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

248 J. MAVROGORDATO.The lettering of allthree types will be seen to havereverted to the more usual forms, after the vagaries oftypes Nos. 76 and 78. In some ways it may even betermed archaistic, as witness the E with three bars ofequal length in No. 82, and the 4> in No. 81 in placeof (J>or !-,so much more generally employed at thistime. On the other hand, the Y of type No. 76 hasgone back to the late form V, already noted on No. 74.It is clear from the number of specimens knownbelonging to types Nos. 80 and 82, and from the way inwhich their weights agree, that a sensible reductionmust now have been made in the standard. Theheaviest specimen that I have noticed is one of theformer type from Paris which weighs 49-5 grains(3-21 grammes). This denotes a much reduced denarius,not to speak of an Attic drachm, and may be comparedwith the Syrian silver coins of Nero's reign(Regling, Z.f. N., xxxii. (1915) 146), marked APAXMH,and those of Plarasa and Aphrodisias of the firstan autonomous issue of the first century B.C., but it isrepresented by a single piece only. Moreover, as it wasa special issue of an honorific nature, the mint officialsmay have been a little more generousin itscase thanusual.PABIPIoZ is the second Roman name to be recordedcentury B.C. (Brit. Mus. Cat. Caria and Islands, Plarasa,Nos. 6-13) which weigh from 56-1 to 48-9 grains (3-63-3-17 grammes). No. 81, it is true, nearly reaches thelevel of type No. 76 a, which is unusually high even foramong the Chian magistrates, and his issue is remarkableas again showing symbols on the reverse. Thecrescent has not been so used before, and of course maybe the magistrate's personal signet, though it appears