252 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. One could never be sure as to the genuineness of their com- position ; hence assays became indispensable for ascertaining weight, fineness, and portion of alloy. The most important innovation, the true innovation of genius, which transmuted the still imperfect ingot into money, was the adoption of a constant mark which, affixed to that of the sovereign, should by its bare presence remove all suspicions. By this official stamp the State vouched for the standard and weight of its metallic coinage, which it had issued " as signs of value," and FIG. 156. Weighing gold ingots in Egypt. After a painting at Thebes. WILKINSON, The Customs and Manners of Ancient Egyptians, znd edit., vol. i. Fig. 7. " the world was saved from perpetual weighing ; " 1 whilst public authority was rewarded for interposing in the interest of the com- munity, by having its money accepted without question. By this one act the specie acquired a current value which had not belonged to the ingots of the preceding epoch. At the same time the service rendered to commercial transactions put the government in a position to circulate its coinage in every country subject to its jurisdiction. Strictly speaking, the right assumed by authority is only legitimate as far as the money is genuine and what it purports to be ; should it fail of these conditions, no enactment of the law, however stringent and severe, will make it effective, or prevent the depreciation of a coinage whose nominal worth is much below its intrinsic value. 2 No coined money as is now proved was struck before the 1 ARISTOTLE, Polit^ I. vi. 2 LENORMANT, loc. '/., pp. 93, 94.
