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

Introduction 5 7
repeated, Was bound to impoverish the community or the
purse-holder. The debasement of the ordinary currency was
a still
graver symptom and danger. It might equally denote
an intermittent or temporary phenomenon arising
from the
dishonesty or extravagance of the Executive, and might in
such a case be susceptible of remedy ;
but chronic and
progressive deterioration rarely signified less than the demoralising
effect of political decadence.
Outside the mere numismatic point of view there is a
third direction in which the student or observer may judge
by this sort of help the financial rank and capacity of a
people. The descent of the currency to an infinitesimal
unit, as in the aspar, which in the days of Byron was current
in Turkey in Europe at less than the thirtieth part of a
penny, is the surest indication of poverty and insignificance,
since the circumstance too clearly shews, not that the market
was proportionately cheap, but that there was nothing which
in the eyes of a prosperous nation answered to one. A
moderate proportion of individuals may, from choice or need,
be " passing rich on forty pounds a year," and a Hindoo
rice-eater can perhaps live on fourpence a day ;
but prices
may just as easily be too low as too high.
XVIII
It is
hardly within our immediate province to enter into
the question of numismatic development among the ancient
Greeks; but an examination of all the known types of Hellenic
origin fills us with an agreeable persuasion
of the sense of
beauty and symmetry, accompanied by a reverence for
anatomical laws and a thorough insight into the structure
of the human frame. The union of genius with industry
and mechanical skill produced some of the most masterly
examples of medallic art which the world can ever hope
to see, and which found, perhaps, their nearest parallels
in
the chefs d'ccuvre of the Renaissance in Italy. In physiognomical
excellence and external accessories the latter quite