W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

INTRODUCTION
I
THE unabated and general interest which the numismatic
systems and remains of the ancient Greeks and Romans have
commanded from time immemorial at the hands of all
persons with pretensions
inform themselves of many
to culture and with a desire to
features in the
history and social
life of those two great and powerful nationalities, or rather
peoples, not to be found in ordinary books of reference, has
been of later years divided with the study and collection of
the coins belonging to the English and Scotish series and
;
the enthusiasm and curiosity manifested toward these two
classes of early money,
if
they were not quite so powerfully
justified by the intrinsic merit and the antiquity, were supposed
to be dictated by a sort of patriotism in the case of
Englishmen and Americans. A man who could not understand
the utility or wisdom of accumulating the currencies
of remote and extinct states was amenable to the plea for
that of his native land or of the " old country." Various
idiosyncrasies of course crept into this movement. Some
collectors of the new English or British school began at the
beginning, and persevered unflinchingly to the very end ;
some drew the line at the Stuarts, others commenced with
the Georges a certain number
; preferred gold, a certain
number silver, a few, copper only ; many were omnivorous.
The majority, however, were not very fastidious, so long as
a coin was legible and cheap. Here and there condition
^ t
B