The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

90 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
A vase of similar form is found on some of the copper
coins of Athens itself, and appears as an accessory on
several of the series of tetradrachms with magistrates'
names. 15
I must refer my readers to M. Beule's work16 for
the reasons which have induced the learned author to
identify it with the vase termed plemockoe (TTX^/AOXO^), which
is described by Pollux, Hesyehius, and Athenseus, and is particularly
stated to be one " employed in the sacred rites on
the last day of the mysteries at Eleusis." 17 This circum-
stance adds a special interest to its appearance on a coin of
Eleusis.
I obtained this little coin at Athens as far back as 1861 ;
but it has remained, so far as I am aware, unpublished
during this interval. I have since seen a second specimen
(now in the British Museum), but in poor preservation,
while mine is well preserved, and both the type and
legend perfectly distinct.
figure, and must therefore be taken to represent Triptolemus,
rather than the goddess herself.
15 See Beule, Monnaies d'Athenes, pp. 154, 192, 844.
The copper coins with the pleniochoe on the reverse, of which
several varieties are figured in the Museum Hunterianum, are
erroneously described by Combe as bearing a : lamp to which,
indeed, this peculiar form of vase has much resemblance. It is
well characterized by Athenaeus as /?e/u./3iKojSes like a spinningtop.
It is always represented on these Athenian coins with a lid
or cover, which is wanting on the coin of Eleusis.
16 P. 156.
17
Pollux, Onomasticon, x. 74 ; Hesyehius, v.
Athenams, xi. p. 496.
E. H. BUNBURY.