THE NUMISMATIC SOCIETY.

Southland Times, Issue 1623, 23 August 1872, Page 3

THE NUMISMATIC SOCIETY.

"William Allen, M.A., a member of the Numismatic Society of London, sends the following interesting letter to one of the Metropolitan papers: — At a recent meeting of the Numismatic Society of London, an interesting paper was read by the secretary upon an Armenian coin, which, has been recently discovered, and which throws unexpected light upon the words of our blessed Lord in Luke ixii. 25, " They that exercise authority over them are called benefactors." Hitherto, I believe, no contemporary illustration of our Saviour's words has been described or known to exist. The instance quoted by Wordsworth in his Commentary, and most of those given by Mr J. Y. Akerman in his valuable work, " Numismatic Illustrations of the New Testament," refer to dates long previous to our Saviour's birth, or to rulers who never exercised authority over the Jews ; but the coin of which I am now speaking exactly corroborates the assertion made by our Lord. This unique coin is one of a Kingi Artavazdes 11., who is supposed to have been placed on the throne of Armenia by the Komans, between B.C. 10 and A..D. 14. On the obverse is the head of Artavazdes, diademed, and on the reverse is the head of the Roman Emperor Augustus crowned with laurel, with the inscription theov ka.isa.kos enebgetott. , Thus, as iv so many other instances, after j the lapse of many centuries, an inscription ( has been unearthed bearing irrefragable testimony to the veracity and value of scripture history. In a letter addressed to me by the Bishop of Lincoln, with reference to this particular coin, hia Lordship justly says: "Such collateral evidences are of great value, and would do much service in these sceptical days."