“The metrologist, by comparing the weights of coins of different localities and periods, may gain an insight into the various systems of ancient metrology in its various standards, and obtain a just view of the relative values of the precious metals, and of the great lines of trade in the Greek and Roman world. For practical purposes the medallist and art workman will find in Greek coins the most profitable as well as the safest guide. The artist will not fail to perceive the suggestive value of designs which, on however small a scale, are essentially large in treatment.” [5] “A Guide to the Coins of the Ancients, from cir. B.C. 700 to A.D. 1,” with seventy plates, by B. V. Head, second edition, London, 8vo, 1881, Trübners. No one whose means are at all limited should attempt to form a complete collection of Greek coins. Even the vast collection in the British Museum is far from perfect, and in many series is still lamentably deficient. Any one, however, by limiting his ambition to one particular branch, may hope in course of time to form a cabinet the value of which will increase rapidly in proportion as it approaches completion. This applies not only to Greek coins but to every class. Thus, for instance, there are collectors of English coins who confine their attention to the Anglo-Saxon period; others who will buy no coins later than the reign of Charles I.; and others, again, who only collect the copper money of the last two centuries. The young collector who would not drift into unprofitable _dilettanteism_ should therefore select some one series and keep to it, and it is chiefly with the view of assisting him to make his choice of a field to work upon that these pages have been written. It will be well to form some idea, in the first instance, of the numerous series which are included in the general term of “_Greek coins_.” Greek coins may be divided into three principal sections:-- A. _Autonomous_, _i.e._ coins issued by cities governed by their own laws. B. _Regal_, _i.e._ coins struck in the names of kings. C. _Imperial_, _i.e._ coins of Greek cities struck in Roman Imperial times, and with the head of the Emperor on the obverse. And into eight chronological periods as follows:-- I. B.C. 700-480. _Period of Archaic Art_, ending with the Persian wars. II. B.C. 480-430. _Period of Transitional Art_, between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. III. B.C. 430-400. _Period of Early Fine Art_, to the end of the Athenian supremacy. IV. B.C. 400-336. _Period of Finest Art._ Age of the Spartan and Theban supremacies. Philip of Macedon. V. B.C. 336-280. _Period of Later Fine Art._ Age of Alexander and his immediate successors. VI. B.C. 280-197. _Period of the Decline of Art._ Age of the Epigoni or descendants of Alexander’s successors. VII. B.C. 197-27. _Period of Late Decline of Art._ Age of the Attalids, Mithradates, and of the Roman supremacy.