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THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

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<strong>THE</strong> <strong>COLLECTOR</strong> SERIES<br />

the dekadrachm to the lepton. The prold money is<br />

remarkably scanty, and does not begin till the fourth<br />

century B.C. There are the stater, the drachma, the<br />

triobol, the ekte, and the hemiekton, of all of which<br />

the examples offered in commerce are frequently spu-<br />

rious. Nearly the whole of the silver currency down<br />

to about a.d. 220, when a new type was introduced<br />

with improved methods of coinage, is negligently<br />

executed and struck ; and it is remarkable that the<br />

finest numismatic period is that when Athens had<br />

ceased to exercise preponderant influence in Greece.<br />

The bronze money consisted of the kalkous, the hollu-<br />

bos, and the lepton. Four Jcottuboi or seven lepta were<br />

= one Jcalkous, and eight kalkoi were = one obol.<br />

Of the Demi of Attica, Eleusis alone struck autonomous<br />

coins, and for a brief term (350-320 B.C.) ; here was the<br />

temple of Triptolemos, whose name was associated with<br />

the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the ephemeral coinage<br />

refers to this cult. So at Oropos and Salamis, Amphi-<br />

araos and Ajax had an oracle and statue and a temple<br />

respectively. For a minute classification of the later<br />

money of Attica we must refer to the Historia Nu mo-<br />

rion. There are types belonging to the Roman period,<br />

as elsewhere.<br />

Megabk.—This minor state contained the townships<br />

of Megara, /Egosthena, and Pagae, on the Corinthian<br />

Gulf. Megara was a prosperous place before the Mace-<br />

donian conquest in B.C. 338. The best numismatic<br />

period appears to have been from 307 to 243 B.C., when<br />

Megara joined the Achaean League; the types per-<br />

76

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