The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

38 PROCEEDINGS OF THEthe original cause for the predominant importance of the" " anvil side was no longer operative. Moreover, newreligious types in many cases came to the fore whichthe old civic emblems.displacedLet me take a single instructive instance. The Ioniancolonists of Velia brought with them a variation of a nativelion type, which appears on the anvil side of their earlydrachm coinage, accompanied on the other by a guadratwnincusum. But on a didrachm of somewhat later date, ofItalian fabric, the incuse square is replaced by an archaichead of the Nymph Velia. Next, on a coin with a verysimilar head the lion is shifted to the "hammer" side.Once more, in the case of the didrachm with the verybeautiful head of the fountain Nymph of later fabric, accompaniedby a vine spray,the lion returns to his secondposition on the " anvil " side.The Nymph's head is succeeded by that of Athena, andthis now permanently occupies the " anvil " side, the lionbeing again relegated to the upper die.We have then presented to us, according to the newsystem of classification, the following table :1. Obverse. Forepart of lion, &c. Reverse. Incuse square.2. Obverse. Lion. Reverse. Head of Velia.3. Obverse. Head of Velia. Reverse. Lion.4. Obverse. Lion. Reverse. Head of Velia.5. Obverse. Head of Athena. Reverse. Lion.Is not such a result itself a reductio ad absurdum of theproposed system ?So too, to take, almost at random, examplesof coins ofSicilian cities, the " head " side on coins of Kamarina, thetwo eagleson tetradrachms of Akragas, the River God atSelinus, shift from face to face according to the die-sinker'swhim. On the early coins of Leontinoi the head of Apollois on the upper die on the;later issues he appears on the