Dr Gil Davis

Macquarie University

 

ANU possesses a wonderfully representative collection of ancient Greek coins, which are fully described and discussed within the catalogue. This introduction serves to provide a general background about the world’s first prolific minting of money.

Why mint money? Nowadays, the question is seldom asked because money is all-pervasive in modern developed economies. This was not always the case. A sophisticated ‘commodity exchange’ was used for millennia in the great Eastern and Egyptian empires, in which silver was valued against wheat, dates, figs, olives, copper, gold and other commodities. Silver has been found extensively in the Near East in the form of hacksilber (lumps of silver, often chopped up jewellery); there is an argument in the literature as to whether this constituted a form of proto-money. The traditional answer to why money was invented is based on Aristotle’s contention (Nicomachean Ethics, book 5) that it was a development from barter, leading to his oft-quoted formulation that ‘money is the measure of everything’. In other words, money was useful because it was a universal denominator and because it was an imperishable, easily portable, readily exchangeable store of wealth.

The earliest coins appear to have been minted in Lydia around the end of the seventh century BC, dated by their find in a foundation deposit under the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos (the so-called ‘Artemision Hoard’). The attribution of the invention to the Lydians derives from Herodotos 1.94, but the use of money was closely followed, and maybe initiated, by local Ionian cities along the coast, including Miletos, Teos and Phokaia. The coins were minted in electrum, a mixture of gold and silver. Until recently, electrum was believed to have occurred naturally in the Paktolos River, which flowed through Sardis, the Lydian capital. It is now realised that this is not true. Electrum was cooked up to a precise recipe, from its inception, of 55% gold and 45% silver with minor amounts of copper (Craddock and Cahill 2020, 168). This regularised the composition of the earliest money, and therefore its value, by state fiat. Greek poleis (city-states) turned to pure silver probably because they lacked access to gold, but also because gold was intrinsically too valuable for everyday purchases. Even electrum coins had to be tiny, with the smallest of them weighing only 0.08 g with a diameter of 2.5 mm (1/192 stater).

Silver ore could be found in many places in the Greek world--most famously and extensively in Laurion (Attica) and Thrako-Makedonia (Northern Greece) but also in some of the Greek islands, albeit in lesser quantities, with evidence of exploitation from Spain to Iran (Stos-Gale and Davis 2020). Mineralisation only occurs at the subduction zones, where tectonic plates from Africa and Asia Minor meet and super-heated water filled with minerals is forced up to the surface (see Fig. 2 in Ross et al. 2020). In Greece, the minerals settled between the layers of schist and marble. Ancient miners could detect the presence of silver ore from the discolouration caused by oxidising minerals. Modern scholars can track ore sources by using isotopic analyses of lead, silver and copper, as isotopes do not change their composition in the manufacturing process (Albarede et al. 2020). Mixing of more than two silver sources does cause problems for the interpretation of provenance.  

Coinage was always minted to meet the expenditure requirements of the state. It could also assist with regulating payments to the state: for instance, payment of taxes and harbour dues. Ancient Greek poleis had no demonstrated interest in money supply; this was a by-product of expenditure. Coinage was only accepted at face value in the polis and the areas it controlled. It was issued at a discount, usually around 5%. This discount is termed ‘seigniorage’. It represents the profit made on the creation of money: the difference between its face value and the cost of materials (bullion plus manufacturing costs). The undervaluation makes money ‘fiduciary’ and stems from the power of the state to monopolise the money supply and enforce the use of its currency. The transition from pure commodity money essentially backed by its bullion value to over-valued money is seen in the issue of bronze coinage from Classical times. Paper money today is almost 100% overvalued.

Some poleis issued coins that traded widely. The most famous of these is the Athenian ‘owl’. In Classical times, it became accepted all around the Mediterranean and was widely imitated in the Near East. Many poleis did not issue coinage at all until Hellenistic times, with Sparta being a celebrated example. Presumably, they met their coinage needs from other states. It is important to note that silver in the form of bullion or larger denomination coins would have been used to settle larger transactions. Perhaps as little as 10% of silver was coined.  

Coins could be manufactured in several ways, depending mostly on the hardness of the metal (gold, silver, bronze), but the technical processes are still poorly understood, especially with respect to how the exact weights were maintained in the casting process (Faucher 2017). The main process for making silver coins consisted of a number of operations: preparing the metal, creating a blank flan by casting in a mould or otherwise, making of two dies (punches) for the obverse (front face) and reverse of the coin, and striking the die impressions carved in incuso onto the coins.

Coins were minted on weight standards and used in discrete currency areas. Thus, the Aiginetan standard circulated in the Peloponnese, the Aegean islands and Crete, while the Corinthian standard was used by that city’s extensive and far-flung colonies. The Attic/Euboeic standard was used by Athens and her allies, Euboia and her colonies and as far afield as Sicily. It was adopted by Alexander the Great and spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor. Confusingly, coins and weights have the same names but the coin weights are lighter (for the reason given above). The various standards employed different weights and denominations. Corinth had a stater weighing 8.6 grams divided into three drachmai while Athens had a tetradrachm weighing 17.25 grams divided into four drachmai. This meant they had to be exchanged for use in different areas. However, the Attic and Corinthian weights multiplied out to a common weight of a mina at 431 grams, enabling larger scale trade between them. The smaller denominations such as the Attic obol (one sixth of a drachma) were used in the agora (marketplace) for small purchases.

 

The coins in this collection may be classified according to place of origin:

 

1. Italy and Sicily

1990.01: Litra of Gela

1980.03: Hemidrachmon of Akragas

1981.04: Hemilitron of Timoleon of Syrakousai (Syracuse)

1967.11: Coin of Hieron II of Syrakousai (Syracuse)

1988.03: Stater of Kroton

1973.25: Stater of Metapontion

1985.02: Didrachmon of Taras (Tarentum)

 

2. Macedon and Successors

1967.24: Tetradrachmon of the kings of Makedonia (Macedon), in the name and types of Philip II of Makedonia, struck by Kassandros as regent

1967.25: Tetradrachmon struck in the name and types of Alexander III (the Great) of Makedonia (Macedon) by Seleukos I Nikator

2006.03: Tetradrachmon struck in the name and types of Alexander III (the Great) of Makedonia (Macedon)

2018.01: Tetradrachmon of Lysimachos

 

3. Central Greece—Illyria, Attica to Corinth

2014.02: Tetradrachmon of Athens

1967.15: Stater of Corinth

1973.27: Hemidrachmon of Corinth

1980.04: Triobolon (hemidrachmon) of Phokis

1980.07: Hemidrachmon of Thebes

2018.04: Obolos of Larissa

2018.10: Chalkous of Lamia

2018.06: Trichalkon of Pharsalos

2018.05: Dichalkon of Pelinna

 

4. Peloponnesos

1973.26: Obolos of Aigina

1987.01: Hemidrachmon of the Arkadian League, Megalopolis

 

5. Mysia

1966.71: Hemiobelion of Kyzikos

 

6. Ionia

1985.03: Drachma of Ephesos

1997.01: Bronze coin of Ephesos

 

7. Lydia

1968.11: Siglos of Kroisos (Croesus) of Lydia

 

8. Karia (Caria)

1973.28: Drachma of Rhodos (Rhodes)

1986.19: Stater of Aspendos, Pamphylia

 

9. Kappadokia (Cappadocia)

1985.08: Drachma of Ariobarzanes of Kappadokia (Cappadocia)

 

10. Syria

1983.03: Drachma of Antiochos III Megas

1968.12: Tetradrachmon of Seleukos IV of Syria

1985.06: Drachma of a Seleukid king

1985.07: Drachma of Demetrios II

2009.04: Tetradrachmon of Demetrios II Nikator

 

11. Egypt

1986.05: Coin of Ptolemy II Philopator

1976.01: 80-drachma piece of Kleopatra (Cleopatra) VII of Egypt

 

12. Parthia

1976.05: Drachma of Orodes II of Parthia

 

13. Baktria

1966.72: Drachma of Antialkidas of Parapomisidai

 

F. Albarede, J. Blichert-Toft, L. Gentelli, J. Milot, M. Vaxevanopoulos, S. Klein, K. Westner, T. Birch, G. Davis, F. de Callatäy (2020), ‘A miner’s perspective on Pb isotope provenances in the Western and Central Mediterranean’, Journal of Archaeological Science 121, article no. 105194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105194

P. Craddock and N. Cahill (2020).  ‘The gold of the Lydians’, in K. Sheedy & G. Davis (eds), Mines, Metals and Money: Ancient World Studies in Science, Archaeology and History, Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. 6, London, pp.165-174.

T. Faucher (2017). ‘Coin Minting Techniques in Ptolemaic Egypt: Observe, Analyze, Recreate’, Notae Numismaticae 12, https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/notae_numismaticae2017/0087

J. Ross, P. Voudouris, V. Melfos and M. Vaxevanopoulos, ‘Mines, Metals and Money In Attica and the Ancient World: The Geological Context’, in K. Sheedy and G. Davis (eds), Mines, Metals and Money: Ancient World Studies in Science, Archaeology and History, Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. 6, London, pp. 9-22.

Z. Stos-Gale and G. Davis (2020), ‘The Minting/Mining Nexus: New Understandings of Archaic Greek Silver Coinage from Lead Isotope Analysis’, in K. Sheedy & G. Davis (eds), Mines, Metals and Money: Ancient World Studies in Science, Archaeology and History, Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. 6, London, pp.87-100.