XIII. ELECTRUM COINS AND THEIR SPECIFIC GRAVITY. I. ELECTRUM COINS RECENTLY ACQUIRED BY THE TWELVE years have passed since, in vol. xv. of the second series of the Numismatic Chronicle, under the title of "Metrological notes on ancient electrum coins," I gave an account of the early electrum coinages of western Asia Minor, and of the various systems of weight upon which these highly interesting coins throw so much light. To that sketch and to the views which I therein expressed, I have but little just now to add, nor shall I, on the present occasion, specify the modifications which my opinions have undergone, on more than one point, since I wrote that paper. The whole subject is one which requires more study than I am now able to devote to it, but I hope that if ever it falls to my lot to catalogue this portion of the national collection, I may be able to reconsider some doubtful points in the provisional classification which I made in the article referred to. Meantime, however, it may be useful to furnish numismatists with descriptions of the electrum coins which have been acquired by the British Museum since my article was written. In the following list I have included not only the early electrum of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., but also the Cyzicene, Phocaean, Lesbian, and Lampsacene staters and hectae which belong for the most part to the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The Cyzicenes have already been published in a recent number of the Chronicle by Canon Greenwell, but for completeness' sake, I have not thought it desirable to omit them on that account. Keeping in view the extreme uncertainty of the attributions of most of the early electrum coins, I have not ventured to classify them under the headings of the towns which I have suggested as their possible or probable places of mintage, except in the case of Cyzicus, Phocaea, and Lampsacus, where the attributions are certain. It is safer for the present to adhere to the metrological system of arrangement, whereby the coins of the different standards are kept together. In several instances it will be seen that the coins admit of classification under one or other of two standards. In these cases I have been guided by a consideration of the type which the coin bears, although it must be confessed that here and there it is very doubtful whether the types of some of the smaller divisions are sufficiently characteristic to warrant the classification which I have adopted. In the following résumé of the normal weights, I have confined myself to the coins described in this paper, which should therefore be studied in connection with the lists of electrum coins given in my previous articles, "Metrological Notes on Ancient Electrum Coins," Num. Chron., 1875, and "Notes on Staters of Cyzicus," Num. Chron., 1876 and 1877. |