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