THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
epoch there are electruni staters of Tarsus of great rarity,
and comes clown to Roman times. Under the Seleucid
kings Tarsus was a leading mint.
Cyprus.—The rich and large series belonging to this
island dates from the sixth century B.C. Much has
been done to identify and arrange it, but it forms a
subject over which, both from historical and philological
difficulties, a great deal of uncertainty and obscurity
yet hangs ; and the task of classification is aggravated
by the normally poor condition and careless execution
of specimens. The coinage may be divided into civic,
dynastic (proceeding from reguli), regal (under the
Ptolemies), and Roman imperial. There are many
beautiful and characteristic productions, and nearly all
are curious and valuable as evidences of the existence
of rulers, sites, or legendary faiths. Of the kings of
Salamis (4th-3rd century B.C.) the sequence is unusually
complete. Cyprus was under Ptolemy Soter and his
successors an Egyptian mint, and later on a Roman one.
Galatia was erected into a kingdom, as above noted,
late in the first century B.C. There is a very short regal
series and a Roman imperial one, besides autonomous
civic money of Genua, Pessinus, Tavium, &c, from
which conclusions may be drawn as to the long survival
of cults relating to Zeus, Aphrodite, Dionysos, Askle-
pios, Men, &c.
Cappadocia was, in addition to its municipal or urban
currencies, the seat of two regal dynasties (b.c. 380-
a.d. 17), both of which struck money in silver and
bronze ; but perhaps the more interesting coins are
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