as trade mediums. People must therefore have been well acquainted with the two metals and quite able to discriminate between them. It must, I think, be regarded as almost a certainty that the electrum coins had a value of their own, different from what they would have possessed if they had been gold coins of the same weight. On the other hand, they are described in the account of the Surveyors of Public Works at Athens, B.C. 434, as xpvσov σTATŶρES Kuliηvoć, Cyzicene gold staters, 21 and after the same fashion in other public accounts at Athens during the later part of the fifth century.22 In one instance, in the schedule of treasures To λλwv Oewv, in the year B.C. 429, they are classed with Δαρεικοῦ χρυσίου στατήρες (the Daric being of pure gold), and with Phocæan hectæ of electrum.23 21 The monetary value of the Cyzicene stater is a question of much difficulty. We gather, however, that, at the time of the retreat of the Ten Thousand, it was estimated higher than the Daric, for in B.C. 400 the soldiers were promised, presumably as increased pay, a Cyzicene a month, what they had received previously having been no doubt a Daric.24 We have, however, more exact information of the value of the Cyzicenes towards the latter part of the fourth century. Demosthenes, in his speech against Phormion, says that the stater of Cyzicus was at that time, about B.C. 335, worth twenty-eight silver Attic drachms in Bosphorus, the same value as in B.C. 434 a gold didrachm, weighing 130 grs., obtained at Athens.25 They had, perhaps, before the end of the fourth century become deteriorated in value 21 Inser. Attica, Kirchhoff, vol. i. p. 158, No. 801, seq. 23 L.c. vol. i. p. 90, No. 199. 24 Xenophon, Anab. v. 6, 23; vii. 3, 10. 25 Inscr. Attica, Kirchhoff, vol. i. p. 160. VOL. VII. THIRD SERIES. D from what they had been at its commencement. In the meanwhile there had entered into commerce the large issues of the staters of Philip of Macedon, coined in various places in his kingdom from the gold of the rich mines of Philippi. This abundance of coins in the pure metal would almost necessarily reduce the Cyzicenes to the same value, circulating as the Philips did in the same countries where before then the Cyzicenes to a great extent had a monopoly. Whatever the precise value of the Cyzicene stater may have been during the period when it was being issued, it formed for more than a century, from B.c. 500, the principal currency for trading purposes of the cities on the shores of the Euxine and of the Egean Seas. The only other large coins of gold, whether in a pure state or alloyed with silver, were the electrum staters of Lampsacus and the Darics. Phocæa, Lesbos, and other states, not easily identified, though issuing numerous coins of electrum, struck, it seems, none of a higher denomination than hectæ, for no stater that can be attributed to these places is known. The earlier issues of electrum of the sixth, or possibly of the seventh, century had long ceased to be used in commerce, and the gold coinage of Lampsacus, Clazomenæ, Rhodes, &c., had not come into existence. Nor had Athens or Panticapæum at that time adopted a gold currency. That the issue of staters by Cyzicus was very large is shown by the number of coins of various types which are now known, though so few had come to light in the time of Eckhel that he doubted if the stater of Cyzicus was ever anything more than money of account. But in addition to the coins themselves we have the evidence of Treasury lists and accounts of expenditure at Athens, which show how common was the coin during the fifth century, and how important an element it was in the commercial dealings of that time. It did not require the satirical remark of Eupolis in his comedy (Πόλεις), δε Κύζικος πλέα στατήρων, to tell us how abundant were the Cyzicenes at the time he wrote. A large supply of gold was needed to furnish the mint at Cyzicus with metal for its coinage, and it is not easy to ascertain the source whence, in the earliest period of the issue of the staters, it was obtained. Gold is found in considerable abundance in several parts of Asia Minor, and it is probable that Cyzicus may have obtained some of the raw metal from these places. The rich mines of Thrace and Macedon, so prolific in the reigns of Philip and Alexander, may also have supplied other portions. Nor is it impossible that trading relations may have even then been established with Panticapaum, though Athens jealously guarded her interests there. In the later period of the issues of Cyzicenes there can be little doubt that the principal source of supply was the district of the Ural Mountains, the gold of which passed to Cyzicus through the market of Panticapæum. The commerce of the Euxine had no doubt been kept by Athens in her own hands as far as was possible ; but even before she lost the hegemony which had for many years been hers, Cyzicus had traded in those waters, and to the same port. M. Charles Lenormant. appears to think that it was only after the defeat of Athens in Sicily in B.C. 413, and the victory of Sparta over her at Ægospotami in B.C. 405, that the monopoly of the gold from the Urals was lost to Athens and came into. the hands of Cyzicus. This opinion is to some extent influenced by his belief that the Cyzicenes belong in the main to the fourth century, an opinion which I think cannot be maintained. Whether Cyzicus obtained gold from Panticapæum before the declension of the power of Athens, as I believe she did, or not, it is certain that for many years that place was a principal centre of supply. It is enough to mention that several finds of Cyzicene staters have taken place near Kertch to show the trade connection between the two states, a connection which was a very profitable one for Cyzicus. It is evident that gold, as indeed might be expected, was of less than its ordinary value at Panticapæum, from the fact that the stater of that city was considerably in excess of the ordinary weight, rising as high as 140 grains. In further proof of the low price of gold there, M. Charles Lenormant (Rev. Num., vol. xx. p. 29) has shown that, whilst in Greece the proportionate value of gold to silver was as one to ten, at Panticapæum it was as one to seven. Such a condition was, therefore, most favourable to Cyzicus, which bought gold there at a price much less than that current in Greece, and benefited largely by the exchange. Cyzicus was not likely to go beyond so favourable a market, and it may be considered as certain that she received, at all events during the later period of the issue of the staters, the greater part of the gold required for her mint from Panticapæum. The gold which we suppose Cyzicus obtained through this channel from the Urals has proved, by analysis of the metal from Siberia by M. C. Rose, to contain, as a maximum, sixteen parts of silver and a trace of copper, out of a hundred, a little less than one-fifth, a proportion of silver much less than what the electrum of the staters undoubtedly possesses. There must, therefore, have been a further addition of silver made before the staters and hecta were issued from the mint of Cyzicus. One of the most important subjects in connection with the electrum currency of Cyzicus is that of the types which occur upon its coins. It affords the most valuable and largest illustrations we possess of the various cults which prevailed there. This is, however, to some extent modified by the habit at Cyzicus of copying the types of other states, a practice which will be more fully considered later on. There is no Greek state which produced so many and such varied types as did the city of staters upon its electrum coinage. The series upon the coins of Abdera is doubtless a very extensive and interesting one, but it falls short of the number upon the coins of which I treat. [May I be allowed to express a hope that some one will undertake an account of the coins of Abdera. No more acceptable work could be offered to numismatic science.] Before, however, giving a description of the different types, and attempting to divide them, as far as is possible, into their several classes, it will be necessary to give a general account of the coins in question. It has been already mentioned that the whole of the electrum currency of Cyzicus was struck after one standard, the Phocaic, but it is divided into two very distinct coinages, both in respect of date and appearance. The earliest one comprised, it appears, a single issue, of which, so far as I know, a single specimen is known. It is the stater No. 1, and differs from all the other electrum coins of Cyzicus, not only in the form of the incuse of the reverse, which is most distinct from that of the general body of the Cyzicenes, but also in the subject of the obverse, which separates itself from the ordinary features of the staters in general, though perhaps the stater No. 161 may appear to have something in common with it. Different though it is, there can be no doubt that it is a |