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Each is an excellent example of its ilk; each bears the physical imprint of an existence dictated by both utility and by art. The coins have been sequestered for some time now, cherished for their beauty, insulated from the wear and tear of use. Well they should be, for these coins and others are the sine qua non of the applied arts, the intersection between common use and exalted artistic forms of the era in which they were struck. The dolphins, chariots, horses, gods, goddesses, political leaders in their helmets, hairdos and other flora and fauna, splendidly presented, provide us a window on the ancient world. The owl, a symbol of Athena, surrounded by olive branches on an Athens new style tetradrachm coin is wonderful to behold: Athena's helmeted head graces the reverse. One thinks of the substantially lost world and beliefs which inspired this coin and the subsequent stylistic periods that transmitted its aesthetic mark, from the Renaissance to William Morris, not to mention Scandinavian modern pattern motifs. These coins were fashioned at a time when goldsmiths and silversmiths and one's family members were de facto bankers. The sculptural beauty of these coins was of paramount importance; at the same time, they were prestigious artifacts and tangible emissaries of family wealth and culture. Henry James' passage from The Golden Bowl, comparing a beautiful woman to a purse of gold coins, is as descriptive today as it might have been when these HYLAND