THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
the dekadrachm to the lepton. The prold money is
remarkably scanty, and does not begin till the fourth
century B.C. There are the stater, the drachma, the
triobol, the ekte, and the hemiekton, of all of which
the examples offered in commerce are frequently spu-
rious. Nearly the whole of the silver currency down
to about a.d. 220, when a new type was introduced
with improved methods of coinage, is negligently
executed and struck ; and it is remarkable that the
finest numismatic period is that when Athens had
ceased to exercise preponderant influence in Greece.
The bronze money consisted of the kalkous, the hollu-
bos, and the lepton. Four Jcottuboi or seven lepta were
= one Jcalkous, and eight kalkoi were = one obol.
Of the Demi of Attica, Eleusis alone struck autonomous
coins, and for a brief term (350-320 B.C.) ; here was the
temple of Triptolemos, whose name was associated with
the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the ephemeral coinage
refers to this cult. So at Oropos and Salamis, Amphi-
araos and Ajax had an oracle and statue and a temple
respectively. For a minute classification of the later
money of Attica we must refer to the Historia Nu mo-
rion. There are types belonging to the Roman period,
as elsewhere.
Megabk.—This minor state contained the townships
of Megara, /Egosthena, and Pagae, on the Corinthian
Gulf. Megara was a prosperous place before the Mace-
donian conquest in B.C. 338. The best numismatic
period appears to have been from 307 to 243 B.C., when
Megara joined the Achaean League; the types per-
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