jahrbuch numismatik geldgeschichte - Bayerische Numismatische ...

28 David MacDonaldBabelon's hypothesis of its significance. Rather, the issue ought to be seenin the light of the eclectic choice of coin types typical of some Greekcoinages during the late sixth century B.C. and early fifth centuries B.C.Athens, for instance, struck Wappenmünzen in a variety of types beforeadopting the Gorgoneion/lion "national" type and then finally settling onthe Athena/owl coinage, which, of course, became the standard typethroughout the fifth and fourth centuries. Chalkis first struck a stater bearinga quadriga/incuse. Fractions bore a horseman with a spare horse and ahorseman alone. These were replaced in turn by a head/quadriga issue, andthen by an eagle/wheel issue apparently struck over the course of severaldecades, for there are a number of variations: the form of the wheel variesgreatly on different coins, the incuse containing the wheel may be eithersquare or triangular, a three Letter ethnic appears on some coins, and on thelater coins the eagle clutches a snake in apparent imitation of the earlieststaters of Elis. Some mints struck a great variety of types, while others struckvariations of a single type. The standardized types that characterize many ofthe coinages of the fifth and fourth centuries were in the process of developmentduring the later sixth century.The borrowing of coin types, such as Chalkis' copying of the Elis eagle andsnake, was also common in the late sixth and first half of the fifth centuries.Examples can be multiplied at great length, but one is of immediaterelevance. Tanagra struck during the first half of the fifth century with thetypical obverse type of the heroic shield and the reverse type of a "Chalkidian"wheel — exactly the same combination of types present on the earliershield/wheel issue in question.21In this context of experimentation and copying, variations in coin typescannot be vested automatically with the sorts of political implications thathave been read into the shield/wheel issue. One would be hard pressed tocite contemporary issues announcing the formation of an alliance or joiningof a league. 22 A symmachia between Chalkis and Elis cannot reasonable be21BMC Central Greece, pp. 60-61 nos. 9-21; B.V. Head, On the Chronological Sequenceof the Coins of Boeotia (London, 1881), pp. 21-22, noting the similarity to the Chalkidianshield/wheel issue.22Few issues unambiguously indicate any sort of inter-city relations, and those do notnecessarily indicate military alliances. Commercial relations, monetary conventions,religious, festival, and agonistic alliances are all possibilities. It is possible that one groupof electrum staters was issued by the allies during the Ionian Revolt, but Kraay, Archaic,30 rightly points out that decisive proof of any connection between the coins and the revoltis lacking. Other likely military alliance coins are the EYN marked coins, which date tothe early fourth century (Kraay, Archaic, pp. 248-249 and literature cited there), but eventhere the character of the coinage is debatable and unclear. It has been held to representboth a pro-Spartan and anti-Spartan combination. In fact, there is no compelling proof thatit represents a military alliance. The coinages of the Boiotian and other leagues were, of