The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-16

py Prof. Ridgwty. The former schoo
 will see nothing but religious emblems
 m these strange archaic representa-.
 lions of beasts and other thing. Ii
 holds that the State wished to dedi-
 cate It's money 10 it's tutelary god or
 goddess, that the stage of Ephesus,
 the owl of Athens, the lion of Miletus,
 the tortoise of Aegina are all alike
 sacred types, referring to the worship ol Aftemls or Athena, Apollo or Aphro-
 utter that if the primitive artists en- graVed the attribute rather than the
 uelty on the coin, it was simply be- causse he was conscious of his inabil- ny to produce an adequate representa- ton Of the citys patron or patroness or animals, less frequently floral de- | wees or human figures-that are to be ilfst types-g generally representations on the confined space of half inch ooe' When art improved and die sink CTS became skilful.athe deities them selves began to bewportrayed in the coinage of the fifth and later centuries the gods head normally appears on one sue or the piece; the emblem that was originally the sole type is relegated to the other It has even been suggested that the first hints were established in | temples-a theory for which the evil oence is most inconclusive. The one in- scrlptlon which does undoubtedly es- taollsh the existence of a temple coin- age IS one piece so late that no argu- ment as to primitive practice can be drawn from it. But setting aside this addition to the theory of the purely religious nature of early coin types, it cannot be disputed that much can be urged in favor of the view. Mr. George Macdonald, while granting that the archaic figures are often representa- tions of the enablens of the gods, pro- duces non-religious reason for their appearance.
 The other modern theory as to the or gin of coin types has been vigorously set forth by Prof Ridgway, who denies the religious interpretation of the de- vices, and sees in them indications of the exchange value of the primitive pieces. The standard currency of most early countries has been the OK or sheep every one knows how the Lat Tn pecunia derives from pecus. It is a tempting notion to suppose that the first coins were intended to be equaya- Ilent to the OK, or other unit of exchange prevalent in the country where the |new device of metal money had been Introduced. Many early coins bear the representation of cattle, others show sheep, tripods and other objects which we know to have been used as stand ards of value, Most of the early coin age of Italy, for example the large hricklike bronze pieces, displays such types. Pollux tells us that Bous, the primitive OK unit, was originally used as an equivalent word for the stater, the primitive coin unit; when in arch aic religious or legal formulae an OK was mentioned, later generations paid or offered the piece of money as a cor responding contribution. But 1t would be dangerous to.pFess this view far, or we should have to adopt the absurd hypothesis that the value unit of Teos had once been the griffin, or that of Miletus the lion, since these are the first representations found on their coinage, both of which go back to the very first days of the invention of l money.
 MT. Macdonald rejects both these &C., cepted views in favor of the simple | theory that the early coin type merely reproduces the State seal of the issuing | State. The community vouched for | the purity and good weight of the piece by sealing 1t with the device which 1t habitually appended to docu- ments, weights and measures, and so l forth. As was the case in the cities of | Europe many States used | religious emblems as their coat of arms but others used commercial types and | others again 'cantlng heraldry' mak- | ing pun on the city name, without | any religious or other arriere pensee. l Thus, to compare things ancient with | things modern, Athens used Athenes |
  mis, just in the same way as the city l of London uses the red cross with St | Paul's sword in the canton, or Venice | uses the lion of St. Mark, One the other hand Cyzicus used the tunny or Cyrene the sliphium plant as purely com mercial devices, illustrating the chief | industry of the city as much as Bristol | shows the catsle and ship Canada the beaver or Iceland the stock-fish in it's shield. But quite distinct, from each | of these We get the punning type. Trapezus showed a table on its coins, Anoone an elbow, selinous a paresley leaf, just as Oxford now gives us an OK fording river. Bern bear or Munich a monk, It seems to us that this ducid, simple, yet many sides explanation of the early coin types is absolutely con elusive. It leaves us with many reli- gious emblems, suct as the one school of commentators pointed out, and many commercial emblems to please