The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

32 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE
fact that he never lived to revise its proofs. This paper
describes a series of Chinese coins earlier than any previously
known. He founded the Numismatic Journal of Japan, a
periodical devoted exclusively to the numismatics of the
Far East, and was a regular contributor to English and
American periodicals. He was the author of a series of
monographs on coins of the Far East, such as the Amulets
of Corea ; Modern Chinese Copper Coins ; Chinese Amulets ;
Early Chinese Barter Money ; Shell-Currency ; Siamese
Porcelain Tokens ; Chinese Paper Money ; Japanese Kwan-
Ei Sen.
It has been my agreeable duty this evening, to hand over
our Medal, in the Society's name, to Mr. G. F. Hill, Keeper
of the Department of Coins and Medals in the British
Museum.
Greek numismatics, according to a good tradition, have
been well represented among the communications made to
the Society in the course of the past year. Mr. J. Mavrogordato
has given us the first instalment of a successful attempt
to classify the coins of Chios whose recurring monetary type
the Sphinx well symbolizes the enigmatic nature of some of
the material. The monster itself, as he well points out, had
made its way to the coinage
of the Ionian Island from the
Pangaean mainland of Thrace, where it was closely asso-
ciated with Sun-worship. The religious sanction conveyed
by its effigy goes back as we now know to the prehistoric
period of Greece, but it is not for me here to open up
a discussion on the original significance of this type and
of the early fusion of Aegean and Egyptian elements
that it embodies. I observe that the materials from
the recent Vourla and Taranto finds have afforded new
data for Mr. Mavrogordato in the course of his difficult
inquiry.
In this connexion I may mention that our member, Miss
Agnes Baldwin, following up her exhaustive monograph on