GENERAL Fox's GREEK.
Addison Road, 10th November 1856.
Sin—In your paper of last Saturday, at par 1194, you have noticed my catalogue of inedited coins of Europe : for which I am much obliged to you ; but your reviewer says as follows—" Nor are the references always exact I am really not aware that this is the case ; for I took very great pains to render them exact, and exactness in these matters is of the ntmost conse- quence. It is, however, so difficult to be certain that no errors occur in
such matters, that I should be very grateful if these errors could be pointed out to me by your reviewer.
[We regret that the fact compels us to confirm to our courteous corre- spondent the statement in our last number that the references are not ex- act. To test the matter, we have gone through the engravings and the re- ferences together up to No. 63 ; with the following result.
No. 1 is catalogued as " Front face (Apollo) apparently with a crown of laurel." We presume this should stand "Front face (Apollo apparently) with a crown of laurel " ; as,. if the engraving is correct, there can be no doubt about the laurel, though there may be abdut the, personage. No. 2 is catalogued as " Similar, except the expression of the face " ; and except the crown of laurel, should have been added, since, as General Fox observes, "exactness in these matters is of the utmost consequence." No. 16, for OOTP read 00YPI ON. No. 17, no reference made to the fish, while in the precisely similar case of No. 18 the fish is specified. No. 30 is referred to under No. 31, and vice versa ; 39, moreover, being said to be (out of its natural sequence) " at the end of plate 4," while this is really the case with 31 instead. No. 33: the inscription not referred to, though a sen- tence is begun purporting to refer to it. No. 34: for 11FAOPIA2 read HEASIPIA2 ; the inscription on the reverse not menu(' ined. Nos. 35, 46, 49, 52, described as of one material in the plate, another in the text. No. 40: for " Siculo, Punic," read "Siculo-Punic." No. 53, for ATT read ATP (Augustus). No. 57: for KAAXIAE0N read KAAKI4EON. The so-called "lyre of seven strings" is of eight strings in the engraving. Nos. 62 and 63, inscription omitted. Further, the inscriptions on Nos. 3, 6, 15, 19, 23, 29, 30, 31, 35, 52, and 61, and the device on No, 14, are, with- out explanation, stated differently in the reference from what they stand in the engraving-sometimes differently not a little.. Now it is true, (as we said last week,) that General Fox conveys in his preface a *raining,' that the engravings exhibit "some slight deviations from the original coins" ; but he adds-" These, however, I have carefully noted, and they are of very small importance." We do not think that a different reading in the text, without a word to call :attention to the discrepancy, could be called " careful notation" ; and as in two or three other instances the discrepancies are ac- tually so pointed out, we infer that, where this it not done, it is not intended to be done, and that the cases which we have enumerated are not among those which General Fox meant to include in his prefatory remark. On another point we touch with diffidence, because we have not the faint- est notion of measuring ourself against General Fox on numismatics. We would ask him to decide for himself, however, whether the inscription on No. 10 is not K002, rather than two separate words or syllables " KO above and 20 below " ; and whether the coin is not therefore one of Coos, instead of Lana. And again, we would ask whether, if No. 11 is: .of Laus, the inscription is not manifestly AA02 (with some letters besides), rather than that marvellous Hellenism which the General jnits up with, 2TA091. That the "grain of corn" of- No. 12 looks very like a vase, and the "Bac- chus" of No. 13 very unlike a Greek Bacchus, are points which strike us strongly, but on which we would not venture to insist.]
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