Numismatics is the science which has for its object the study of coins
and medals, especially those struck by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
The word is derived from the Greek [Greek: nomisma], or the Latin
_numus_, _coin or medal_. Numismatics is now regarded as indispensable
to archæology, and to a thorough acquaintance of the fine arts; it is
also of great assistance in philology and the explanation of the ancient
classics; it appears to have been entirely unknown to the ancients, but
since the middle of the sixteenth century, it has occupied the attention
of many learned men.
The name of _coins_ is given to pieces of metal, on which the public
authority has impressed different marks to indicate their weight and
value, to make them a convenient medium of exchange. By the word
_medals_, when used in reference to modern times, is understood pieces
of metal similar to coins but not intended as a medium of exchange, but
struck and distributed to commemorate some important event, or in memory
of some distinguished personage. The name of medals, however, is also
given to all pieces of money which have remained from ancient times. The
term _medallion_ is given to medals of a very large size, many of them
being several inches in diameter. The parts of a coin or medal are the
two sides; first, the _obverse_ side, face or head, which contains the
portrait of the person at whose command or in whose honor it was
struck, or other figures relating to him: this portrait consists either
of the head alone, or the bust, half length, or full figure; second, the
_reverse_ contains mythological, allegorical, or historical figures. The
words around the border form the _legend_, and those in the middle the
_inscription_. The lower part of the coin, which is separated by a line
from the figures or the inscription, is the _basis_ or _exergue_, and
contains subsidiary matter, as the date, the place where the piece was
struck, etc.
Numismatics has the same divisions as history.--Ancient Numismatics
extends to the extinction of the empire of the West; the Numismatics of
the middle ages commences with Charlemagne; and modern Numismatics with
the revival of learning.
Medals indicate the names of provinces and cities, determine their
position, and present pictures of many celebrated places. They fix the
period of events, frequently determine their character, and enable us to
trace the series of kings. They also enable us to learn the different
metallurgical processes, the different alloys, the modes of gilding and
plating practiced by the ancients, the metals which they used, their
weight and measures, their different modes of reckoning, the names and
titles of the various kings and magistrates, and also their portraits,
their different divinities, with their attributes and titles, the
utensils and ceremonies of their worship, the costume of their
priests--in fine, everything which relates to their usages, civil,
military, and religious. Medals also acquaint us with the history of
art. They contain representations of several celebrated works of
antiquity which have been lost, the value of which may be estimated from
the ancient medals of those still existing, as the Farnese Hercules,
Niobe and her Children, the Venus of Gnidos, etc. Like gems and statues,
they enable us to trace the epochs of different styles of art, to
ascertain its progress among the most civilized nations, and its
condition among the rude.
The ancient medals were struck or cast; some were first cast and then
struck. The first coins of Rome and other cities of Italy must have been
cast, as the hammer could not have produced so bold a relief. The copper
coins of Egypt were cast. The right of coining money has always been one
of the privileges which rulers have confined to themselves. The free
cities have inscribed only their names on their coins. The cities
subject to kings sometimes obtained permission to strike money in their
own name, but were most frequently required to add the name or image of
the king to whom they were subject. The medals of the Parthians and the
Phoenecians offer many examples of this sort. Rome, under the
republic, allowed no individual the right to coin money; no magistrate
could put his name thereon, though this honor was sometimes allowed, as
a special favor, by a decree of the Senate. We can count as numismatic
countries only those into which the Greeks and Romans carried the use
of money; though some of the oriental nations used gold and silver as a
medium of exchange, before their time it was by weight. The people in
the northern part of Europe had no money.
The coins preserved from antiquity are estimated to be more numerous
than those we possess from the middle ages, in the proportion of a
hundred to one! Millin thinks that the number of extant ancient medals
amounts to 70,000! What a fund of the most curious and authentic
information do they contain, and what a multitude of errors have been
corrected by their means! There are valuable cabinets of medals in all
the principal cities of Europe; that of Paris is by far the richest;
Pillerin alone added to it 33,000 ancient coins and medals. The coins of
the kings of Macedon are the most ancient of any yet discovered having
portraits; and Alexander I., who commenced his reign about B.C. 500, is
the earliest monarch whose medals have yet been found. Then succeed the
sovereigns who reigned in Sicily, Caria, Cyprus, Heraclea, and Pontus.
Afterwards comes the series of kings of Egypt, Syria, the Cimmerian
Bosphorus, Thrace, Parthia, Armenia, Damascus, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia,
Pergamos, Galatia, Cilicia, Sparta Pæonia, Epirus, Illyricum, Gaul, and
the Alps. This series reaches from the time of Alexander the Great to
the Christian Era, comprising a period of about 330 years. A perfect
and distinct series is formed by the Roman emperors, from the time of
Julius Cæsar to the destruction of the empire, and even still later. The
Grecian medals claim that place in a cabinet, from their antiquity,
which their workmanship might ensure them, independently of that
advantageous consideration. It is observed by Pinkerton, that an immense
number of the medals of cities, which, from their character, we might
judge to be of the highest antiquity, have a surprising strength,
beauty, and relief in their impressions. About the time of Alexander the
Great, this art appears to have attained its highest perfection. The
coins of Alexander and his father exceed in beauty all that were ever
executed, if we except those of Sicily, Magna Grecia, and the ancient
ones of Asia Minor. Sicilian medals are famous for workmanship, even
from the time of Gelo. The coins of the Syrian kings, successors to
Alexander, almost equal his own in beauty; but adequate judges confine
their high praises of the Greek mint to those coins struck before the
subjection of Greece to the Roman empire. The Roman coins, considered as
medals in a cabinet, may be divided into two great classes--the consular
and the imperial; both are numerous and valuable. In the cabinet of the
Grand Duke of Tuscany is a set of twelve medals of Antonius Pius, each
with one of the signs of the Zodiac on the reverse, and part of another
set, eight in number with as many of the labors of Hercules.