THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
mencing with the sixth century B.C., is at first of archaic
type and of incuse uniface fabric, but attained great ex-
cellence and beauty. The coins from the outset exhibit
on obverse Taras on a dolphin, and some examples pre-
sent the mythical founder, and son of Neptune, on both
sides, variously posed. In the fourth century we find
gold first struck ; but silver was the prevailing metal.
The bronze is late.
Sicilia.—At first this island possessed coins of an
Italian type, introduced by the settlers from the main-
land ; but as the Greeks established themselves here,
the stvle of the money became by degrees Hellenised,
and acquired in course of time an unsurpassed excel-
lence and celebrity, the cities which arose, both along
the coast and inland, emulating each other in the
beauty of their numismatic products and the choice
of the most skilful engravers, of whom in several cases
the names are preserved. Dr. Head divides the mone-
tary annals into eight epochs, which embrace those of
archaic art and of decline under the Roman authority.
The Sicilian medallion, which was, in fact, the ten-
drachma piece, is well known ; the agonistic type of the
reverse is common to the tetradrachn) and didrachm,
and probably does not allude to any specific event;
the triqui'tra, which was copied on the modern cur-
rency of the Two Sicilies, and on that of the Isle of
Man, was first introduced under Agathocles (ii.c. 317-
289), by whom it is supposed to have been intended as
a token of his sovereignty over the whole island. The
most remarkable coins in this series are those of Affri-