6 here the die did not strike the metal true, and the craftsman was not concerned to trim away the overlapping metal. 10 from Caulonia, the delicate rope pattern of the margin is interrupted by a triangular break where the metal split. 2 from Thourii, presents an outline by no means circular in No. The eye is caught at the start by the irregularities and imperfections of the minting the coin No. Two questions are of perennial interest, the one historical, the other aesthetic: how did such beautiful coins come to be made and what is it that makes them so beautiful? Like the coins of Greece proper, they are beautified with devices so fresh, so various, so admirably adapted to their purpose, that they have been the despair of artists ever since. They were struck in the cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily in the spring time of Greek art and were of the mintages that were carried in the wallets of traders sailing their boats to the furthermost coves of the Mediterranean. 37 and 38 is from the John Thompson Morris collection which was acquired six years ago through the generosity of Miss Lydia T. Coins are generally classed with the products of the Minor Arts, those arts which beautify the things man “handles and reads from and looks out of and kneels upon and laughs at and hunts with and in which he arrays himself, his family, and his house.” 1 They are employed in the cheerful normal business of life and the decoration which guarantees their worth and so facilitates their owner’s business, may also beguile him a moment with its beauty.
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