Coins of Ancient Greece
Lydia (in present-day Turkey) was an ancient kingdom, with a history dating back to about 1000 B.C., and in the 6th Century, Croesus ruled over all the cities between the Aegean coast of Asia Minor in the west and the river Halys in the East. His capital city, Sardis, was located between Mount Tmolus, and the river Hermos.
According to the Greek historian, Herodotus, "The Lydians ... so far as we have knowledge ... were the first nation to introduce the use of gold and silver coin, and the first who sold goods by retail."
In the beginning, Lydia applied the King's seal to lumps of Elektron, a native metal that was a mixture of gold and silver. Although the King's seal enabled acceptance in trade among the ancients, the purity of the metal fluctuated naturally, and that made valuation difficult. King Croesus solved the problem by refining the metal, striking some staters in gold and others in silver (thus creating the first bimetallic standard).
Despite his great wealth, Croesus was destined to be the last King of Lydia. He was determined to conquer his more powerful neighbor, Persia. According to Herodotus, Croesus donated a large number of coins to the Oracle of Apollo at the Temple at Delphi, then asked the Oracle whether his invasion of Persia would be met with success. The Oracle's enigmatic reply was that if he crossed the river, he would destroy a great kingdom.
Hearing what he wanted to hear, Croesus proceeded with the invasion. However, Persia's King, Cyrus the Great (580-529 BC), was the victor, and the great Kingdom Croesus destroyed turned out to be his own. Cyrus added Lydia to his empire, and his acquisition of the Lydian mints gave Persia the technology it needed to strike coins of high purity.
KINGDOM of LYDIA, Croesus, 1/3 stater, 3.5 grams
Struck at Sardis, by Croesus, King of Lydia, 561-546 B.C. On the obverse are the confronting heads of a lion and a bull, while the reverse is simply two incuse punches. References: S3421, Rosen 666; Boston MFA 2071.
This particular denomination is quite scarce, perhaps being minted only in small quantities for circulation within Lydia, rather than for use as a trade coin. Although other denominations of Lydian coinage continued to be issued under later Persian rule, the Persians did not issue 1/3 staters like this one. Thus it is considered to be the earliest silver coin type, because it definitely dates to the reign of Croesus himself.
The Greek city of Akragas located in southern Sicily on the Mediterranean Sea, was later renamed by the Romans as Agrigentum, and is today the city of Agrigento, capital of the province of the same name. Today it is a tourist haven, but its past is revealed by the ruins of twenty Doric temples dating to the 6th century B.C., and an archaeological museum. It was founded by Greeks from the city of Gela about 582 B.C., toward the end of the Westward colonizing movement of the Greeks. Akragas became a center for trade and culture, home to 200,000 people, making it one of the largest Greek cities. Its location and the fertility of the land that surrounded it (grain, wine and olive oil) was what enabled it to become a center of Greek civilization, and led to its invasion, first by the Carthaginians in 406 B.C., and later by the Romans, finally falling to the consul Levinus, in 210 B.C.
SICILY, Akragas, Didrachm, 510-480 B.C., 8.6 grams
On the obverse is an eagle standing left, with AKRA above. The reverse has a crab, recessed in a round incuse. While the eagle is often used on coinage both ancient and modern, the crab appears on this coin as a symbol of the city, through which flowed the Akragas river, at the time teeming with crabs. References: Jenkins, Coinage of Gela, Group III; SNG ANS 939.
The Greek Island of Aegina, just off the coast of Athens, was strategically located, and was settled early (perhaps 5,000 years ago). Its recorded history begins in 950 B.C., when the Dorians, from Epidavros, conquered it. Aegina became prominent as a center for ocean-borne trading, but its location made the island a prize for conquest over the centuries, by Rome, Venice, Turkey, and pirates.
To facilitate trade, Aegina soon followed Lydia's example, becoming one of the earliest producers of stamped silver coins, using silver imported from North Africa. Like Lydia, which adopted a lion and a bull for its design, Aegina's staters also featured an animal. The image of a sea turtle was perhaps chosen according to Greek mythology, (or more likely) simply because these turtles were abundant near Aegina, as they still are today.
AEGINA, Stater, c. 500 B.C., 12.1 grams
On the obverse is a sea turtle, with a countermark on its shell, while the reverse consists of an incuse square punch, divided into eight triangular compartments, five of which are sunken. References: S1851, Dewing.1674.
Athens derived its name from the goddess Athena, who, according to Greek mythology, created the olive tree, and gave it to Athens, enabling it to become a city of great wealth. It was one of the first Greek city-states to produce silver coins that facilitated trade among the ancients. Its Tetradrachm, like the Turtle stater of Aegina, retained its basic design (adopted in 449 B.C.) for decades, and its high value meant that it was hoarded as a sign of wealth, rather than circulating, which is why many of these hoarded coins survive today in excellent condition.
The coinage of Athens was needed to cover the costs of its military forces. Athens defended other Greek cities (the Delian League), for a price: 460 talents (26,000 pounds) of silver per year. Later, Pericles increased the Delian League's assessment to 600 talents of silver, and he spent the extra money not on defense, but on public works, in particular the buildings which still stand on the Acropolis. The other Greek cities had no choice but to pay, since they had disbanded their armies.
However, the tyranny of Athens eventually led to the Peloponnesian war and a siege by Sparta that resulted in a plague in 430 B.C., and the death of Pericles, in 429 B.C. Athens then raised the assessment to 1300 talents per year, but Sparta eventually prevailed, in naval victories by Lysander of Sparta in 406 B.C., with total disaster in 404 B.C. with the loss of 200 ships, and the fall of Athens to Sparta in September of that year.
ATTICA, Athens, Tetradrachm, after 449 B.C., 17.0 grams
On the obverse is Athena, daughter of Zeus, and goddess of wisdom and agriculture, with an almond shaped eye, and wearing a crested helmet ornamented with a floral design and three olive leaves. On the reverse, an owl stands right, head facing, with a crescent moon above. The helmet's floral design and the crescent moon are believed to commemorate the great victory of the Athenians over the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C., and possibly the League's 481 B.C. defeat of Persia in the naval battle off the island of Salamis. Reference: SNG Copenhagen 31ff.
Although similar to the more common type of this coin issued by Corinth, this coinage was produced at a small town in Akarnania, named Thyrrheion, about which there is little documented history. Much more has been written about Pegasos, the last of the winged horses. Pegasos was able to cause fresh water fountains, such as Hippokrene (the fountain of the Muses, associated with poetic inspiration), to gush forth from the rocks with a stroke of his hoof. The Corinthian coinage, and this type, evidently relates to the myth of Bellerophon and Pegasos, and Athena, who came to Bellerophon in a vision and gave him a golden bridle, allowing him to subdue Pegasos. Bellerophon intended to fly to Mount Olympus, but as they flew, Zeus sent a mosquito to sting Pegasos, causing Bellerophon to be thrown from his back, and to fall to his death.
AKARNANIA, Thyrrheion, Stater, c. 350-250 B.C., 8.5 grams
On the obverse is Pegasos, flying left, Q below, with a helmeted head of Athena on the reverse, facing left, a pendant earring behind, and LU at base of her neck. Reference: Pegasi II pg. 515, 13.
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