THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
Standard— (i.) Id ancient Greek numismatic nomen-
clature, the weight to which at different times or in
various localities the current money was adjusted
it was a principle borrowed from Africa and Asia,
which had their Phoenician, Persic, and Perso-Babylonic
standards. The oldest European one was the yEginetic,
which was succeeded by the Euboic or Attic, chiefly
relevant to silver only, as Chalcis and the other
cities of Euboea struck no gold ; the Rhodian, &c,
culminating in the Indian, which was followed in the
later Bactrian and Parthian money, (ii.) A modern
European principle, to which the money of the prin-
cipal states of that continent respectively conformed,
namely, Cologne, Tours, Paris, and London, to which
may be added, although they are not specifically enu-
merated, Venice and Florence, if not Hungary, for
gold weights. But there were also certain subsi-
diary mediaeval systems, such as those of Anjou,
Poitou, &c, which enjoyed a similar reputation and
credit.
Stater, Staiera (standard) — (i.) A gold coin intro-
duced into Macedon in the fourth century B.C., and
subsequently diffused over the greater part of Greece,
besides serving as the model for unskilful imitators in
Western Europe. There were the double stater, the
half, and the quarter, the Macedonian coin being =
twenty drachma', or about twenty-three shillings Eng-
lish money. (ii.) The silver tetradraclnn, of same
standard, is sometimes described as a stater.
268
;