Background on Greek coins.pdf - RebelText
Background on Greek coins.pdf - RebelText
Background on Greek coins.pdf - RebelText
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Ancient <strong>Greek</strong> Coins Through the Time of Alexander the Great:<br />
An Absurdly Brief Summary<br />
J. Edward Taylor<br />
The very first <strong>coins</strong> were struck in Lydia, <strong>on</strong> the west coast of what is<br />
now Turkey, in the 7th Century BC. At that time, most exchanges were in kind,<br />
not in cash, but to the East, precious metals were used as currency and carefully<br />
weighed for each transacti<strong>on</strong>. The earliest unit of value was an ox, as any<strong>on</strong>e<br />
who has read the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer knows. This is logical, because<br />
an ox is indivisible (without turning it into something else!). When metals were<br />
used as currency for trade around the Mediterranean their values were adjusted<br />
to the ox-unit. In the Aegean the gold unit of value or talant weighing 8.5<br />
grammes was the price of an ox. The equivalent value was about 13 times<br />
heavier in silver. It reached 25½ kilograms (about 60 pounds) or more in<br />
br<strong>on</strong>ze or copper, depending <strong>on</strong> the local availability of these metals. There<br />
exist br<strong>on</strong>ze talants of about this weight, cast in the shape of ox hides. Metals<br />
were more practical currencies than oxen, and naturally over l<strong>on</strong>g distances<br />
precious metals were more practical than br<strong>on</strong>ze or ir<strong>on</strong>. However, they had to<br />
be weighed and re-weighed for every transacti<strong>on</strong>.<br />
Aristotle described how a recognized authority, by striking ingots of<br />
gold, silver or electrum (an alloy of the two) with a mark certifying the quality<br />
and weight of the metal, could vastly simplify transacti<strong>on</strong>s. The inventi<strong>on</strong> of<br />
<strong>coins</strong> thus seems to have its roots in efforts to reduce transacti<strong>on</strong> costs. Early<br />
<strong>coins</strong> generally were valued <strong>on</strong>ly for the bouill<strong>on</strong> they c<strong>on</strong>tained, but the type or<br />
image struck up<strong>on</strong> them by a governing authority certified the weight and<br />
quality of this bouill<strong>on</strong>.<br />
During the golden age of ancient <strong>Greek</strong> coinage, up to the c<strong>on</strong>quests of<br />
Alexander III (“The Great”) in 335-323 BC, local coinages flourished in<br />
hundreds of <strong>Greek</strong> city-states and col<strong>on</strong>ies around the Mediterranean. Each<br />
locale had its own design or tipos. Examples include: Athena and the owl in<br />
Athens; the Pegasos in Corinth; the wheat ear in Metap<strong>on</strong>tum; a boy riding a<br />
dolphin in Taras; a rose in Rhodes; a nymph being carried off by a Satyr <strong>on</strong> the<br />
island of Thasos; horses in Larissa; the nymph Arethusa and chariot of<br />
Syracuse; the hare of Messana. These images c<strong>on</strong>veyed the authority of the<br />
local state, but they also reflected identities of <strong>Greek</strong> city-states and their<br />
people. Larissa was famous for its horses, Metap<strong>on</strong>tum for its grain. Tarsos <strong>on</strong><br />
the dolphin was the legendary founder of Taras. The idea of putting Athena and<br />
the owl <strong>on</strong> the <strong>coins</strong> of Athens is attributed to Pisistrates, the popular despot<br />
who took c<strong>on</strong>trol of Athens from a ruling oligarchy in the late 6th Century BC.<br />
His displacement of the tipos of the oligarch families with Athena, the diety of
Athens, was critical to his appeal to the populace. Arethusa, the local fountain<br />
goddess of Syracuse, appears <strong>on</strong> the obverse of the Syracusan tetradrachm;<br />
Di<strong>on</strong>ysos <strong>on</strong> the staters of Thebes, famous for its wine; and the Pegasus, who<br />
according to legend was tamed by Belleroph<strong>on</strong>e in Corinth (with the help of<br />
Athena), is <strong>on</strong> all silver <strong>coins</strong> of that city-state as well as of its col<strong>on</strong>ies.<br />
The c<strong>on</strong>quests of Alexander the Great transformed the numismatic<br />
landscape of ancient Greece, ushering in what is known as the Hellenistic period<br />
of <strong>Greek</strong> coinage. They snuffed out most of the diverse coinages of city states<br />
and replaced them with <strong>on</strong>e main type: Heracles wearing a li<strong>on</strong> skin <strong>on</strong> the<br />
obverse and, <strong>on</strong> the reverse, Zeus seated <strong>on</strong> a thr<strong>on</strong>e, holding a scepter in his left<br />
hand and an eagle, his symbol, in his right. These <strong>coins</strong> bear the reverse<br />
inscripti<strong>on</strong> of “Alexander” (����������).<br />
Recognizing the ec<strong>on</strong>omic and political importance of having a uniform<br />
coinage, Alexander quickly established his own mints in the places he<br />
c<strong>on</strong>quered, probably moving die makers from <strong>on</strong>e mint to the next. As<br />
Alexander c<strong>on</strong>quered new city-states he established mints to strike a vast silver<br />
coinage. For example, Martin Price, who wrote the most authoritative work <strong>on</strong><br />
the coinage of Alexander the Great, writes: 1<br />
“When Alexander arrived in Cilicia he found a well established<br />
Persian coinage produced from Tarsus by the satraps. The silver<br />
staters displayed the figure of Baal of Tarsus, seated and holding<br />
his flowering sceptre...the same engravers clearly turned from<br />
cutting dies for the Persians to producing those of the imperial<br />
Maced<strong>on</strong>ian coinage. Details of the thr<strong>on</strong>e, drapery, and figure<br />
can be closely compared in the two series, and it is certain that the<br />
mint began to strike the Alexander series without any serious break<br />
in producti<strong>on</strong>...immediately after Alexander’s arrival in summer<br />
333 BC.”<br />
Alexander <strong>coins</strong> were c<strong>on</strong>sidered sound m<strong>on</strong>ey—the receiver knew that<br />
the coin was of a certain weight in silver. The weights of the <strong>coins</strong> were<br />
regulated by city officials called magistrates. It is some of their official symbols<br />
and m<strong>on</strong>ograms that we find <strong>on</strong> the reverses of the Alexander <strong>coins</strong>, usually<br />
underneath or to the left of the thr<strong>on</strong>e. The Alexander coinage was principally<br />
used to pay soldiers, tribute (levies & taxes), and later protecti<strong>on</strong> m<strong>on</strong>ey to<br />
barbarians. When Alexander was alive, there were about 26 mints producing<br />
his coinage, from Amphipolis to Alexandria and Babyl<strong>on</strong>. After his death,<br />
<strong>Greek</strong> rulers and cities throughout the former Alexandrian Empire produced<br />
Alexander coinage at 52 mints at its peak. In all about 114 different mints<br />
1 From The Coinage in the Name of Alexander the Great and Philip Arrhidaeus, by Martin<br />
Jessup Price (1991), p. 369.<br />
2
produced Alexander coinage over a period of 250 years. The last “Alexanders”<br />
were minted at Mesembria around 65 B.C.<br />
<strong>Greek</strong> coinage was again transformed following Alexander III’s death in<br />
323 BC, when the empire was carved up am<strong>on</strong>g the diadochi, Alexander’s<br />
generals and administrators who succeeded him. A veritable mess ensued.<br />
Ptolemy, <strong>on</strong>e of the leading generals, received Egypt and managed to keep<br />
c<strong>on</strong>trol of it in the midst of incessant warfare. The general Antig<strong>on</strong>us had<br />
c<strong>on</strong>trol of Asia Minor, Syria, and Mesopotamia at <strong>on</strong>e time (316); however,<br />
Lysimachus, Seleucus I, and Ptolemy I united against him. Both Antig<strong>on</strong>us and<br />
Ptolemy were defeated at the battle at Ipsus (in 301 BC), and Antig<strong>on</strong>us was<br />
killed. Lysimachus took c<strong>on</strong>trol of Thrace and later (in 301 BC, after the defeat<br />
of Antig<strong>on</strong>us at Ipsus), West Asia Minor. In 286 B.C. he added Maced<strong>on</strong>ia by<br />
defeating Pyrrhus, but five years later he was defeated by Seleucus. The general<br />
Seleucus (“the Nikator”) received Babyl<strong>on</strong>ia, enlarged his holdings by<br />
c<strong>on</strong>quering Susiana and Media, then invaded Northwest India. Later (c.305) he<br />
yielded part of present Afghanistan to Chandragupta but received war elephants<br />
in return. (These are depicted <strong>on</strong> the reverse of some of his <strong>coins</strong>.) When<br />
Antig<strong>on</strong>us was defeated at Ipsus in 301 B.C., Seleucus gained a large part of<br />
Asia Minor and all of Syria. He finally w<strong>on</strong> Asia Minor by defeating<br />
Lysimachus in the battle at Corupedi<strong>on</strong> in Lydia in 281, an event that marked<br />
the end of the Diadochi. This left the descendants of Ptolemy, Seleucus, and<br />
Antig<strong>on</strong>us as the chief claimants to power in the Hellenistic age.<br />
The new rulers’ mints c<strong>on</strong>tinued producing the Alexander types for<br />
varying lengths of time, gradually adding their names to the reverse. At this<br />
point in the development of coinage, images of humans were rare and those of<br />
living humans were never used as tipos. Lysimachus replaced Heracles with the<br />
deified Alexander wearing the li<strong>on</strong> skin <strong>on</strong> the obverse of his silver tetradrachm.<br />
Thereafter, eastern <strong>Greek</strong> coinage quickly evolved into a portrait gallery of<br />
living rulers, a precursor of the Roman coinage to come. Seleucus I (the<br />
Nikator) does not portray himself <strong>on</strong> <strong>coins</strong>, but the portraits of his successors<br />
(Seleucus II-IV and Antiochus I-V), often beautifully crafted, become the<br />
obverse types <strong>on</strong> Syrian <strong>coins</strong>. The mints of Syria, Egypt and Bactria all<br />
created striking portrayals of their rulers. To the West, in mainland Greece,<br />
Sicily and Southern Italy, the custom of not portraying living rulers persisted up<br />
to Roman c<strong>on</strong>quest.<br />
Examples of Ancient <strong>Greek</strong> Coins and their Descripti<strong>on</strong>s<br />
Lydia Double Siglos (561-541 BC)<br />
The earliest <strong>coins</strong> were struck in Lydia in electrum, a natural alloy of<br />
gold and silver, and archeological evidence places the origin of coinage at<br />
around the middle of the 7 th Century BC. The introducti<strong>on</strong> of gold and silver<br />
<strong>coins</strong> (bimetalism) is attributed to Croesus between 560 and 545 BC. These<br />
earliest of <strong>coins</strong> had a design <strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong>ly <strong>on</strong>e side (the obverse). The reverse bore<br />
3
the mark of the punch used to strike the coin, which numismatists call the<br />
“incuse.”<br />
Lydia under Persian Rule, Kroisos, 561-546 BC. AR Double Siglos (10.38<br />
g). C<strong>on</strong>fr<strong>on</strong>ted foreparts of li<strong>on</strong> and bull/Double incuse punch. Traité pl. 10, 7,<br />
SNG v<strong>on</strong> Aulock 2809.<br />
Athenian Tetradrachm or “Owl” (c. 445 BC)<br />
The Athenian Owl dominated and facilitated commerce throughout the<br />
Mediterranean for more than a century. Slightly before 600 BC it replaced local<br />
oligagchic types to become the stater, or chief coin, of Athens. After that, and<br />
particularly after Athens’ defeat of the Persians, it became recognized<br />
everywhere around the Mediterranean. It was the world’s first great<br />
internati<strong>on</strong>al currency, with an ec<strong>on</strong>omic importance far exceeding that of any<br />
other coin up to its time. Owls played a dominant role in trade around the<br />
Mediterranean. These <strong>coins</strong> are still found occasi<strong>on</strong>ally in hoards uncovered as<br />
far away as Sicily, to the west, and Babyl<strong>on</strong> and bey<strong>on</strong>d, to the east. The wide<br />
geographic area over which they are found reflects the immense reach of<br />
Athenian trade during the 5 th Century BC.<br />
In ancient times, when this coin was struck, it was the wage for <strong>on</strong>e<br />
m<strong>on</strong>th's adjudicati<strong>on</strong> of a district judge.<br />
Attica, Athens, c. 445 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.14 g). Head of<br />
Athena right, wearing crested helmet/Owl standing right, head<br />
facing, olive twig and crescent behind. Svor<strong>on</strong>os-Pick, plate 12,<br />
21. SNG Berry 651. Bost<strong>on</strong> MFA 1081. cf. Hirmer plate 119,<br />
363. cf Starr plate XXII, 4’.<br />
Islands off Thrace, Thasos, Stater (c. 435-411 BC)<br />
4
The island of Thasos was the principal mint in the regi<strong>on</strong> of Thrace in<br />
the north of Greece. It had <strong>on</strong>e of the most original types of any ancient <strong>Greek</strong><br />
coin: a Satyr carrying off a nymph. On the earliest of these <strong>coins</strong>, struck during<br />
the first half of the 5 th Century BC, the nymph raises her hand in protest, and the<br />
style is somewhat crude and archaic. Towards the end of the 5 th Century it is<br />
replaced by this <strong>on</strong>e, which clearly is of classical style: the treatment of the<br />
Satyr and nymph became refined and harm<strong>on</strong>ious. Seltman (p. 145) notes that<br />
“The rough struggle <strong>on</strong> the earlier <strong>coins</strong> has been t<strong>on</strong>ed down to the more polite<br />
abducti<strong>on</strong> of a not unwilling nymph,” and he attributes the finer style to the<br />
direct influence of Attic art. This later, classical type is c<strong>on</strong>siderably rarer than<br />
the early, archaic <strong>on</strong>e, and the specimen here stands out in terms of its artistry<br />
and c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>. Interestingly, the incuse punch (in a 4-square design) persists<br />
through this coinage in Thasos, l<strong>on</strong>g after it has been replaced by an obverse<br />
type at other major mints.<br />
Islands off Thrace, Thasos, c. 435-411 BC. AR Stater (8.64 g). Satyr<br />
advancing right, carrying protesting nymph; A to right / Quadripartite incuse<br />
square. Le Rider, Thasiennes 6; SNG Copenhagen Supp. 103.<br />
Metap<strong>on</strong>tum Stater (c. 490 BC)<br />
The <strong>coins</strong> of south Italy illustrate the leap of coinage westward.<br />
Metap<strong>on</strong>ti<strong>on</strong> and three other Achaean col<strong>on</strong>ies (Sybaris, Crot<strong>on</strong> and Caul<strong>on</strong>ia)<br />
used a remarkable technique not found elsewhere: a relief design <strong>on</strong> the<br />
obverse repeated intaglio <strong>on</strong> the reverse. The explanati<strong>on</strong> for these strange<br />
coinages is not clear. One view attributes the incuse technique to Pythagoras,<br />
who moved to southern Italy right around the time these coinages began. It sees<br />
the positive-negative idea as taken directly from the philosophy of Pythagoras:<br />
light and dark, raised and incuse, an elegant and beautiful expressi<strong>on</strong>.<br />
Practically, these <strong>coins</strong> presented some major problems of striking. Since there<br />
were two dies used (in other words, the reverse is not just a "show-through" of<br />
the obverse, like <strong>on</strong> most medieval bracteates), the dies had to be quite perfectly<br />
aligned. If they were not, the flans would crack, and the minters were back to<br />
square <strong>on</strong>e. This is probably <strong>on</strong>e reas<strong>on</strong> why the flans got smaller and smaller,<br />
and, most importantly, thicker, so that they would not break so easily. Another<br />
explanati<strong>on</strong> for the incuse method, suggested by Kraay, is simply that there was<br />
not yet any generally accepted way of minting <strong>coins</strong>, so each area had its own<br />
variati<strong>on</strong>s, and this technique, invented in Metap<strong>on</strong>tum or Sybaris, may have<br />
5
een adapted from repousé work. The incuse coinages did not last l<strong>on</strong>g; they<br />
were aband<strong>on</strong>ed after about a century.<br />
Metap<strong>on</strong>tum. Circa 510-470 BC. AR Nomos (8.11 g, 12h). (Rev.) META <strong>on</strong> right, sixgrained<br />
barley ear / Incuse eight-grained ear. Noe 193 (same dies); HN Italy 1482.<br />
Messana Tetradrachm (c. 420-413 BC)<br />
We have it <strong>on</strong> the authority of Aristotle that the mule-team and hare <strong>on</strong><br />
this tetradrachm of Messana commemorate the Olympic victory by Anaxilas,<br />
tyrant of Messana and, across the Strait of Messina in what is now Italy,<br />
Rhegium, in 484 or 480 BC:<br />
“Sicily was without hares until the time of Anaxilas of Rhegium,<br />
but he imported and preserved them, and, as about the same time<br />
he w<strong>on</strong> a victory at Olympia with his mule-car, he placed <strong>on</strong> the<br />
Rhegine <strong>coins</strong> the types of a mule-car and a hare.” 2<br />
The reverse type of the leaping hare is unique to Messana and Rhegium.<br />
Jenkins (p. 91) attributes it to being the animal of Pan, who appears underneath<br />
the hare <strong>on</strong> some specimens. This <strong>on</strong>e, however, has a rarer type of the hare and<br />
fly. Aristotle reports that Anaxilas introduced hares into Sicily. Kray (214)<br />
suggests that the hare may refer to a cult, associated with Pan, brought to<br />
Messana under Anaxilas. Whatever its origin, it seems that Messanians<br />
associated the hare with the worship of their god Pan, as it c<strong>on</strong>tinued to be<br />
struck l<strong>on</strong>g after the tyrant’s death. In 369 BC Carthage destroyed Messana,<br />
putting an end to its coinage.<br />
2 Pollux, Onom. V, 75.<br />
6
Sicily, Messana. , c. 420-413 BC. AR Tetradrachm. Biga of mules driven<br />
left by female charioteer; in exergue, two dolphins meeting/Hare bounding right;<br />
beneath, fly. 17.35 g. Caltabiano 516 (these dies), SNG ANS 373 (these dies),<br />
James<strong>on</strong> 650 (these dies).<br />
Alexander III, the Great, Lifetime Tetradrachm (327-323 BC)<br />
This, like most lifetime issues, has both the legs of Zeus in fr<strong>on</strong>t of the thr<strong>on</strong>e<br />
<strong>on</strong> the reverse, with the feet placed <strong>on</strong> a low stool (most of the posthumous<br />
issues have <strong>on</strong>e leg pulled back). There are other differences between lifetime<br />
and posthumous issues that vary from mint to mint. The tetradrachm pictured<br />
below was struck at Tarsos. Lifetime issues from Tarsos of Alexander the Great<br />
employed the plough symbol. No other city used the plough as a mint symbol<br />
for Alexander's coinage.<br />
Maced<strong>on</strong>ian Kingdom, Alexander III, the Great, 336-323 BC, AR<br />
Tetradrachm minted at Tarsos, c. 327-323 BC (17.17 g). Head right of young<br />
Herakles wearing li<strong>on</strong>'s skin/Zeus enthr<strong>on</strong>ed left, holding eagle and scepter; in<br />
left field, plow; under thr<strong>on</strong>e, "theta"; above right, pellet. Price 3032. Muller<br />
1284.<br />
Seleucus I Nicator, Drachm (296/5-281 BC)<br />
Seleucus, who had been <strong>on</strong>e of Alexander’s most brilliant officers,<br />
received the satrapy of Babyl<strong>on</strong> so<strong>on</strong> after Alexander’s death and then extended<br />
his empire until it stretched from the Aegean Sea to the Indus, ruling over the<br />
7
largest part of what had been Alexander’s empire. For a time Seleucus<br />
c<strong>on</strong>tinued minting the Alexander tetradrachms, but so<strong>on</strong> he developed a coinage<br />
of his own al<strong>on</strong>g side it. This drachm is <strong>on</strong>e. It depicts the head of Zeus <strong>on</strong> the<br />
obverse and, <strong>on</strong> the reverse, an elephant quadriga pulling Athena. This type is<br />
an allusi<strong>on</strong> to Seleucus’ use of battle elephants from the time he entered into a<br />
treaty with the Indian king Chandragupta, in which he bartered whole provinces<br />
for 500 war elephants. The elephants proved decisive in the battle of Ipsus a<br />
year later, in 303 BC. The floating anchor is a comm<strong>on</strong> device adopted by<br />
Seleucus because of an anchor-shaped birth mark the he had <strong>on</strong> his thigh,<br />
according to Seltman (p. 227). This is a well-centered, high-grade example of<br />
an important type; note the remarkable detail <strong>on</strong> so small of a coin.<br />
Seleucid Kingdom, Seleucus I Nicator, 312-281 BC, AR Drachm minted at<br />
Seleucia-Tigris, 2 nd workshop, ca. 296/5-281 BC (4.27 g). Laureate head of<br />
Zeus right/Athena in elephant quadriga. SC 131.5c. ESM 78A.<br />
Antiochos V, Tetradrachm (164-162 BC)<br />
Of all the portraits of the Seleukid dynasts, this tetradrachm of Antiochos V, the<br />
boy king, is am<strong>on</strong>g the most magnificent. Antiochos inherited the thr<strong>on</strong>e at the<br />
age of 9 after the sudden death of Antiochus IV (brother of Seleucus IV) in 164<br />
BC. He was murdered after two years by his cousin, Demetrius I.<br />
Syria, Seleukid Kingdom, Antiochos V, 164-162 BC. AR Tetradrachm minted at Antioch<br />
or Seleucis (16.61 g). Diademed head right of Antiochos V/Zeus enthr<strong>on</strong>ed left, holding Nike<br />
and scepter; m<strong>on</strong>ogram in exergue and outer left field. Hought<strong>on</strong> CSE 141 (this coin). From<br />
the Ma’aret en-Numan hoard (1979). This coin possesses a magnificent portrait of this childking,<br />
then about 10 years old.<br />
8
About Die Numbers<br />
All of the <strong>coins</strong> described above include references to die numbers. The<br />
dies that were used to strike ancient <strong>coins</strong> almost never survive, but by carefully<br />
comparing <strong>coins</strong> it is possible to find which were struck from the same dies, and<br />
in what sequence. For some city-states (e.g., Syracuse in the 5 th Century),<br />
almost complete die records exist, so that discoveries of new hoards rarely<br />
produce a coin whose die has not already been catalogued. In others, die studies<br />
are less complete. Die numbers identify the c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> between <strong>coins</strong> and dies<br />
that have been catalogued by the most authoritative die studies, which are<br />
different for different <strong>coins</strong>. The most authoritative die study of the coinage of<br />
Alexander was by Martin Price, and the tetradrachm above was struck from<br />
Price’s die number 3032 (die number 1284 in another die study, by Muller). In<br />
some cases, <strong>on</strong>ly a single specimen from a given die is known to exist.<br />
Through making dies and coining by the ancient process, modern<br />
numismatists have found that ancient dies could last for up to 10,000<br />
impressi<strong>on</strong>s of the lower (obverse) die and around 7,000 for the upper (reverse)<br />
die. The reas<strong>on</strong> for the difference is that the upper die was directly struck by<br />
blows of the heavy hammer, so it wore more quickly. When <strong>on</strong>e die (say, the<br />
reverse) wore out, it would be replaced by a new <strong>on</strong>e, resulting in a new pairing<br />
of the ole obverse with a new reverse. Sometimes water would rust the dies, or<br />
the hardening of the ir<strong>on</strong> from which dies were sculpted would not be c<strong>on</strong>stant,<br />
so the dies would gradually develop breaks or cracks. By lining up <strong>coins</strong> and<br />
observing their die wear, the gradual development of die breaks, and the<br />
overlapping of obverse and reverse dies, it is possible to chr<strong>on</strong>ologically order<br />
<strong>coins</strong> from many ancient mints, thereby establishing the sequence of striking<br />
and an approximate date of issue.<br />
Ancient Coin Supply<br />
The number of ancient <strong>coins</strong> in existence at any given time is, of course,<br />
perfectly inelastic; nevertheless, new hoards occasi<strong>on</strong>ally are discovered, so the<br />
l<strong>on</strong>g-term supply is less so, influenced to some degree by new search<br />
technologies. Paul Rynears<strong>on</strong>, a noted numismatist and expert <strong>on</strong> ancient <strong>coins</strong>,<br />
describes hoards thusly: 3<br />
Coins that are found tend to come as single finds, family caches<br />
or large treasury hoards. Single finds are often of low grade and<br />
usually br<strong>on</strong>zes. Family hoards tend to be groups of <strong>coins</strong> of<br />
precious metals, which families entrusted to the eldest male; they<br />
were selected specimens of <strong>coins</strong> circulating at the time. There<br />
were no banks at the time, so wealthy families hoarded m<strong>on</strong>ey in<br />
the most precious metal possible. Their <strong>coins</strong> often were placed<br />
in a c<strong>on</strong>tainer, such as a metal box or pottery vessel. Treasury<br />
3 Pers<strong>on</strong>al corresp<strong>on</strong>dence.<br />
9
hoards have the largest number of <strong>coins</strong> in them, at times many<br />
thousands. Usually of silver, but sometimes of gold, they are<br />
normally found in metal boxes. In this type of hoard the <strong>coins</strong><br />
are usually in the highest state of preservati<strong>on</strong>, as they had not<br />
yet been given out in payment to mercenary soldiers,<br />
magistrates, etc.<br />
A hoard is any group of <strong>coins</strong>, however small. Some hoards are uncovered by<br />
archeological digs, but most are found by accident, unearthed in farmers’ fields<br />
or at c<strong>on</strong>structi<strong>on</strong> sites. Sadly, the physical links from the 4th century B.C. to<br />
our 21st century have been lost. Archeological evidence accompanying<br />
discovered hoards can provide clues about the <strong>coins</strong>, but usually this<br />
informati<strong>on</strong> is not available.<br />
About 25 years ago a number of important hoards were discovered, with the aid<br />
of metal detectors that could search for <strong>coins</strong> buried at a greater depth than<br />
before. Today, metal detectors have not gotten much better, but they have<br />
reached greater perimeters of ancient fr<strong>on</strong>tiers. Thus, we have more Celtic<br />
<strong>coins</strong> being found in the north of England, as well as larger numbers of <strong>Greek</strong><br />
and Roman types being found in places like Albania and Bulgaria.<br />
Today, most of the finest surviving ancient <strong>Greek</strong> <strong>coins</strong> are in museums, the<br />
best-known collecti<strong>on</strong>s being at the British Museum in L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong> and the<br />
American Numismatic Society in New York. (Others include the Numismatic<br />
Museum in Athens, the Biblioteque Naci<strong>on</strong>ale in Paris, and the Museum of Fine<br />
Arts in Bost<strong>on</strong>.) However, many extraordinary <strong>coins</strong>—and a vastly larger<br />
number of less extraordinary <strong>on</strong>es—are in private collecti<strong>on</strong>s. Over the years, a<br />
number of famous private collecti<strong>on</strong>s have been aucti<strong>on</strong>ed off, and catalogues<br />
of these <strong>coins</strong> have become collector items in and of themselves. Several<br />
reputable aucti<strong>on</strong> houses and dealers make ancient <strong>Greek</strong> <strong>coins</strong> available to<br />
collectors, through occasi<strong>on</strong>al mail aucti<strong>on</strong>s and, increasingly, via <strong>on</strong>-line<br />
aucti<strong>on</strong>s. There are a number of major aucti<strong>on</strong> houses in the United States and<br />
Europe; examples include Classical Numismatic Group (CNG) in Pennsylvania,<br />
Gorny and Mosch in Munich, Harlan J. Berk in Chicago. The most<br />
comprehensive source of informati<strong>on</strong> about aucti<strong>on</strong>ed <strong>coins</strong>, including<br />
estimated and realized prices, text descripti<strong>on</strong>s, and photographs, can be found<br />
at CoinArchives.com.<br />
We thank the creator of CoinArchives.com, A.J. Gatlin, for making parts of the<br />
website available to us in electr<strong>on</strong>ic form, and to Paul Rynears<strong>on</strong>, for his many<br />
valuable insights.<br />
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