The numismatic journal (Volume 2) - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1837 Excerpt: ... 121 XVII. ON THE CURRENT COINS OF GREAT BRITAIN, CONSIDERED AS WORKS OF ART. That the coins of Ancient Greece are superior, as works of art, to those of our own country, no one has ever denied. After glancing over a collection of those beautiful objects, it is impossible to review the contents of one's purse, without being made painfully sensible that the present age suffers severely by the comparison. But then we recollect, perhaps, that our inferiority is shared by our neighbours the French, and indeed by all the nations of Europe' while in the manifest degradation of the art of coinage in still remoter regions--in the extreme East, and in the "far West,"--we proudly recognize our national superiority, and forget the high standard proposed to us by the ancients. England will never produce a series of coins like those of Ancient Greece, for many reasons. The commercial and utilitarian spirit which pervades all the arrangements of society at the present day, would cry out against the bold relief of the money of a more primitive age; and that high relief is one main source of beauty. We require that our money should pile or stack; and for this object, besides smoothness of surface, uniformity of size is necessary. Here again the secret charm of a Greek coin is dissolved--for the very irregularity of its outline makes it beautiful, by making it picturesque; and an agreeable contrast is insensibly instituted between the curious felicity--the refined VOL. II. K taste, and real care displayed in the execution of the dye, and the apparent negligence with which the coin was sent forth. Frequently it is the mere sketch of a great artist which is set before us; but in the cracked edge, and irregular shape of the metal on which it has been preserved, we invariably re...