Gold and the Gold Standard.pdf

GOLD IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL·· TIMES
part of our records of these early times consists of
the money itself, which has been preserved and is
now held largely· in the· museums of theworld, where
it is classified and catalogued. The coined money
alone of classical times that has been ,thus preserved
runs into tens of thousands of pieces; and the weights
of these pieces, the materials of which the coins are
made, their forms, and especially the designs and
. legends that they bear give us valuable information.
Thanks to the careful studies made by classical
scholars over many generations, we know today
much more about the money of classical times than
the ancients knew. There are, however, many gaps
in the chronology of the coins that have come down
to us, and the story that these coins tell is far from
complete. It is still full of controversial questions
concerning which the modern literature is voluminous,
but progress in their solution is being, made
continually.!
EARLY COINAGE IN ASIA MINOR
Coinage was originally of the nature of a seal or
hallmark punched on a nugget of metal as a guarantee
of its quality or its weight. The beginnings of coinage
appear to have been made in the countries of the
1 Obviously, it is impracticable in a book such as this to do more than to
touch briefly on the more elementary facts and principles. Where important
controversial·questions are involved, the best we can do is to follow a highly
responsible recent authority and to refer thereader to the selected bibliography
at the end of the chapter, in which a number of the principal studies (some of
them containing extensive bibliographies) are cited.
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