DIE GEWICHTE UND WERTE DER PTOLEMAISCHEN MUNZEN

Friedrich Otto Hultsch (1833-1906) studied classical philology at the University of Leipzig from 1851 to 1855; then he was specialized in the history of mathematics and the numismatic metrology. The first edition of the current work was published by Teubner under the title ''Die ptolemaischen Munz- und Rechnungswerte'' (Leipzig, 1903). More than 25 reprints by various publishers followed during the 20th century, despite the fact that Hultsch had in part revised the text of the first edition, just before his death in 1906. The year 1904 was also the year of the publication of Jean Svoronos’ great work on the coins of the Ptolemies (''Τ? νομίσματα τ?ν Πτολεμαίων'', Athens 1904), in three volumes. Svoronos had also planned a French edition of this book for his international audience, but finally he preferred to proceed to the edition of a revised fourth volume in German, four years later; in the foreword he writes that six months before the release of the Greek edition and while he was preparing the international version, the German metrologist sent him a copy of his study. One of the main differences of the fourth volume of Svoronos, in comparison to the previous ones, would be the addition of a chapter on the Ptolemaic metrology; but the reading of Hultsch’s study convinced him that the two texts were incompatible. Therefore, Svoronos wrote a long letter to Hultsch, exposing his opinions and urging the German savant to revise his treatise in the light of the new data; he also added that he could omit his own chapter on metrology from the fourth volume and replace it with an appendix containing the revised text by Hultsch; and the great Hultch consents and —when after a few months receives the first three volumes of Svoronos — says that the new finds and the new classification was a pleasant surprise to him! Unfortunately, Hultsch was already seriously ill when he began revising his treatise; despite his ilness, he managed to finish it but could not correct the