The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

468 ARTHUR EVANS.
of account, and that its coinage was probably a con-
siderable source of profit to the Imperial Treasury.
It is clear, however, that in dealing with the double
siliquae or miliarensia, often called
"
medallions ",
represented in this and similar hoards we are on
somewhat different ground. That these were current
coins indeed is generally admitted, but it seems none
the less clear that they represent issues of an honorary
character and were used for official distribution on
certain festal occasions.
5. THE HALF-SILIQUAE OR " MINUTULI ".
In addition to the siliquae and their doubles,
the North Mendip hoard produced a series of coins
of lesser weight and module. It is no doubt difficult
at times to distinguish these "conventional qui-
narii" from siliquae of exceptionally small weight
and module. As Mr. Hill pointed out in the case of
the Treves coins from the Grovely Wood hoard, the
catena of weights in the case of undoubted siliquae
stretches with few missing links from about 2-6 grammes
(40 to 41 gr.) to 1-1 grammes (17 to 18 gr.), 41 and he
cites the fact that in the Danubian Hoard described by
Missong the weight ranged from 2-27 to 1-38 grammes
so gradually as to defy division into two groups. The
same is true in the case of the ordinary siliqua types
in the present hoard. But it must be remembered
that the exceptionally high and exceptionally low
weights in all these series represent a vanishing
minority. They are like the bad shots of a fairly
practised marksman becoming fewer and fewer in the
rings of the target as they recede from the bull's-eye.
" Num. Chron., 1906, pp 343, 344.