The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

84 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
13
cases. This rule is not, however, without exceptions ;
and it appears not improbable that Mnasagoras, if appointed
a second time to the charge of the mint, under a
different colleague, and perhaps after an interval of some
years, may have chosen a different official symbol. The
figure of Bacchus or Dionysus would seem at first sight to
refer rather to the name of the first magistrate, Dionysius ;
but no reliance can be placed upon this connection, as on the
earlier series of coins, on which both the first and second
magistrates bear the name of Dionysius, the accessory
figure (the rising sun in a quadriga) has no immediate
reference to the worship of Dionysus.
Next to the coin just described, that of most interest
among the tetradrachms of this later style in my possession,
is unquestionably one which bears the name of Mithridates
the king, and must have been struck as a memorial
of his short-lived domination over Athens and the adjoin-
ing parts of Greece. Though not unpublished, its rarity, as
well as its special historical interest, entitle it to a separate
notice in this place. Until within a few years only two
specimens of this remarkable coin were known, and, by a
singular accident, both were in this country the one in
the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, the other in the British
Museum. But a few years ago (I believe in 1875) a few
specimens were found at Athens, associated with tetradrachms
of Mithridates of the ordinary type, and I was
fortunately able to secure the specimen now in my collec-
tion. It is somewhat obscured by oxide, but is otherwise
13 Thus the series with the names of Eumareides and Cleomenes
retains the same symbol with that of Eumareides and
Aleidamas : that of Metrodorus and Miltiades is continued also
by Metrodorus and Demosthenes : and the same thing occurs in
several other cases.