CHAPTER XV

Literary Direction given to My Numismatic Studies and Choice--The Wallenstein Thaler--The Good Caliph Haroun El Reschid--Some of the Twelve Peers of France who struck Money--Lorenzo de' Medici, called _The Magnificent_--Robert the Devil--Alfred the Great--Harold--The Empress Matilda-- Marino Faliero--Massaniello--The Technist thinks poorly of Me--My Plea for the Human, Educating Interest in Coins--The Penny Box now and then makes a Real Collector--How I threw Myself _in Medias Res_--First Impressions of the Greek Series--My Difficulty in Apprehending Facts--Early Illusions gradually dissipated--What Constitutes a Typical Greek and Roman Cabinet--And what renders Great Collections Great--Redundance in Certain Cases defended--Official Authorities except to My Treatment of the Subject--Tom Tidler's Ground--The Technical _versus_ the Vital and Substantial Interest in Coins--My Width of Sympathy Beneficial to Myself and likely to prove so to My Followers--Outline and Distribution of My Collection-- Autotype Replicas and Forgeries--Romantic Evolution of Bactrian Coinage and History--Caution to My Fellow-Collectors against Excessive Prices for Greek Coins--Wait and Watch--Mr Hyman Montagu and His Roman Gold, and the Moral--The Best Coins not the Dearest--Our National Series--Its Susceptibility to Eclectic Treatment--A Whimsical Speculation--An Untechnical Method of Looking at a Coin--A Burst Bubble--The Continental Currencies--Their Clear Superiority of Interest and Instructive Power--The Writer's Attitude toward Them, 304