well as more beautiful, than those which have unfortunately been selected. We also object on principle, as numismatists, to the enlargement of coins; for which, however, there is an excuse in the present instance, as the photographs were taken with the view of lessening the labour of drawing in lithography a series of Roman imperial portraits which, we understand, is to be published shortly.

The third volume of the Duc de Blacas' translation of Mommsen's "History of the Roman Coinage" has made its appearance. It contains the third and fourth divisions of the original work-viz., the coins of the Empire, its colonies, and allies. The work of the translator has been revised throughout by M. le Baron de Witte. The chronological table at the end of the volume will be found invaluable to the student. It gives at one coup d'œil a complete view of the development of the art of coinage in Italy, together with the dates of the several reductions of the As. On this obscure subject Mommsen is at variance with the Baron D'Ailly and the Count de Salis, on whose plan the coins in the British Museum are arranged. The following is an outline of the two systems, which, it will be seen, differ considerably :—

In theory the arrangement of the Baron D'Ailly appears at first sight to be the more symmetrical, though whether or not it is supported by adequate proofs we are not in a position to decide.

To the English Numismatist, no less than to the French, the Duc de Blacas' translation will be a real boon. The terseness and lucidity of the French language and style renders it easy to seize the author's meaning in passages where the difficulty of the subject-matter, combined with the natural obscurity of the German tongue, had made Mommsen's great work a sealed book to the majority of our countrymen who interest themselves in such matters. The fourth and concluding volume, now in the press, will contain a series of forty plates, chosen by the late Duc de Blacas himself to illustrate the text of his work.

Numismatique de la Terre Sainte. de l'Institut. Paris.

Par F. de Saulcy, Membre
J. Rothschild.

Courage and enterprise are virtues even in literature, and no one surely can possess them in a higher degree than the gallant author of this work, who was, forty years ago, a distinguished Numismatist, has never flagged in his antiquarian enterprises, and even now promises us a future work to complete his account of the coinages of Palestine, "cette terre illustre entre toutes." The present handsome volume treats of all the civic coinages issued in Palestine and the regions round, together with those of the procurators of Judæa. It is not easy to see why M. de Saulcy inserts the coins of the procurators—he had already published a catalogue of them, together with those of the kings, in his work of 1854-unless, perhaps, he desired to make the list fuller, and to alter his system of rendering the dates, which, convinced by criticism, he abandons. The coins of Judæa always attract English students; but, unfortunately, there is very little striking or national about any of them, except the small and generally ill-preserved regal coins. Hence it is rather to the systematic Numismatist than to the general student that M. de Saulcy's last work will be valuable. It is very complete, and will fill the same honourable position with regard to the coins of the cities of the Holy Land which is occupied in regard to those of Spain by the work of M. Heiss, or those of Africa by the treatise of M. Müller. To the studious Numismatist it is a great gain to have a district thus fenced off and mapped out for him, and to be saved from toiling through the incomplete and unsatisfactory catalogues of Mionnet. It is not merely book-learning and long study that have put M. de Sauley in the position of KríσTηs of the Numismatics of Palestine, but many a toilsome journey through the deserts of Syria, and long researches carried out under a blazing sun. It would be hard to overrate his merits as a pioneer; and even in cases where his theories admit of improvement, he has frequently supplied all the materials for that improvement. In the present work there is one oversight much to be regretted, and we point it out in the hope that a remedy may be found. We can find absolutely no means of referring from the descriptions of coins in the text to the representations of them in the plates which accompany the work, nor is there an index of any kind whatever to the plates themselves. It is to be feared that this defect will detract from the usefulness of a work in other respects excellent and carefully prepared. We have space but to notice one more feature-a series of nearly forty autonomous coins of Palmyra, a city of the greatest interest, and hitherto almost unrepresented in our cabinets.

MISCELLANEA.

NOTES ON SNELLING'S SEVENTY-TWO PLATES OF COINS, FUBLISHED 1757.-There exists a pamphlet, which is probably well known to most collectors, entitled "Seventy-two Plates of Gold and Silver Coin, mostly English, some never before published; together with their Weight, Fineness and Value, supposed to be Engrav'd about ye Year 1650. London, printed for and sold by T. Snelling, Bookseller, near the Horn Tavern, Fleet Street, 1757. Price 2s. 6d."

This pamphlet is entirely printed from copper-plates on thirteen leaves of plate paper in quarto.

Now, as Snelling says on the title-page that these copperplates were "supposed to be engraved about the year 1650," it is evident that he did not know the actual history of them. This I am enabled to supply from an old and scarce work in my possession, Thomas Violet's "Proposals to his Highness Oliver, Lord Protector, &c., folio, London, 1656," in which Violet writes as follows, pp. 106, 107 :

"And at the desire of Sir James Harrington and Mr. Thomas Challoner, and others of the Honorable Committee for the Mint, I did write to Holland for all the principal Coynes in Christendom, and did deliver many of them to the officers of the Mint to make an assay of them, which several pieces of forrain gold and silver were assayed in the Presence of the Committee of the Mint, they being there at the Tower several dayes to make these Trials, where I attended them, and I sent into Holland, France and Flanders for all their several Placarts, and did procure the Lawes and Ordinances for regulating their respective mints, with the several standards and weights for their Coyns, gold or silver, to be translated, and thereupon the Committee of the Mint caused the principall of these forrain Coynes to bee ingraven with their weight and fineness of every piece, according to the standard of each mint, both gold and silver, what it ought to weigh, with a just Calculation of the vallue what all the several Species would make in the Tower of London, and the penny weight, and graines that everie such forrain Specie or Coyn would make in the Tower of London, and what proportion our gold and silver held with the mints of Flanders, France, and Holland: and this was exactly calculated by the officers of the Mint and my self, in the years 1651 and 1652, and all the proceedings thereupon. After many moneths

time, and the several Coynes, graven in Copper Plates, were delivered into the custody of Sir James Harrington, the chairman of that committee, to report them unto the House, but the Parliament being dissolved 20 April, 1653, the Act against the Transporters of Gold and all the Proceedings concerning the regulation of the mint was stopped for that time."

There seems no doubt, therefore, that the plates published by Snelling were those engraved for the Committee of the Mint in 1652, but not then made use of or printed from, in consequence of the dissolution of Parliament by Cromwell soon afterwards.

21st May, 1874.

HENRY W. HENFREY.

NEW INTERNATIONAL EDITION OF MARSDEN'S "NUMISMATA ORIENTALIA."-We are glad to observe that Messrs. Trübner and Co. announce a new edition of this important work, of the illustrative copper-plates of which they have lately become the proprietors. Other illustrations, bringing down our knowledge of the Oriental coinages to the present time, will, however, be added, either in the shape of wood-cuts or of plates. The work is to appear in parts, and will be under the general editorship of Mr. Edward Thomas, who has so often contributed to our pages. The separate portions relating to the various Asiatic countries and dynasties will be edited by numismatists best versed in the respective subjects, among whom may be mentioned Sir Walter Elliot, Sir Arthur Phayre, General Cunningham, Mr. E. T. Rogers, Mr. Stanley L. Poole, Dr. Blochmann, M. de Saulcy, M. Sauvaire, Prof. Gregorief, and Don Paschal de Gayangos.

It is to be hoped that the intention of thus forming a complete encyclopædia of Oriental numismatics may be effectually carried out.

Obv.-Bust of a king, r., diademed and draped; border of reels and beads.

Rev.-TY ANNOYNTOE HADY

ΣΑΚΑ

ΚΟΠΑΝΟΥ

(Τυραννοῦντος Ἡράου Σάκα κοιράνου). A king, r., on horseback; behind, Nike, crowning him.

I HASTEN to lay before the readers of the Numismatic Chronicle a short account of a most remarkable coin lately acquired by the British Museum, and of peculiar interest to many classes of readers. A single glance at the woodcut which heads this paper will assuredly arouse the interest of all who have studied the coins of Bactria, and perhaps secure their attention to a few remarks which I wish to make, first as to the date of the coin, and secondly as to its more striking peculiarities.

Heraüs or Eraüs, King of the Sakas, is a personage