The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

80 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
conceivable. We must fall back, then, upon the conclu-
sion that both T and A (and A if it exists) are simply
" mint letters ", though the practice of putting magis-
trates' names on coins does not begin in the Cyrenaica
for another half-century.
It must be confessed that
it would be surprising to find such a use (it did not
become a general custom) so early, although in view
of the contemporary or even earlier practice at Messene
quoted above 60 it is not impossible.
Barce Cyrene.
The interesting piece, No. 22, remains. Of the letters
on the obverse, the K and V are quite plain though
carelessly formed ; the P is not so certain : if it is
accepted, the inscription ran in a circle outwards.
Though the style of this coin is coarse, it is more
advanced in such details as the eye and beard than are
any of the other alliance coins. The type of Ammon,
much nearer the ram than the ideal presentations
of the second group, recalls the brute nature which
comes out so strongly in the heads of the next
period. "We shall not be far wrong in putting it
towards the very end of the second period, to which
it clearly belongs. Even if the third letter of the in-
scription be not regarded as proven, it is incontestably
an " alliance " coin of Barce and Cyrene. These two
cities, rivals for the hegemony of Cyrenaica, were
more often at enmity than friendship. The issue of
" alliance " coins of Barce-Teucheira looks like a direct
answer to the menace implied in the " alliance "
coins,
Cyrene-Euesperides. What can have been the occasion
of the issue of alliance coins of Barce-Cyrene ?
60 See p. 56, note, and cp. No. 1.