THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
perceive without difficulty the strong Greek influence
on the sentiment as well as on the style. Numismatists
have gradually accomplished much to elucidate the
import of the subjects and symbols represented; the
coining implements and machinery, with the helmet of
Vulcan above, on a denarius of the Carisia gens, are
curious as shewing us the fittings, as it were, of a
Roman mint. We shall see later on that the Romans
long preserved their taste for writing their history on
these imperishable monuments.
To the last years of the Roman commonwealth apper-
tain those exceptionally attractive silver and gold pieces
with the heads of Caesar, Mark Antony, Octavianus or
Augustus, Brutus, and Lepidus with symbolical acces-
sories on the reverse and of various types ; and the
Janiform one survived in its occasional emplovment, as
in pieces with busts of the Pompey and China families,
down to the commencement of the empire, but no longer
of a fixed or statutory weight. The China coin is of
superior style. Some of the coins of Caesar and others
above mentioned are without portraits; but there is
the denarius bearing the effigy of Caesar himself as
Pontifex Maxinius and Perpetual Dictator, and a gold
solidus of similar character, of which one variety is of
much finer work than the other. The coinage of
the triumvirate formed after his death is also highly
interesting, and exists in several modifications; but
probably the most fascinating series is that struck by
Mark Antony, either with his head alone, wearing a
radiated crown or an Armenian tiara, or with the jugate
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