DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49262#0237
ch. ix] THE DATING OF COINS 217
Of V there is nothing to remark except that it occasionally
bears an accent, being then written V or V or V
Y first appears in 69 b. c. In 61 and 58 b. c. the sound is
represented by V or Y indifferently.
AwiwraZs. A number of digits (I) combined may be con-
nected by a line above them. When they are preceded by
higher numerals, this line is as a rule produced to the left only
so far as to connect the first digit with the number preceding
it; thus Illi, XVI, VIII. On the other hand, exceptions such
as 1XVII are found.
X is the only form for 10.
For XVI, in the period 124-103 b.c. the form X comes in.
Ψ is the early form for 50. _L appears in 85 b. c., and thence-
forward prevails, although Ψ reappears beside it in 73 b. c.
L does not occur earlier than on a quinarius of M. Antonins
struck at Lyon.
Doubling of consonants is foreign to the early period : we find,
e.g. PI LIP VS. Double vowels (FEE LI X, V A AL A) are very rare.
§ 7. Finds.
‘ The discovery of hoards is the only evidence bearing
directly on the relative dates of Republican coins ; by examining
them with care and method we shall be able to determine the
chronology of the pieces which occur in them, and even of
those which are missing. Before all, we have to fix the date
of the burial of the hoard, and then try to discover which are
the most recent pieces of the known varieties which we meet
with, and the oldest of those which do not occur in the find.
To attain this result, we must try to discover from local
history the circumstances which may have caused the burial of
the hoard, as, for example, the date and character of a war in
the locality. The larger the hoard, the easier it becomes to fix
with probability the date of its burial, for the greater the
number of the coins, the more probable it is that a common
piece, if it is not found there, was not struck before the laying
1 Note that on coins of Pomponios Musa the uof Musa is accented, while
that of Musarum, on the same coin, is not.
Of V there is nothing to remark except that it occasionally
bears an accent, being then written V or V or V
Y first appears in 69 b. c. In 61 and 58 b. c. the sound is
represented by V or Y indifferently.
AwiwraZs. A number of digits (I) combined may be con-
nected by a line above them. When they are preceded by
higher numerals, this line is as a rule produced to the left only
so far as to connect the first digit with the number preceding
it; thus Illi, XVI, VIII. On the other hand, exceptions such
as 1XVII are found.
X is the only form for 10.
For XVI, in the period 124-103 b.c. the form X comes in.
Ψ is the early form for 50. _L appears in 85 b. c., and thence-
forward prevails, although Ψ reappears beside it in 73 b. c.
L does not occur earlier than on a quinarius of M. Antonins
struck at Lyon.
Doubling of consonants is foreign to the early period : we find,
e.g. PI LIP VS. Double vowels (FEE LI X, V A AL A) are very rare.
§ 7. Finds.
‘ The discovery of hoards is the only evidence bearing
directly on the relative dates of Republican coins ; by examining
them with care and method we shall be able to determine the
chronology of the pieces which occur in them, and even of
those which are missing. Before all, we have to fix the date
of the burial of the hoard, and then try to discover which are
the most recent pieces of the known varieties which we meet
with, and the oldest of those which do not occur in the find.
To attain this result, we must try to discover from local
history the circumstances which may have caused the burial of
the hoard, as, for example, the date and character of a war in
the locality. The larger the hoard, the easier it becomes to fix
with probability the date of its burial, for the greater the
number of the coins, the more probable it is that a common
piece, if it is not found there, was not struck before the laying
1 Note that on coins of Pomponios Musa the uof Musa is accented, while
that of Musarum, on the same coin, is not.