The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

BCEOTIA. PERIOD VIII. CIRC. B.C. 387 374. 235
he has no objections to offer to Haliartus as the place of
mintage of the coins with A P.
For my part I am inclined to attribute the whole series
to a later period than has hitherto been usual, and to look
upon the letters on the reverse as the initials not of towns
but of magistrates.
That they are not contemporary either with the anepi-
graphous coins of Haliartus and Thebes, with the amphora,
(B.C. 480456, PI. I. 18, 19), or with those reading
l| A and g , which I have given to Period IV.
(B.C. 456446, PI. II. 3, 6, 7), will be evident to any
one who examines the two classes side by side. Not
only are they
of a much flatter and more recent
fabric, but some of them bear a symbol (caduceus) upon
the shield, an indication that they cannot well be earlier
than the latter end of the fifth century, after which time
a symbol very commonly appears in this position.
More-
over the n on the two hemi-drachms in the Bibliotheque
Nationale and in the Prokesch-Osten Collection now at
Berlin is quite distinct, and this brings them down at any
rate to B.C. 400. At this time, however, and as late as the
Peace of Antalcidas, B.C. 387, there was no coin in Bo3otia
except that of Thebes. Is there any reason, then, why
they should not be brought down to the period of autonomy
subsequent to B.C. 387 ? I know of none except
the presence of the well-defined incuse square on the
reverses ; and although as a general rule there is no better
indication of date than the presence or absence of the
incuse square, no numismatist will deny that there are
exceptions to this rule [cf. my " Coinage of Syracuse,"
PI. V. 13].
I would suggest, therefore, that these coins may have
been struck at various Boeotian cities B.C. 387 374,