Chambers's encyclopaedia; a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people
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I (iK\! I I. I \l\ I \<-\\\ I.IIIK W'A This liook, wlu-ii iKii in iiNc. iniint \n |«ruin(»il) rrturnr.l t<. its place ainui))^' tin* IkkjIcs of reference. i'/-.4-ro ylii^ mm m Prcfented to~ - ' . ■ " '* The Corneir University, 1860, Goldwin Silaith, M. A. Oxon.; ''Regius Proleffer of Hiftory in the' Univeffity of Oxford. ..CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 087 904 672 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924087904672 CHAMBERS'S ENCYCLOPEDIA CHAMBEKS'S ENCYCLOPEDIA A DICTIONAEY OF UNIYEESAL KNOWLEDGE FOR THE PEOPLE ILLtrSTEATED WITH MAPS AND NUMEEOUS WOOD ENGEAVINGS VOL. VII /feORNEL^ UNIVERSITY! ^ LiBRARY^ ^j LONDON W. MD 1. CHAMBERS 47 PATERNOSTER ROW • JLND HIGH STREET, EDINBURGH 1865 J LIST OF MAPS FOR VOL. VIL Fags PALESTINE, . . 210 PEUSSIA, I . ly, 810 UMYERSAL KIOWLEDGE FOR THE PEOPLE NUMISMATICS. NTJMISMA'TICS (Lat. nummus and numisma, money ; Gr. nomisma, from nomas, law, a medium of excliange cstabliahed by law), the science which treats of coins and medals. A coin is a piece of metal of a fixed weight stamped by authority of government, and employed as a circulating medium. A medal is a piece struck to commemorate an event. The study of numismatics has an important bearing on history. Coins have been the means of ascertaining the names of forgotten countries and cities, their position, their chronology, the succession of their kings, their usages civU, mlitary, and religious, and the style of their art. On their respective coins we can look on undoubtedly accurate representations of Mithridates, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, Caraoalla, and read their character and features. The raetals which have generally beeil used for coinage are gold, silver, and copper. In each class is comprised the aUoy occasionally substituted for it, as electrum (an alloy of gold and silver) for gold, billon for silver, bronze for copper, and potin {an aUoy softer than billon) for silver and copper. The side of a coin which bears the most important device or inscription is called the obverse, the other side the reverse. The words or letters on a coin are caDed its inscription ; an inscription surrounding the border is called the legend. When the lower part of the reverse is distinctly separated from the main device, it is called the exergue (Gr. ex ergou, without the work), and often bears a secondary inscription, with the date or place of mintage. The field is the space on the surface of the coin unoccupied by the principal device or inscription. The use of coined money Cannot be traced further back than the 9th o. B.C. Money, however, as a medium of exchange^jexisted much earlier, and when of metal it passra by weight, no piece being adjusted to any precise weight, and all money being weighed when exchanged. Early metallic money was in the form of bars, spikes, and rings ; the ring 313 money could be opened, closed, and linked in a chain for convenience of carriage. The Lydians are supposed to have been the first people who used coined money, about 700 or 800 years before the Christian era; and their example was soon after followed by the different states of Greece-, the earliest Greek coins being those of .33gina. In its early stages the process of coining consisted in placing a lump of metal of a fixed weight, and approaching to a globular form, over a die, on which was engraved the religious or national symbol to be impressed. A wedge or punch placed at the back of the metal was held steadily with one hand, and struck by a hammer with the other, till the metal was sufficiently fixed in the die to receive a good impression. The impression was a guarantee of the weight of the piece. From the natiwe of the pro- cess, the earUest coins had a lumpish appearance, and on their reverse was a rough, irregular, hollow square, corresponding to a, similar square on the punch, devised for the purpose of keeping the coin steady when struck by the coining hammer. The original coins of "Asia Minor were of gold, those of Greece , of silver. The earliest coins bear emblems of a sacred character, often embodying some legend regarding the foundation of the state, as the phoca or seal on the coins of the Phocians, which alludes to the shoal of seals said to have followed the fleet Fig. 1. during the emigration of the people. Fig. 1. repre- sents a very early double stater of Miletus, in Ionia, of which the type is the lion's head, derived NUMISMATICS. Fig. 2. from Persia and Assyria, and associated witli tlie ■worship of Cybele, a symbol wMcli is continued in the later coinage of Miletus. Types of this kind were succeeded by portraits of protecting deities. The earliest coins of Athens have the owl, as type of the goddess Athene; at a later period, the head of the goddess herseK takes its place, the owl afterwards re-appearing on the reverse. The punch-mark, at first a rudely-roughed square, soon assumed the more sightly form of deep, wedge-like indents, which in later specimens become more regular, till they form themselves into a tolerably symmetrical square. In the next stage, the indents become shallower, and consist of four squares forming one large one. The surrounding of the punch- mark with a band bearing a name, and the introduction of a head in its centre, as in the annexed figure (fig. 2), gradu- ally led to the perfect reverse. There is a remarkable series of so-called ' encased' coins struck in Magna Grsecia, of which the reverse is an exact repetition in concave of the relief of the obverse. These coins are thin, flat, sharp in relief, and beautifully executed. The leading coin of Greece and the Greek colonies was the stater, so called because founded on a stan- dard of weight generally received before the intro- duction of coined money. There were double staters, and half, third, and quarter staters, and the stater was equivalent in. value to six of the silver pieces called drachms. The obolus was one-sixth of the drachma, at first struck in silver, in later times in copper. The inscriptions on the earliest Greek coins consist of a single letter, the initial of the city where they were struck. The remaining letters, or a portion of them, were afterwards added, the name, when in fuU, being in the genitive case. Mono- grams sometimes occur in addition to the name, or part name, of the place. The first coin bearing the name of a king is the tetradrachm (or piece of four drachmae) of Alexander I. of M^iiCedon. Among the early coins of Asia, one of the most celebrated is the stater Daricus or Dario, named from Darius Hystaspes. It had for symbol an archer kneeling on one knee, and seems to have been coined for the Greek colonies of Asia by their Persian conquerors. In the reign of Philip of Macedon, the coinage of Greece had attained its full development, having a perfect reverse. One of the earliest specimens of the complete coin is a beau- tiful medal struck at Syracuse, with the head of on the reverse of the staters of Philip of Macedon, known as Philips, and largely imitated by other states. Coins of Alexander the Great are abundant, many having been struck after his conquests in the Greek towns of Asia. A rose distinguishes those struck at Ehodes, a bee those struck at Ephesus, &c. ; these are all types generally accompanying the figm-e of Zeus on the reverse ; on the obverse is the head of Hercules, which has sometimes been supposed to be that of Alexander himself. It would rather seem, however, that the conqueror's immediate successors were the first who placed their portrait on the coins, and that under a shallow pretence of deification, Lysimachus as a descendant of Bacchus, and Seleuous of Apollo, clothed in the attributes of these deities. Two most beautiful and important series of Greek coins are those of the Seleucidse, in Asia, of silver, and of the Lagidse or Ptolemies, in Egypt, of gold. In Palestine there is an interesting series of coins founded on the religious history of the Jewish nation, and assigned to Simon Maccabseus. They are shekels and half-shekels, equivalent to two Attic drachmoe and one drachma respectively. The shekels bear on the obverse the pot of manna, with the inscription ' Schekel Israel I (the Shekel of Israel) ; on the reverse is Aaron's rod with three flowers, and the legend ' lerouschalim kedoschah' (Jerusalem the Holy). The inscriptions are in the Samaritan character. The successors of Simon assumed the title of king, and placed their portraits on the coins, with inscriptions in Greek as well as in Hebrew. Koman coins belong to three different series, linown as the Republican, the Family, and the Imperial. The so-called Bepublican, the earliest coinage, began at an early period of Roman history, and subsisted tiU about 80 B. c. Its standard metal was copper, or rather ces or bronze, an alloy of Eg. 3. Proserpine accompanied by dolphins, and for reverse a victor in the Olympic games in a chariot receiving a wreath from Victory — a type which is also found 2 Fig. 4. copper. The standard unit was the poundweight divided into twelve ounces. The ms, or as, or pound of bronze, is said to have received a state impress as early as the reign of Servius Tullius, 578 B. c. _ This gigantic piece was oblong like a brick, and stamped with the representa- tion of an ox or sheep, whence the word pecunia, from pecus, cattle. The fuU pound of the as was gradually reduced, always retaining the twelve (nominally) uncial subdivisions, tiU its actual weight came to be no more than a quarter of an ounce. About the time when the as had dimin- ished to nine ounces, the square form was exchanged for the circular. This large copper coin, called the ' as grave,' was not struck with the punch, but cast, and exhi- bited on the obverse the Janus bifrons; ■« and on the reverse, the prow of a ship, with the numeral I. Of the fractions of the as, the sextans, or sixth part, generally bears the head of Mercury, and the uncia, or ounce piece (fig. 4), that of Minerva ; these pieces being further NUMISMATICS. diatinguished by dots or knobs, one for each ounce. There were circular pieces as high as the decussis, or piece of twelve asses, presenting a head of Eoma (or Minerva), but none are known to have been coined till the wei^t of the as had diminished to four ounces. The Roman uncial coinage extended to the other states of Italy, where a variety of types were introduced, including mythological heads and animals. In the reign of Augustus, the as was virtually superseded by the sestertius, called by numismatists the first bronze, about the size of our penny, which was at first of the value of 24, after- wjirds of 4 asses. The sestertius derived its value from the silver denarius, of which it was the fourth. The half of the sestertius was the dupondius (known as the second bronze), and the half of the dupondius was called the assarium, an old name of the as. The assarium is known to numismatists as the third bronze. Silver was first coined at Rome about 281 B. c, the standard being founded on the Greek drachma, then equivalent in value to ten asses ; the new coin was therefore called a denarius, or piece of ten asses. The earliest silver coined at Home has on the obverse the head of Eoma (differing from Minerva by having wings attached to the helmet) ; on the reverse is a quadriga or biga, or the Dioscuri. Among various other types which occur in the silver of the Italian towns subject to Rome are the horse's, head, and galloping horse, both very beauti- ful. During the social war, the revolted states coined money independently of Rome, and used various devices to distinguish it as Italian and not Roman money. The earliest gold coins seem to have been issued about 90 B. c, and consisted of the scrupulum, equivalent to 20 sestertii, and the double and treble scrupulum. These pieces bear the head of Mars on the obverse, and on the reverse an eagle standing on a thunderbolt, with the inscription 'Roma' on the exergue. The large early republican coins were cast, not struck. The Family Coins begin about 170 B. c, and about 80 B. c. they entirely supersede the coins first described. Those families who successively held offices connected with the public mint acquired the right first to inscribe their names on the money, afterwards to introduce symbols of events in their own family history. These types gradually super- seded the natural ones ; the portrait of an ancestor followed ; and then the iportrait of a living citizen, Julius Caesar. Under the empire, the copper sestertius, which had displaced the as, continued the monetary standard. A magnificent series exists of the first bronzes of the emperors from Augustus to Gallienus. While it was the privilege of the emperors to coin gold and silver, copper coiild only be coined cb senatusconsuUo, which from the time of Augustus was ejcpressed on, the coins by the letters S.C., or EX S.C. The obverse of the imperial coins bears the portraits of the successive emperors, sometimes of the empress or other members of the imperial family; and the reverse represents some event, military or social, of the emperor's reign, sometimes allegorised. The emperor's name and title are inscribed on the obverse, and sometimes partly continued on the reverse; the inscription on the reverse generally relates to the subject delineated ; and towards the close of the 3d c, the exergue of the reverse is occupied by the name of the town where the coin is struck. The coins of Augustus and those of Livia, Antonia, and Agrippina the Elder have much artistic merit. The workmanship of Nero's sestertii is very beaiitifulj The coins of Vespasian and Titiis commemorate the conquest of JiidEea. The Colosseum appears on a sestertius of _ nan. The coins of Trajan are noted for their arcniteotural types. Hadrian's coins commemorate his journeys. The coins and medals of Antonine, Marcus Aurelius, and the two Faustinas are well executed ; as are also those of Commodus, of whom a remarkable medallion relates to the conquest of Brita,in. There is, a rapid falling off in design after the time of Commodus, and base silver comes exten- sively into use in the reign of OaracaUa. Gallienus introduced the practice of coining money of copper washed with aUver. The colonial and provincial money of this period was very inferior to that coined in Rome. In the coins of the provinces which had been formed out of the Greek empire, the obverse bears the emperor's head, and the reverse generally the chief temple of the gods in the city of coinage ; the inscriptions are in Greek. In the imperial coins of Alexandria appear such characteristic devices as the heads of Jupiter Ammon, Isia, and Canopus, the sphinx, the serpent, the lotus, and the wheat-ear. Colonial coins were at first distinguished by a team of oxen, afterwards by banners, the number of which indi- cated the ntmiber of legions from which the colony had been drawn. After the time of Gallienus, the colonial money and the Greek imperial money, except that of Alexandria, ceased, and much of the Roman coinage was executed in the provinces, the name of the town of issue appearing on the exergue. Diocletian introduced a new piece of money, called the foUis, which became the chief coin of the lower empire. The first bronze has disappeared after Gallienus, and the second disappears after Diocletian, the third bronze diminishing to ^th of an oimce. With the establishment of Christianity under Conatautine, a few Christian types are introduced. The third bronze of that emperor has the Labarum (q. v.), with the- monogram IHS. Large medallions, called contm-riiati, encircled with a deep groove, belong to this period, and seem to have been prizes for distribution at the public games. Pagan types recur on the coins of Julian; and after his time the third bronze The money of the Byzantine empire forms a link between the subject of ancient and that of modem coins. The portrait of the emperor on the obverse is after the 10th c. supported by some protecting saint. The reverse has at first such types as Victory with a cross, afterwards a representation of the Saviour or the Virgin; in some instances, the Virgin supporting the walls of Constantinople. Latin is gradually superseded by Greek in the inscriptions, and whoUy disappears by the time of Alexius I. The chief gold piece was the solidus or nomisma, which was long famed in commerce for its purity, and circulated largely in the west aa well as the east of Europe. Of the coins of the middle ages, the most import- ant is the silver denier or penny, derived from the Latin denarius. Its half was the obole, first of silver, afterwards of billon. Coins of this descrip- tion were issued in the German empire, France, England, and the Scandinavian states, and in many cases by ecclesiastical princes and feudal lords as well as sovereigns. The obverse of the regal coin of the early middle ages is generally the bust of the sovereign, and the reverse a Greek cross, accom- panied by the royal name or title, and the place of mintage or the moneyer (see Mint). The arms of the country were introduced in the 12th c, in con- junction with the cross, and afterwards superseded it. In the 13th and 14th centuries, coins began to be issued, by free imperial cities or corporations of towns ; and there prevailed extensively throughout 3 NUMISMATICS. Germany and other parts of Europe a thin piece called a bracteate, in relief on one side, and hollow on the other, often not bearing a single letter, and rarely a full inscription. Down to the 14th u., the relief of the medieval coins is very inconsiderable, the pieces thin, and the art poor. Britain received the Boman money on its subju- gation. Constantino seems to have had a mint in London, and the Eoman currency continued to circulate for a time after the departure of the conquerors. The first independent coinage, however, shews hardly a trace of the influence of Rome ; it consists of two small coins, called the skeatta and styca, the former of silver, the latter of copper. Both seem to belong solely to the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria ; they are without inscriptions ; a bird, a rude profile, and several unintelligible sym- bols appear on them, and their art is of the most debased kind. In the other kingdoms of the hep- tarchy silver pennies were coined, first intended to be ai^fth of a pound weight ; on the disappearance of skeattse and stycse, they form, with the occa- sional addition of halfpennies, the sole currency of England down to the reign of Edward III. The pennies of the heptarchy bear the name of the king or of the moneyer ; a cross sometimes appears after the introduction of Christianity, and in later times a rude head of the king or queen. The pennies of the Saxon and Danish sole monarchs of England, have a somewhat similar character. Alfred's earlier coins have a grotesque-looking portrait, and on the reverse Eg. 5. a monogram of London ; in his later coins the head disappears, and a cross and circle take its place. A Cross, variously ornamented with three pellets in each angle, continues to be the usual reverse of the Saxon, Norman, and Plantagenet coins. The coins of Edward III. are a great artistic advance on those that preceded them. The silver coinage of that king consisted not only of pennies, halfpennies, and farthings, but also of groats and half-groats. The obverse of the groat bears a conventional crowned head within a flowered circle of nine arches, the words ' Dei Gratia ' and the title ' Eex Pranciae ' appearing for the first time in the legend. The reverse has the motto ' Posui Deum adjutorem meum,' which continued on the coinage till the time of Edward V. But the great nvmiismatic feature of Edward III.'s reign is the issue of gold nobles, worth six shillings and eightpenoe. The obverse of those beautiful coins represent the king in a ship, a sword in his right hand, in his left a shield with the quartered arms of France and England. The reverse is a rich cross flory within a circle of eight arches, and a lion under a crown in each angle of the cross, the legend being ' Ihesus autem transiens per medium illorum ibat.' Half and quarter nobles were also coined. The noble having increased in value, a coin called an angel, of the former value of a noble, was issued by Henry VI. and Edward IV. The obverse represented St Michael transfixing a dragon ; the reverse a ship, with a cross for the mast. As we approach the period of the Eeformation, the coinage gradually becomes more ornate. The nobles coined by Edward IV., after the value 4 of that coin had been fixed at ten shillings, were called rials (a name derived from a French coin), and the double rial or sovereign was first coined, by Henry VIL The obverse has the king on his throne with sceptre and orb, and on the reverse, in the centre of a heraldic full-blown rose, is a shield with the arms of France and England. The testoon, or shilling, valued at twelve pence, also first appeared in this reign, with the royal profile crowned on the obverse, and the royal arms quartered by the cross on the reverse. A great debasement of the coinage took place in the reign of Henry VIIL The reverse of the farthing? of that monarch bears a portcullis, that of the shillings a rose surmounted by a crown, and of the sovereigns, the royal arms supported by a lion and dragon. A noble was coined with St George and the dragon on the obverse, and on the reverse a ship with three crosses for masts, and -, rose on the centre mast. On the coins of Henry VIII. the title 'Hiberniffl Eex ' first appeared, former kings having only styled themselves ' Dominus Hibernise,' Ireland not being accounted a kingdom. Under Edward VI., the silver coins called crowns and half-crowns appea,r, having for device the king crowned on horseback in the armour of the j)eriod. They derived their name from coins circulating on the continent, which had for device a crown. The royal arms in an oval shield without the cross are introduced as the reverse of the shilling. From this period there is a very obvious decline in the artistic feeling of the English coins. On some of the shillings of Mary, her bust and that of Philip face each other, the insignia of Spain and England impaled occupying the reverse ; afterwards the king's head occupies one side of the coin, and the queen's the other. Half-sovereigns, or rials, and angels were coined of the old type of Edward IV. Tie great event in the coinage of Elizabeth's reign was the temporary introduction of the mill and screw, instead of the hammer and punch, producing coins of a more regular and work- manlike appearance. The profile bust of James I., crowned and in armour, appears on his shillings and smaller pieces ; on his crowns and half-crowns he is represented on horseback ; on the reverse are the quartered arms of the three kingdoms (the harp of Ireland appearing for the first time on the coinage), with the motto ' Que Deus conjunxit nemo separet.' Copper farthings, with crown, sceptre, and sword on the obverse, and a harp on the reverse, were coined for England as well as Ireland, the first copper money issued in England since the styca. Private tokens of copper, issued by tradesmen and others, had, however, been in circulation before, and came again into use to a large extent at a later period. Charles I. coined ten and twenty shilling pieces of silver, the former a very noble coin, with a representation of the king on horseback. A crown, struck at Oxford, bears on the obverse the king on horseback, with a representation of the town, and on the reverse the heads of the Oxford declaration. The guinea, first coined in this reign, was so called from the metal being procured from the coast of Guinea ; its original value was but twenty shillings. The coins of the Commonwealth exhibit a shield with the cross of St George surrounded by a jialm and olive branch, and have for legend ' The Com- monwealth of England.' On the reverse are two shields accollge, with the cross of St George and the harp of Ireland, and the motto ' God with us.' Coins far superior in character were executed by Cromwell, with his laureated bust and title as Protector, and on the reverse a crowned shield quartering the cross of St George, of St Andrew and the harp, with the Protector's paternal arms in surtout ; biit few of these were issued. In the early NUMISMATICS. coins of Charles II., that monarch is crowned, and in the dress of the time ; in his later money he is in conventionalised Eonian drapery, with the head turned to the left, and from that time it has been the practice to turn every king's head the reverse way from that of his predecessor. The four shields on the reverse are disposed in the form of a cross (an arrangement which continued till the reign of George II.), and on the edge of the crowns and half- crowns is the legend ' Decns et tutamen.' Charles II. issued a copper coinage of halfpennies and farthings ; on the former appears the device of Britannia, taken from the Roman coins relating to Britain. Pennies were not coined till George III.'s reign. The coins of William and Mary have the profiles of the king and queen one over the other, and the shields of the three kingdoms in the form of a cross on the reverse, with Nassau in the centre. The coinage of William alone, after the death of Mary, is of some- what improved design. Sir Isaac Newton being then Master of the Mint. Little change in the general , design of the coin occurs in the reigns of Anne and George I. On the accession of the House of Hano- ver, the Hanoverian arms are placed in the fourth shield, and George IV. substituted a quartered shield with Nassau eu surtout for the four shields on the reverse of his gold coins. During the greater part of George III.'s reign the coinage was utterly neglected, and the silver pieces in circulation were worn perfectly smooth. When coins were at last issued, the Koman conventionalism of the previous reigns gave way to a now fashionable Greek con- ventionalism. The quartered shield supplanted the four shields, and on the reverse of the crown appeared a Grecianised St George and the dragon. George IV.'s bust is taken from Chantrey's statue; the rose, thistle, and shamrock, united under a crown, appear on the reverse of his shilling. Silver groats wore issued in the reign of William IV. The ensigns of Hanover disappeared at the beginning of the present reign ; the reverse of the shUling is even poorer than that of George IV., the words ' One shilling ' occupy the field, surrounded by an oak branch and a laurel branch ; silver pieces of three- pence have been introduced. But the principal monetary event is the issue of the silver florin, in value equivalent to two shillings, looked on as a step towards the institution of a decimal coinage. It represents the head of the Queen crowned, with the legend in old English character, and for reverse the four shields are once more placed in the form of a crossi No native Scottish coinage existed earlier than the 11th century. Coins are extant of Somerled, prince of the Isles of that century, and of Alexander I. of the century following. The silver pennies of William the Lion, and Alexander II. and III., are like contemporary English money, but ruder, and bear the names of the moneyers and place of mintage, generally Edinburgh, Perth, or Berwick. The profiles on the coins of John Baliol, Robert Bruce, and David II. are attempts at portraiture. A remarkable gold piece, first coined by Robert II., is the St Andrew, with the arms of Scotland on the obverse, and St Andrew on his cross on the reverse. In the four succeeding reigns ■ the weight of the silver coins rapidly decreased, and coins of billon, or base metal, were issued, nominally pennies, but three and a half of which eventuaUy passed for a silver penny. The evil increased, and baser and baser alloy was used. Groats of billon, known as placks and half-placks, were coined by James III. James IV.'s coins have a characteristic portrait, and a good deal of artistic feeling. James III. and IV. issued well-executed gold pieces, called unicorns and riders, the, type Of the one being the unicorn, of the other the king ou horseback. A still more beautiful coin was the gold bonnet piece of James V., so called from the cap in the king's portrait. Of Mary, there are a great variety of interesting pieces. The portrait is sometimes crowned, sometimes uncrowned, and on the coin issued soon after Francis's death, has a widow's cap and high-frilled dress. The types in James VI. 's reign are also very various. On his accession to the English throne, the relative value of English and Scottish coins was declared to be as 12 to 1. The coins afterwards issued from the Scottish mint differed from the English, chiefly in having Scotland in the first quarter in the royal shield. The last Scottish gold coinage consisted of pistoles and half-pistoles of Darieu gold, about the size of a guinea and half-guinea, struck by William III. ; the- pistole distinguished by a rising sun under the bust of the king. The coinage of Ireland is scanty and uninteresting compared with that of Scotland. The coins of EngUsh monarchs struck in Dublin resemble much those current in England,. Henry VIII. first placed a harp on the Irish coins. In Prance, the earliest coins are those of the Merovingian kings, rude imitations of the late Roman and early Byzantine money, and mostly of gold. Under the Carlovingian dynasty, deniers and oboles are the prevailing coinage, remarkably rude in fabric, without portrait, and bearing the name of the king and place of mintage. Some coins of Charle- magne, struck at Rome, are of better workmanship. They contain one letter of ' Roma * at each extremity of the cross, with the legend ' Carolus IP.' The coinage improved under theCapetian kings ; the fleur- de-lis appears in addition to the cross. & the 13th c. gold pieces were issued, and in the time of Philip VI. both the design and the execution of the coins are beautiful. The coins of Louis XII. are the first that bear the royal portrait. The modern coinage may be said to begin under Henry II., whose portrait is good. The seignorial coins of Prance in the middle ages are of considerable importance, and the medals of Louis XIV. and Napoleon I. are much more interesting than the modern coins. The medieval coinage of Italy is of great interest. The money of the Lombard kings of Italy and Dukes of Benevento, is little inferior to that of the Greek emperors. There is a beautiful series of gold and silver pieces belonging to Venice, bearing the names of the doges, and having generally for type the doge receivmg the gonfalon, or standard of St Mark. The gold florins of Florence, with the lUy for device, are no less celebrated, and were imitated by other states. Florence had also a remarkable series of medals, with admirable portraits of persons of note. The coins of the popes, from Hadrian I. down to the 14th c, bear the name of the pope and emperor of the west ; those of later date are beautiful in execution, and have seated portraits of the pontiffs, with the cross-keys and mitre for reverse. A remarkable series of medals commemorates the chief events of each reign, one of which, struck after the massacre of St Bartholo- mew, has for type an angel slayuig the Huguenots, and the inscription ' Ugonottorum strages? The coins of the Norman princes of Naples struck in Sicily, have the legends partly or wholly in Arabic. Malta has a series, with the arms and effigies of the grand-masters. The.medieval money of Germany comprises coins of the emperors, the electors, the smaller princes, the religious houses, and the towns. The imperial series is extensive and very interesting, though, till near the close of the middle ages, it is rather back- ward in its art. About the Reformation period, 5 NUMISMATICS— KUN. however, there are vigorous portraits both on its current coins and on the medals, and those double dollars which are virtually medals. The coins of the Dakea of Saxony, with their portraits, are equally remarkable. The coins of the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Treves form a very inter- esting series, the first more especially, with a representation of the cathedral. The coins of the Low Countries resemble those of France and Germany. The Dutch medals are of interest, more especially those struck in com- memoration of events in the war with Spain. The coins of the Swiss cantons and towns during the early period of Swiss independence bore the heraldic shield of each, drawn with vigorous grotesqueness. There are also pieces struck by ecclesiastical lords, and by different families who had a right of coinage". The coins of Spain begin with those of the Gothic princes, which are chiefly of gold, and on the model of the trientes and semisses of the lower empire. Some of the early pieces have a rude head of the monarch on one side, and of the emperor on the other. Afterwards, the obverse bears the profile of the monarch, and the reverse a cross of some description, with the name of the place of mintage, and the word 'Pius' for legend. In later times, there are two interesting series of coins belonging to the kingdom of Aragon and to the kingdom of Castile and Leon. The coinages of Norway and Sweden at first resembled the British, and afterwards the German tyje. From the 10th to the 14th c, bracteates were issued by the ecclesiastics. The coinage of Hungary begins in the 11th u., and has the por- traits of the monarchs. The Russian coinage is Byzantine in character, and rude in its art. The earliest pieces are the silver darga of the 14th c, of an oblong shape, with representations of the prince on horseback, and various legendary sub- jects. Peter the Great introduced the usual European type. There is an important series of bronze coins of the Crusaders, beginning with Tancred, and coming down to the end of the 15th c, including money of the kings of Cyprus and Jerusalem, and other princes established in the east. In India, the succession of the kings of Bactria, the remotest of the dynasties founded on the ruins of Alexander's empire, has only become known through their recently-discovered coins. There are early rude Hindu coins of the Gupta line, with figiu^es of the Brahminical divinities of a type stiU in use. Of the coins of the Mohammedan princes, the oldest gold pieces are the bilingual coins of cities of Syria and Palestine, of the middle of the 7th o. (a. h. 78), barbarous imitations of the latest Byzan- tine money of Alexandria. Most of the Mohamme- dan coins are covered exclusively by inscriptions expressive of the elementary principles of the Mohammedan faith. For some centuries, no sove- reign except the calif was allowed to inscribe his name on the coin. Large gold coins of great purity were issued by the Moslem kings of Granada in Spain. The high prices given for ancient coins have led to numerous forgeries from the 15th c. downwards. Against' such imitations, collectors require to be on their guard. Among the best works on numismatics are Eekhel, Soctrina Numorum Veterum (Vienna, 1792 — 1798) ; Hennin, Manuel de Numismatigue An- cienne (Paris, 1830) ; Grasset, Handhuch der alten Numismatik (Leipsic, 1852 — 1853) ; Leake, Numis- mata HeUmica (London, 1854) ; Ending's Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain (London, 1840); Lindsay's View of tJie Coinage of Scotland (Cork, 1845) ; Leblanc, TraitS Historigue des Monnoi&s de France (Paris, 1690) ; Cappe, Die Milnzen der Deutsche^ Kaiser und KSnige des Mittelalters (Dresden, 1848 — 1850); Marsden, JSTumumata Orientalia Illustrata (London, 1823—1825). NU'MMULITB LIMESTONE, an important member of the Middle Eocene period, consisting of a limestone composed of nummulites held together by a matrix formed of the comminuted particles of their shells, and of smaller foraminifera. It forms immense masses of the strata which are raised up on the sides of the Alps and Himalaiyas, and may be traced- as a broad band often 1800 miles in breadth, and frequently of enormous thickness, from the Atlantic shores of Europe and Africa, through Western Asia, to Northern India and China. It is known a,lso to cover vast areas in North America. NUMMULITES, or NUMMULINA (Gr. money-fossil), a genus of fossil foraminifera, the shells of which form inmiense masses of rock of Eocene age. See Nummulitb Limestone. Up- wards of 60 species have been described. They are circular bodies of a lenticular shape, varying in magnitude from the merest point to the size of a crown-piece. The shell is composed of a series of small chambers arranged in a concentric manner. The growth of the shell does not take place only around the circumference, but each whorl invests all the preceding whorls, so as to form a, new layer over the entire surface of the disk, thus adding to the thickness as well as the breadth, and giving the fossil its lenticular form. A thin intervening space separates each layer from the one which it covers, and this space at the margin swells out to form the chamber. AH the internal cavities, however, seem to have been occupied with the living sarcode, and an intimate connection was maintained between them by means of innumerable parallel tubuli, which everywhere pass from one surface to another, and which permitted the passage of the sarcode as freely as do the minute pores or foramina of the living foraminifera. The name is given to them from their resem- blance to coins. In Egypt, where the whole of the Mokkadam Mountains, from the stone of which the pyramids were built, is formed of them, they are called by the natives ' Pharaoh's Pence.' NUN, a, member of a religious order of women. The etymology of this name is a subject of some controversy, but there seems every reason to believe that it is from a Coptic or Egyptian root, which signifies 'virgin.' It is found in use as a Latin word as early as the time of St Jerome (Ep. to Eustachiits, p. 22, c. 6). The general characteristics of the religious orders wUl be found under the head M0NACHTSM_ (q. v.), and under those of the several orders. It is only necessary here to specify a few particulars peculiar to the reUgious orders of females. Of these the most striking perhaps is the strictness in the regularly authorised orders of nuns of the ' cloister,' or enclosure, which no extern is ever per- mitted to enter, and beyond which the nuns are never permitted to pass, without express leave of the bishop. The superiors of convents of nuns are called by the names Abbess, Prioress, and, in general, Mother Superior. They are, ordinarily speaking, elected by chapters of their' own body, with the approval of the bishop, imless the convent be one of the class called exempt houses, which are imme- diately subject to the authority of the Holy See. The ceremony of the solemn blessing or inaugura- tion of the abbess is reserved to the bishop, or NUNC DIMITTIS-NURNBBEG. to a priest delegated by the bishop. The authority of the abbess over her mms is very comprehensive, but a precise line is drawn between her powers and those of the priestly office, from which she is strictly debarred. The name of nun is given in general to the sisters of all religious congregations of females who live in retirement and are bound by rule ; but it is primitiveljr and properly applicable only to sisters of the religious orders strictly so called. See Monachism. NtrifO DIMI'TTIS, the name given to the canticle of Simeon (Luke ii. 29 — 32), which forms part of the compline office of the Roman Breviary, and is retained in the evening service of the Anglican Church when it foUows the second lesson. On the great festivals in Lent, the music of this canticle is especially grand and imposing. NU'NCIO (Ital. nunzio, Lat. nuncms, a messen- ger), the name given to the superior grade of the ambassadors sent by the pope to foreign courts, who are all called by the general name of Legate (q.v.). A nuncio is an ambassador to the court of an emperor or king. The ambassador to a republic, or to the court of a minor sovereign, is called Inter- Nimcio. H-UNCU'PATIVE -WILL is a will made by word of mouth. As a general rule, no will is valid unless it is in writing and signed by the testator; but in cases of soldiers and sailors, a verbal or nuncupative wiU is held to be good, on the ground that there is often no time to draw up a formal will in writing. NUNEA'TOIT, a small market-town of England, in the county of Warwick, and 18 miles north-east of the town of that name. It contains a small parish church in Gothic, and its Free Grammar School, founded by Edward VL in 1553, has an annual income from endowment of about £300. Manufactures of ribbons and cotton goods are carried on. Pop. (1861) 4645. NU'NQUAM INDE'BITATTJS, in EngHsh Law, means a plea or defence to an action for a debt that the defendant never was indebted; in other words, that no debt is due. NURAGHE, the name of certain structures, of conical shape, in the island of Sardinia, rising 30 or 40 feet above the ground, with two or three stories of domed chambers connected by a spiral staircase. View of the Nuraghe of Goni, in Sardinia. 