The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

276 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
tion the few coincidences of name that do occur in
the later period would militate. But why are the
of silver at
coincidences so few ? Possibly the output
the Cyrenaean mint was restricted in the first years
after the recovery of the revolted city in 308, whether
for political reasons or through economic exhaustion.
To the second period of copper coinage from 270
down to Ptolemy Physcon the bulk of the common
copper coins of Cyreiie belongs. The three most important
issues are :
(1) Obv. Head of bearded Ammon,
Rev.V&lm tree (M. i. 251-69); (2) Obv. Head of Apollo,
Rev. Lyre (M. i. 270-82) ; (3) Obv. Head of bearded
Ammon, Rev. Silphium KOINON (M. i. 104-13).
There is a silver didrachm of Rhodian weight of the
same style, types, and legend as this latter class (M.
i. 269). The activities of the philosophers Ecdemus
and Demophanes in the Cyrenaica have been referred to
above, 1 >8 where it was suggested that the "new form
of rule " ascribed by Eusebius to Demetrius the Handsome
should really be laid to their account. Whether
this suggestion be accepted or no, it is difficult to avoid
associating the KOINON issue with the government of
the comrades of Aratus, whose date (between 252
236) 189 fits excellently with the style of the coins. It
is, further, remarkable that on some of the copper
coins there occurs the monogram 101 , of which the
obvious resolution is AHM(OANH). It is always
possible that these coins were struck under Ptolemaic
existed in such con-
suzerainty : a KOLVOV rS>v vrjo-Korooi'
ditions under Ptolemy I and II, though it has left us
no coins. But this view does not seem so satisfactory
See above, p. 250.
189 See above, p. 250, note.