For an easy reading of the article, in case you are interested, it is
still advisable to print it and look at the photos of the coins in the plates as they are mentioned in the text, instead of reading on the screen by going up and down with the mouse to see the images...
As I say in the text, I want to remind you that the difficulty of distinguishing figures composed by numbers and
monograms composed by Greek letters, do not only characterize we modern people but also
concerned the same ancient
Greeks if they were not aware of the
standard by which to interpret the
monograms, like this nice epigram from Alcaeus of Mitylene (Anthologia Palatina,
VII, 429)
reminds us:
I ask myself why this road-side
stone has only two
chiselled on it.
Was the name of the woman who is buried here Chilias?
The number chilia [=1,000] which is the sum of two letters [
=500;
x 2= 1,000]
points to this.
Or am I astray in this guess
and was the name of her who dwells in this mournful tomb Phidis [=
= twice
]?
Now am I the Oedipus who has solved the
sphinx’s riddle.
He deserves praise, the
man who made this puzzle out of two letters,
a light to the intelligent and darkness to the unintelligent.