., behind, star ; border of dots. showing full face; above, large star of sixteen rays ; border of dots. 18 102- A SS beneath, A 19 1125 | #°s beneath, O 20 86:5 | Al -85 no inser. or symbol visible. beneath, star (eight rays ?), After circa 268 Bc. Bronze See under AQuinum. Head of Pallas 1., in crested Corinthian | CALENQ Cock r.; behind, star of eight helmet ; border of dots. rays ; border of dots. 21 1145 | Al 85
[Puare 1 16.)
CALES—CAPUA
METAL
No. WEIGHT Size OBVERSE REVERSE CAPUAT BRonzE Circa 250—211 Bc. The bronze with value-marks is on the Triental System. Capua revolted after Cannae, and was reduced to complete subjection in 211 B.c. Sextantes Head of Zeus r., laur.; behind, *; border | INNA (in ex.) Eagle standing r., on of dots. thunderbolt, with wings open, looking back ; in field, r, and 1, *; border of | dots. 1 207 E95 Similar. INN (in ex.) Selene in galloping biga r.; above, **; border of dots, 2 226 4A 1: [ B.M.C., p. 82 (9).] Unciae Bust of Artemis r., with diadem sur- | INNA (in ex.) Boar running r. ; rounded by small rays; hair gathered above, e ; border of dots. in knot at top; drapery about neck; behind, bow and quiver ; border of dots. 3 130 ZH 85 4 122 8 5 102 A 85 rays visible mainly in front. [B.M.C., p. 81 (4).J Head of Zeus r., laur. ; behind, *; border INNM (inex.) Nike r., crowning trophy; of dots. in field x., * ; border of dots. 6 126 ZE 85 7 115 85 Female head r., wearing earring, necklace, ININD (in ex.) Armed horseman, bare- and turreted headdress adorned with headed, r., with spear couched and cloak thunderbolt ; behind, symbol resembling flying ; horse prancing ; beneath, shell ; pedum ; beneath, O ; border of dots. in field 1., *; border of dots. s ce we “ES (Prars um. 1.] + Sce also pp. 50-52,
30 CAMPANIA METAL Rev No. WEIGHT Sia OBVERSE EVERSE Uncertain Denominations Bust of Hera r., wearing stephane, neck- | JAINA Two archaic idols; above, fillet : lace, and earring ; drapery about neck ; in field 1., tripod-like object ; border of at shoulder, sceptre ; border of dots, dots. 9 83- 7 aad 10 i) M7 [B.IL.C., p. 83 (15).] Head of Hera r., wearing veil and stephane; | JMINA Ear of barley with two leaves ; at shoulder, sceptre; border of dots, in field r., tripod-like object ; border of 11 45-5 AB 65 dots. 12 42-5 AB +6 [PLate i. 2.] Head of Apollo r., laur., hair long; border | IMNA Lyre, on side of which, fillet ; of dots. border of dots. 13 58°5 As 65 | | | CUMAE Cumae perhaps struck coins first (cirea 500—490 B.c.) on the Aeginetic, and subsequently (circa 490—480 B.c.) on the Euboic-Attie Standard. Then came the following series. Lhe city was captured by the Sanunites cirea 421 B.c. SILVER Campanian (Phocaean) Standard* Cirea 480—421 Bc. Didrachms Female head (Kyme ?) r., diademed ; early | KWMAIONW — Maussel-shell x., hinge style ; hair caught up behind and passed pointing downwards; beneath, nautilus through diadem so as to fall over it in a 1.; border of dots. smal] bunch. 1 118-4 R°7 [PLatEe u. 3.] Sunilar. Mussel-shell 1., hinge pointing upwards ; above, long fish 1.; double ring border. 2 118°5 R75 | traces of inscr.
* See under VELIA.
CAPUA—HYRIA
31
No WEIGHT yey OBVERSE REVERSE Female head r., diademed ; later in style; | KVMAIOM Mussel-shell r., hinge point- hair rolled behind ; wears necklace ? ing upwards ; above, long fish r.; border of dots. 3 109-4 RS [Puare i. 4. ] Similar head r., without necklace; hair| N OIAM VA (beginning rv. and waved. “running down) Mussel-shell r.. hinge pointing downwards ; beneath, barley- corn ; border of dots. 4 114-4 R °85 Similar. NOIAMYA> (beginning r. and running up) Same type, more realistically executed ; same symbol; border of dots. 5 1073 R'8 [Puare ir 5.]
Similar. KVMAIO/V/ = Mussel-shell r., hinge pointing upwards; above, barleycorn; border of dots.
6 _R pl. 8
Similar. KV M AION Mussel-shell 1., hinge pointing downwards ; beneath, barley- corn ; border of dots.
7 1149 RR 9 HYRIA The coins of this unknown town should be compared with those of Neapolis and Nola. SILVER Campanian (Phocaean) Standard Circa 420—340 B.c. Didrachms Head of Pallas r., wearing Athenian helmet, | [H] ea aes pee es cating i live-leaves. r.; between its legs ani , and a Saw bigh eae Oe OH e plant showing three blades. 1 112-7 R 85 $ only partially visible. [Prarn it. 6.]
CAMPANIA
No. WEIGHT he OBVERSE REVERSE Head of Pallas r., wearing Athenian | AUEQY Man-headed bull advancing r,; helmet, on which owl and olive-wreath ; line of exergue, double. the whole within a rim in high relief. 2 109-1 R 8 [Puare 1. 7.] Similar type; no rim. Similar type. 3 1115 R 85 AUICY line of ex., double. 4 110-4 RY YDINA _ line of ex., single. 5 1109 | M 85 VBINA line of ex., single. 6 110-7 RS -MIGAY beneath bull /€ ; line of ex., double. [Prare 1. 8.] Similar. | Similar type 1.; line of ex., double. 7 109-4 | RM °85 ‘VBINAI | 8 107-8 | MR ‘85 | [LVB]INAI Similar type 1. -AUIMGY = Similar type r.; line of ex., | double. 9 112°5 R 8 Similar. | Similar type; line of ex., single. 10: |) IB 2 ae behind head, [ ANIVY if ll 114-7 MR '8 ” ” " YPIANOS [Puate ut. 9.) 12 A pl. 8} no letter. ANIQY _ line of ex., double. 13 116: M75 no letter, Aq YIay line of ex,, single. Similar, Similar type 1.; line of ex., double. 14 1095 | MR +85 VPIMAI 15 103°5 RM °75 VDINAI Female head r., wearing diadem, earring, | SIVIIGY Man-headed bull r. and necklace, as on coins of Neapolis. 16 A pil.+8 ex., off coin,
[Prary tt. 10,]
|
HY RIA—NEAPOLIS
33
METAL No. | Wricut Sige OBVERSE REVERSE Head of Hera, three-quarter face towards | Man-headed bull advancing r. r., wearing necklace, and stephanos ornamented with honeysuckle between two griffins, both facing r.; hair flowing freely ; in field r., [ ; border of dots. oD. 3 OQ 17 112-4 eR °85 AUIA[Y] line of ex., double. [Puare ir. 11.) KE . 5 18 TI22 LR -°85 | AUICY line of ex., single. | | NEAPOLIS | The coins of Neapolis bear hardly any trace of its political fortunes, Their chronological arrangement rests on grounds of style. With the earlier types compare the coins of Hyria and Nola, See also under Tuurtom, | SILVER . Campanian (Phocaean) Standard Circa 420—4.00 B.C. Didrachm Head of Pallas r., wearing crested Athenian | WEOTOAITI & Man-headed bull helmet bound with wreath of olive, y., with 1. foreleg raised ; line of ex., double. 1 112°8 R'9 (Prats uw. 12.] Obol Similar head; decoration of helmet doubtful. | [NJEOMO Forepart of man-headed bull swimming 1. 2 9-9 MR 4: Circa 400—840 B.C. Didrachms Female head r., wearing broad diadem, Man-headed_ bull r., showing full face ; earring, and necklace. above, Nike flying r., crowning bull ; inser. in ex, 3 112°6 R'8 earring and necklace doubtful. SHTIAONOZN 4 112:7 AR '8 earring of three drops ; behind head, E NEOPOAITH2 [Poate 1. 13.] * In arranging the coins of Hyria I have beon mainly guided by Imhoof-Blumer (Zur Miinzkunde Grossgriechenlands, &c., pp. 206 ff).
VOL. 1.
y
34, CAMPANIA No. WEIGHT ee OBVERSE REVERSE 5 101-7 R°8 earring of single drop ; behind head, E NEOPOAITH beneath bull, N (plated ?) 6 110: R'8 no earring or necklace visible. [3 HJTIAONOSNM in very rude letters. Similar head 1. Same type ].; inscr. in ex.; line of ex., double. z 113-9 | M-8 no earring or necklace. NHOPOAITAS [Puare 1. 14.] 8 112-7 M75 | earring of three drops, and necklace. [NEON |OAITH=2 Similar head r.; earring of three drops; | Same type r.; inscr. in ex. all within ring border, ; 9 112-2 A-9 NEOroAIT[H2] 10 | 1072 | A-85 NEOPOAIT .[=] beneath bull, F Similar. Same type 1.; inser. in ex.; line of ex., double. ll 111:8 AR 8 NEOPOAITHe 14 113-1 M 85 NEOrOAITAS Similar head r., of later style; ordinary |] NEOMOAITH (in ex.) Man-headed diadem, over the edge of which locks bull r., showing full face; above, Nike of hair here and there escape; earring flying r., crowning bull. of three drops; bebind head, bunch of grapes ; beneath, AIOPMANOYS 15 113°5 AR °8 16 111:3 MR'7 inser., off coin. 17 A pl.'85 | only first four letters of inscr. visible. beneath bull, /N 18 105°5 M75 inser., barely legible. beneath bull, A Similar head; behind, bunch of grapes ; | Similar ; but beneath bull, ivy-leaf upwards. beneath, ear of barley? r. 19 115-7 M75 Similar head ; behind, kantharos ; beneath, | Similar, but no symbol ; line of ex., dotted. Al 20 110-9 R75
[Prare i. 15.]
NEAPOLIS
No. WEIGHT pete OBVERSE REVERSE 21 103°1 R°8 symbol imperfect ; letters, off coin. 22 TVT2+2 R°75 no letters visible. beneath bull, BI Similar head; but one or two locks escape | Similar type; line of ex., double. behind ear and cover central part of diadem ; row of dots visible at back, beneath diadem ; behind, amphora. 23 107-2 R75 inscr., doubtful. Circa 340—268 B.c. or later. Didrachms Similar head, with ordinary diadem, visible | NEOTOAITOIN (in ex.) Man-headed throughout; earring of three drops ; bull v., showing full face; above, Nike behind, Artemis r., holding lighted torch flying r., crowning bull. in each hand; beneath, APTEMI 24 115:2 AR 8 ; beneath bull, W (inser., off coin.) 25 E22 LR 8 beneath bull, N 26) 1132 | R-75 | APTE beneath bull, [¥] (inscr., off coin). Similar head; behind, bunch of grapes; | Similar ; but beneath bull, K in front, X; beneath, €TA 27 113°8 R75 [Prare 11. 16.] Similar head (somewhat larger) ; behind, Similar ; nothing beneath bull. bunch of grapes. 28 111°8 MR ‘85 Similar head (usual size); behind, Artemis | Similar. running r., holding with both hands long torch lighted. 29 113°3 R'8 Similar head ; behind, astragalos. Similar. 30 113-2 R'8 : Similar head, but diadem broader than ) NEOPOAITQN (on raised band of ex.) usual; locks escape here and there. Similar type ; beneath bull, O 31 | 1153 | ®-75 | behind, & 32 1146 RT behind, X inscr., off coin. [Prare 1. 17.) Similar head; diadem of usual breadth ; Similar type ; beneath bull, O behind, club downwards. ; 33 114-7 M75 ex., off coin,
36 CAMPANIA No. WEIGHT oo OBVERSE REVERSE Similar head ; row of dots visible at back, | [NEJOCOAITQN (in ex.) — Similar beneath diadem ; behind, cornucopiae ; type. in front, A? b4 1125 AM °8 beneath bull, [' Similar head ; behind, traces of symbol or | Similar. letter. 35 113-2 AR 75 beneath bull, EYE Similar head (smaller than usual); hair | Similar. very wavy; behind, bunch of grapes. 36 110-7 M75 beneath bull, Al; in field r.,. OE [Pare ur. 18.] Similar head (usual size); locks escape | Similar type; plain border. behind ear and cover central part of diadem ; no row of dots visible beneath ; behind, bucranium ; plain border. 37 109-2 R-7 ex., off coin. Similar head ; diadem of slightly different | Similar type; inscr. in ex.; no border. form ; behind, quiver with belt. 38 107-7 MR '85 [N]EOPOAITOQN Similar head; locks escape behind and | Similar, cover lower part of diadem; row of dots visible at back of head, beneath diadem; behind, Artemis running r., holding long torch in both hands. 39 110-7 AR°8 beneath, TAPME [LNJEONOAIT[QN] _ beneath bull, bee 1. 4) A pl.:8 | beneath, XAPI inser. illegible; beneath bull, A, Similar head ; behind, astragalos length- | NEOPOAITQN Similar; but beneath wise. bull, K 41 111 R°8 beneath, XAPIAE (inser., partly off coin). 42 112:4 M°8 beneath, X (same die). Similar head; behind, kantharos. Similar. 43 113-6 M75 beneath, XAPI (ex , off coin), Ay AM pl.-75 3 i 45 115: M8 beneath, XA [Puare 1. 19.] 46 109°5 RS - +5 | no letter beneath bull,
a
NKEAPOLIS 3 No. | WEIGHT pe OBVERSE REVERSE Similar head L; diadem visible throughout; | Similar type 1.; imscr. in ex.; beneath locks escape here and there; row of dots bull, AOY visible at back of head, beneath diadem ; behind, EY 47 118°8 ARS NEOP*AITQN 48 R pl. 85 NEONOAITON Similar head; locks escape behind ear | NEOMOAIT QIN (inex.) Similar type r. and cover central part of diadem; row of dots as above; behind, helmet with- out crest, facing. 49 A pl.-75 ex., almost off coin. [Puate wu. 20.) Similar head ; behind, tintinnabulum. Similar. 50 -Rpl.'8 ex., almost off coin. Similar head. NEOPOAITQN Similar; but beneath bull, 15 51 112°5 A°75 | behind, pentagram. (ex., almost off coin). 52 1136 R75 behind, torch lighted. 53 112°3 R'8 behind, Nike flying r., holding wreath ; beneath neck, [X ? (Prare i. 21.] 54 109°8 MR °75 behind, ear of corn. 55 109:2 A&-75 | behind, thyrsos with fillet attached. 56 R pl.:8 | diadem dotted throughout; behind head, crane Yr. oT 112:2 AM-75 | double row of dots throughout diadem ; behind, tripod. 58 M pl.:8 | diadem plain, and quite visible throughout; behind, trident. Similar head; locks escape behind ear | NEOPOAITON (in ex.) Similar type. and cover central part of diadem ; border of dots.