ANCIENT COINS

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 88, 10 January 1923, Page 5

ANCIENT COINS

GIFTS TO BRITISH MUSEUM. The British Museum has received os a donation from Mr. Edward Philips Thompson, of ’Whitchurch, Salop, a specimen of one of the most remarkable coins of ancient Syracuse, states tho “Morning Post." It dates Horn the early part of tho fourth century. B.C. The ten-daiehm pieces, so-called modlallionH, of Syracuse, were first issued in commemoration of the defeat of the Athenian expedition in 413 8.C., and probably _ used for prizes u t the horse races with which the Syracusans celebrated their victory. They are among the treasures most covoted by collectors. Two classes of these coins, associated with tho engravers Cimon and Euaenetus respectively, have long been known in mrfny examples; the third class, unsigned, but evidently by a somewhat later and technically far more accomplished hand, is represented by but two specimens, one in a private collection at Paris the other formerly in tho Ashburnna.m Cabinet, from which it passed to the late Mr. Thompson) Yates, and thence to Mr. Thompson. The obverse shows a brilliantly executed head of tho nymph Arethusa, surmounted by dolphins; the reverse a victorious chariot draavn by four horses, standing on a basis against the side of which are ranged pieces of the armour taken from the Athenians. Tho word “Prizes" inscribed against theso shows the use to which they were put. Tho late Mr. Horace Sanders, F.8.A., ■well know® as an authority on Spanish antiquities and a collector of coins, especially those used by the barbarian races of Central Europe, bequeathed to the Museum a sum of money for the acquisition of a selection of coins from his collection. With the assistance of a further sum given by members of his family, the Museum has been able to acquire a representative series of coins, which will be preserved a-i a memorial to Mi'. Sunders. Beside® rare specimens of barbarous currency, they include some fine gold coins of Alexander tho Great and Lysimachus Ring <f Thrace.