The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 291
regarding this inscription as genuine. Svoronos puts
it down to an alteration of the inscription BA3IAE&3
FITO AEMA IOY either on the dies or on the actual coins.
As Eegling 221 has remarked, the truth lies with the
second explanation, with the addition that the alteration
has been made in recent years. This is confirmed by
a careful examination of the different specimens.
Apart from the manner of the inscription, there are
certain points which show it to be a forgery. It only
appears on one class of Ptolemaic coins, that with the
head of the king of Egypt on one side and the head of
Libya on the other. But these coins extend over a
considerable period of time, and the engraver has not
always been careful to choose coins sufficiently early to
convince ; compare, for example, the style of the Hunter
coin with that of the two in the British Museum
(Svor. 861 and 860, PL xxxiv. 16 and xxxiv. 14, 15).
The head on Svor., PL xxxiv. 15 ( = B.M.C. : Ptolemies,
p. 38, No. 12) is certainly not that of Soter, as Poole
had already recognized. A comparison with the coins of
Ptolemy III, figured on PL xxx (Nos. 1-8) of Svoronos'
work, suggests strongly that it represents that monarch.
The shape of the head, throat, and chin, and the arrangement
of the hair and the diadem, are very similar.
"With the disavowal of the BA5IAEHS MAfA coins,
and the dating here suggested for those with the mono-
gram FT, all trace of the name of Magas on the coinage
of Gyrene vanishes.
Coins with these types the head (except in one
instance) of Soter and that of Libya form the staple
regal copper currency of the Cyrenaica. We find the
221
Apucl Svor., Urtetle, Bd. iv, p. 475.