The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

76 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
types and even the same arrangement of details, vary
considerably more in character than those of the succeeding
period, from which they are readily distinguished by
the more archaic style of design, as well as the more irre-
gular and unequal execution. Some specimens of these
earlier coins are extremely well figured by M. Beule at
p. 35 of his invaluable work ; but he has scarcely done
justice to this part of his subject, and might with advantage
have given figures of several other varieties, which, though
not marked by any important differences, afford evidences
of the comparative fluctuation and irregularity of design
in the period preceding that when the coinage had settled
down into the precise form that it permanently assumed. 8 I
have therefore thought it worth while to figure a very re-
markable coin belonging to this class, which was formerly
in the cabinet of the late Mr. W. R. Hamilton, and is
now in my possession (PL IV. fig. 1). It differs mate-
rially as a glance at the figure will show better than any
description from any of those represented by M. Beule.
The bold archaic character of the head of Pallas on the
obverse contrasts singularly with the imperfect execution of
the reverse, on which not only are the letters A0E and the
sprig of olive very indistinctly marked, but even the legs of
the owl (usually made much more prominent than they
would really be) are so slightly represented as to look
almost as if the engraver had in the first instance forgotten
them altogether, and only added them as an afterthought.
8 It is a sufficient proof of the remarkable fixity of the type
once established, during this long period, that we uniformly
find the little sprig of olive (consisting only of two leaves and a
berry) maintaining the same place, in the left-hand corner of
the field of the reverse, with a crescent immediately in front of
it. On the obverse, also, three leaves of olive and a spiral form
the unvarying ornament of the helmet of Athena.