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RESTITUTION

Volume 19 · 116 words · 1842 Edition

in a moral and legal sense, is restoring a person to his right, or returning something unjustly taken or detained from him.

Restitution of Medals, or Restored Medals, is a term used by antiquaries for such medals as were struck by the emperors, to retrieve the memory of their predecessors. Hence, in several medals, we find the letters REST. This practice was first begun by Claudius, who struck afresh several medals of Augustus. Nero did the same; and Titus, imitating his father's example, struck restitutions of most of his predecessors. Gallicius struck a general restitution of all the preceding emperors on two medals; the one bearing an altar, the other an eagle without the letters REST.