THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

GREEK COINS
gentum, Camarina, Catana, Gela, Leontini, Naxos,
Panormos, and Syracuse. Many varieties of the Syra-
cusan dekadrachm exist, and likewise many counterfeits.
Macedon.—This ancient kingdom appears to have
been at one time under tribal and separate governments,
which developed into coin-producing centres, in some
instances of considerable importance and volume. The
Macedonian coinage, which comprises, on more than one
account, some of the most interesting remains of this
kind, is now divided by the highest authority into
eight districts or periods:—1. The Pangcean District;
2. the Emathian District ; 3. the Bisaltian District
4. Chalcidice ; 5. the Strymonian and Botticean Dis-
tricts ; 6. the Regal Period ; 7. the Kings of Poeonia
8. Macedon under the Romans. We have in the present
compass altogether a fine body of numismatic examples
commencing with the bold archaic style of the sixth
century B.C., and with the productions of the rich
mineral country round Mount Pangseum, where the
money illustrates the cults of Dionysos and Silenos.
The standards were successively the Phocaic, Babylo-
nian, and Phoenician. The currency of the Orrescii
comprised the silver octadrachm. The money of the
Bisaltae is of special importance, because it formed
the type employed by the earliest regal moneyers under
Alexander I. When Xerxes was in this neighbourhood,
during his invasion of Greece, the Odomanti were work-
ing the gold and silver mines ; and it is worth noting
that the camels of the king of Persia were attacked by
lions, which at that time abounded in this part of
63
;