Secretaries.

HERBERT A. GRUEBER, ESQ., F.S.A.

BARCLAY VINCENT HEAD, Esq., D.C.L., PH.D.

Foreign Secretary.

PROFESSOR PERCY GARDNER, LITT.D., F.S.A.

Librarian.

OLIVER CODRINGTON, ESQ., M.D.

Members of the Council.

JOSEPH BROWN, Esq., Q.C.

MAJOR-GEN. SIR ALEXANDER A. CUNNINGHAM, R.E., K.C.I.E.,

C.S.I.

ARTHUR J. EVANS, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A.

THE REV. CANON GREENWELL, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A.

J. G. HALL, Esq.

R. A. HOBLYN, ESQ.

F. W. PIXLEY, Esq.

HERMANN WEBER, Esq., M.D.

ERNEST H. WILLETT, ESQ., F.S.A.
WARWICK W. WROTH, ESQ.

NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.

I.

THE ELECTRUM COINAGE OF CYZICUS.

It is not my intention in this account of the electrum coinage of Cyzicus to enter upon a history of the state in any of its relations, except so far as it may afford an elucidation of my more immediate subject. The The purpose of the essay is to bring together as complete a list as is possible of all the electrum coins issued by Cyzicus during the long period of their emission, together with a reproduction by the autotype process of each type. It is hoped that this in itself will be of service to numismatists and others interested in Hellenic art and its development.

No attempt to publish a full list of these numerous coins has hitherto been made since the time of Sestini, whose catalogue, on account of the scarcity of types then known, was necessarily a very imperfect one. I have long felt that until a detailed, and to a very large extent an exhaustive account was given, it was impossible that this most valuable and extensive series of coin-types could be presented to numismatic science with any prospect of being adequately studied. In the hope, therefore, that I may be able to supply these important materials for study and research to those desirous of becoming acquainted with the marvellous series of the Cyzicenes, I have prepared this account of them, the result of much labour, but not undertaken without quite corresponding

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pleasure. The work lays claim to be little more than an accurate catalogue, though I have also sought to make it useful to those not deeply acquainted with Hellenic mythology and its various cults, by some illustrative matter in connection with the different types.

Of this remarkable and large series of coins, Eckhel, as I shall have occasion to mention again, knew nothing. The first account of them was given by Sestini in his Stateri antichi, published in 1817, where figures of several staters and parts of the stater are given, not, however, very correctly. The next account is one by M. Charles Lenormant, Essai sur les Statères de Cyzique, in the first volume of the new series of the Revue Numismatique, in 1856, followed in 1864 by a paper by his son M. François Lenormant, Statères inédits de Cyzique, in the ninth volume of that periodical. The same learned author has also given an account of the coins of Cyzicus in Dictionnaire des Antiquités of Daremberg and Saglio. Though I am unable to agree with these eminent authors in some of their views, I feel myself under great obligations to them for much information and many suggestions. Two most valuable papers by Mr. B. V. Head have appeared in the Numismatic Chronicle, new series, vols. xvi. and xvii., "On a recent find of Staters of Cyzicus," and " Additional Notes," &c., the latter being accompanied by a letter from M. Six containing many valuable remarks on some of the staters described in Mr. Head's first paper. Several scattered notices of one or more of these coins have been given by De Koehne, Mr. Borrell, Dr. Imhoof-Blumer, and Herr Löbbecke in various serials.

It remains to mention Marquardt's very complete work, Cyzicus und sein Gebiet, published in 1836. Though a small space only is devoted to the electrum coinage-indeed at

the time he wrote not many staters, &c., were known-on all other subjects connected with the state he gives a very full account, and I am indebted to him for much of the material I have used in this essay.

The pleasing task is left me of expressing my deep obligation to the keepers of the various public collections noticed in the following account of the different coins, and to the private collectors who have most freely placed their coins at my disposal for publication. To Mr. Poole and the other officers of the Medal Room in the British Museum it is impossible for me to fully express my gratitude, for the courteous and untiring way in which they have received me in my numerous visits to that splendid collection, and for most valuable information and counsel.

The position of Cyzicus was one admirably fitted for the site of a great trading community. It shows us how the genius of the Hellenic race instinctively selected places suitable for colonization, and which afforded scope for the development of that spirit of commercial enterprise, which, existing at the time of our earliest acquaintance with that people, has continued with many vicissitudes to our own day. The town was placed on the neck of a promontory which projected into the Propontis (Sea of Marmora), on the northern coast of Mysia, about the middle of the waterway between the Egean and Euxine Seas, and had therefore the advantage not only of the local trade with the opposite coast of Thrace, but of the wider traffic with the various towns on the shores of the two important seas between which it was planted.

The oldest settlers in Cyzicus are stated to have been Doliones, who were seated on the skirts of the Mysian