Fig. 1. COIN OF LYDIA. Electrum. Oblong sinking between two squares.
Babylonian stater. The earliest known coinage. Circa 700 B. C.
2. PHENICIAN HALF STATER. Electrum. Incuse square with cruciform
ornament.
3. SILVER COIN OF TEOS. Incuse square. Circa 544 B. C.
4. SILVER COIN OF ACANTHUS. Incuse square.
5. SILVER COIN OF MENDE. Incuse triangles.
6. SILVER COIN OF TERONE. Incuse square.
7. COIN OF BISALTÆ.[236] Incuse square. Octadrachm.
8. SILVER COIN OF ORRESCII.[236] Incuse square. Octadrachm.
9. CORINTHIAN SILVER COIN. Incuse square divided into eight
triangular compartments. The earliest coin of Corinth, dating
B. C. 625 to 585.
10. SILVER COIN OF ABDERA. Incuse square.
11. SILVER COIN OF BYZANTIUM. Incuse square, granulated.
12. SILVER COIN OF THRASOS (THRACE). Incuse square.
_Swastika on ancient Hindu coins._--It is not to be inferred from this
opposition that the Swastika never appeared on ancient coins. It did
appear, but seems to have been of a later date and to have belonged
farther east among the Hindus. Fig. 230 shows an ancient (Hindu?) coin
reported by Waring, who cites Cunningham as authority for its having been
found at Ujain. The design consists of a cross with independent circles on
the outer end of each of the four arms, the circles being large enough to
intersect each other. The field of each of these circles bears a Swastika
of normal form. Other coins are cited of the same style, with small center
dots and concentric circles in the stead of the Swastika. What meaning the
Swastika has here, beyond the possible one of being a lucky penny, is not
suggested.
[Illustration: Fig. 230. ANCIENT HINDU COIN IN THE FORM OF A CROSS WITH A
SWASTIKA ON THE EXTREMITY OF EACH ARM.[237] Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote
Ages," pl. 41, fig. 13.]
[Illustration: Figs. 231, 232, 233, and 234. ANCIENT HINDU COINS WITH
SWASTIKAS, NORMAL AND OGEE. Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 41,
figs. 20-24.]
Other ancient Hindu coins bearing the Swastika (figs. 231-234) are
attributed to Cunningham by Waring.[238] These are said by Waring to be
Buddhist coins found at Behat near Scharaupur. Mr. E. Thomas, in his
article on the "Earliest Indian Coinage,"[239] ascribes them to the reign
of Krananda, a Buddhist Indian king contemporary with or prior to
Alexander, about 330 B. C.
The coins of Krananda,[240] contemporary of Alexander the Great,[241] bear
the Swastika mark, associated with the principal Buddhist marks, the
trisula, the stupha, sacred tree, sacred cone, etc. Waring says[242] that
according to Prinsep's "Engravings of Hindu Coins," the Swastika seems to
disappear from them about 200 B. C., nor is it found on the
Indo-Bactrian, the Indo-Sassanian, or the later Hindu or subsequent
Mohammedan, and he gives in a note the approximate dates of these
dynasties: Early native Buddhist monarchs from about 500 B. C. to the
conquest of Alexander, about 330 B. C.; the Indo-Bactrian or Greek
successors of Alexander from about 300 to 126 B. C.; the Indo-Parthian or
Scythic from about 126 B. C.; the second Hindu dynasty from about 56 B.
C.; the Indo-Sassanian from A. D. 200 to 636, and subsequent to that the
Indo-Mohammedan from the eleventh to the close of the thirteenth century;
the Afghan dynasty from A. D. 1290 to 1526, and the Mongol dynasty to the
eighteenth century, when it was destroyed by Nadir Shah. (See p. 772.)
[Illustration: Fig. 235. ANCIENT COIN WITH SWASTIKA. Gaza, Palestine.
Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 42, fig. 6.]
_Swastika on coins in Mesembria and Gaza._--Mr. Percy Gardner, in his
article, "Ares as a Sun-god,"[243] finds the Swastika on a coin of
Mesembria in Thrace. He explains that "Mesembria is simply the Greek word
for noon, midday ([Greek: mesêmbria])." The coins of this city bear the
inscription [Greek: MES][S], which Greg[244] believes refers by a kind of
pun to the name of the city, and so to noon, or the sun or solar light.
The answer to this is the same given throughout this paper, that it may be
true, but there is no evidence in support of it. Max Müller[245] argues
that this specimen is decisive of the meaning of the sign Swastika. Both
these gentlemen place great stress upon the position which the Swastika
held in the field relative to other objects, and so determine it to have
represented the sun or sunlight; but all this seems _non sequitur_. A coin
from Gaza, Palestine, ancient, but date not given, is attributed to R.
Rochette, and by him to Munter (fig. 235). The Swastika sign is not
perfect, only two arms of the cross being turned, and not all four.
[Illustration: Fig. 236. GOLD BRACTEATE WITH JAIN SWASTIKA. Denmark.
Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 1, fig. 9.]
_Swastika on Danish gold bracteates._--Fig. 236 represents a Danish gold
bracteate with a portrait head, two serpents, and a Swastika with the
outer ends finished with a curve or flourish similar to that of the Jains
(fig. 33).
There are other bracteates with the Swastika mark, which belong to the
Scandinavian countries.[246] Some of them bear signs referring to
Christian civilization, such as raising hands in prayer; and from a
determination of the dates afforded by the coins and other objects the
Swastika can be identified as having continued into the Christian era.
The coinage of the ancient world is not a prolific field for the
discovery of the Swastika. Other specimens may possibly be found than
those here given. This search is not intended to be exhaustive. Their
negative information is, however, valuable. It shows, first, that some of
the early stamps or designs on coins which have been claimed as Swastikas
were naught but the usual punch marks; second, it shows a limited use of
the Swastika on the coinage and that it came to an end in very early
times. Numismatics afford great aid to archæology from the facility and
certainty with which it fixes dates. Using the dates furnished by the
coinage of antiquity, it is gravely to be questioned whether the prolific
use of the Swastika in Asia Minor (of which we have such notable examples
on specimens of pottery from the hill of Hissarlik, in Greece) did not
terminate before coinage began, or before 480 B. C., when the period of
finer engraving began, and it became the custom to employ on coins the
figures of gods, of tutelary deities, and of sacred animals. Thus the use
of the Swastika became relegated to objects of commoner use, or those
having greater relation to superstition and folklore wherein the possible
value of the Swastika as an amulet or sign with power to bring good luck
could be better employed; or, as suggested by Mr. Greg, that the great
gods which, according to him, had the Swastika for a symbol, fell into
disrepute and it became changed to represent something else.