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

66 E. A. SYDENHAM.included in his retinue a number of professional dieengraversfor the purpose of striking coins whenrequired. Secondly, artificers and engravers may havebeen, as they probably were, transferred from one townto another. Thus there are certain coins, struckbetween 27 B.C. and 15 B.C., that can only be assignedto their places of mintage conjecturally. On the otherhand, many coins of this period exhibit peculiaritiesof style which may be regarded as local mannerisms ;and whenever the same mannerism is observedthroughout a group or series of coins, there isgoodreason for considering it as evidence of identity ofmintage.Now the mannerism which is characteristic of allthe coins that unquestionably belong to Lugdunum isa tendency to flatness in the execution of the portraitand a decidedly linear technique. These traits are firstseen on the denarii of Octavius as Triumvir, then onthe bronze issue of 38 B.C., again on the Altar of Lugdunumseries, and later on the bronze of Caligula,Claudius, and Nero. Therefore, so far as considerationsof style are to be taken into account in assigningcoins to Lugdunum, it appears safer to admit no coinswhich present characteristicsthose mentioned.entirely different fromSig. Laffranchi, however, assigns toSpain several aurei and denarii which unmistakablyexhibit the flat linear style of Lugdunum [e.g. seePL V. 10]. On the other hand, in Mr. Grueber'svery complete list of the coins of Gaul, some are includedwhich I venture to think are thoroughly un-Gallic in style, and therefore cannot certainly beassigned to Lugdunum ; e.g. the denarius with the headof Augustus in high relief, and reverse AVGVSTVS,