Ancient Coins - Barry & Darling Greek Coin List

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Origins of Greek Coinage
By John Darling

Coinage was invented in Lydia, on the eastern shore of the Aegean in the late 7th century BCE and spread quickly across the Greek islands, then across the Greek mainland and to the Greek colonies in South Italy, Sicily, Africa, Spain and the Black Sea.

The arrival of coinage greatly facilitated trade and the bonds between scattered city-states and caused many a Greek to mutter, "Why didn't we think of this before?" No longer did you have to drag cows or grain bushels around to make purchases. And now it was possible to become wealthy without necessarily having to risk your life accumulating or plundering land, stock, slaves or other large material goods.

The first images on coins were sacred or totem animals, such as lions and bulls. They were engraved in a bronze die set in an anvil (the "anvil die"). The annealed (fire-softened) flan was set on the die and struck with a "hammer die." The anvil die became the obverse and is often convex from taking the blow of the hammer die (the reverse). Early on, the hammer die struck a square or rectangle image, but soon images were placed on the reverse. They did not use collars to center coins, so many ancients are endearingly off-center, which detracts from their value to collectors.

Before long, the Greeks discovered that coins were most pleasing with a bust obverse ("heads") and a full figure of animal or person/deity or some other symbol reverse ("tails"). It is a real statement about the Greeks that, until the conquests of Alexander the Great, the humanoid faces and forms they put on their coins were never of humans - only gods and goddesses.

Is it Archaic, Classical or Hellenistic?
Coins made before the Greek victory over the Persians in 479 BCE are considered archaic. Archaic coins are noted for being thick and of moderate diameter. Their art often lacks true perspective, so that in profile, the human eye is seen as if from the front. The most famous ancient coin, the Athena/Owl tetradrachm of Athens is a great example of this. Full-figure deities often walk stiffly, as in Egyptian art. Aesthetically, archaic art is bold, stunning and rich with sacred implication. It carries echoes of the Bronze and even Neolithic ages, when people lived in more intimate contact with nature and the sacred. In later eras, the roles and objects of civilization displace become more prominent.

Classical coins go from 479 to Alexander's taking of the throne in 336 BCE. This is the flower of all numismatic art and has never even come close to being equalled. Classical and archaic coins have few words. Often they say only the name of the issuing city. Hellenistic coins are noted for the widespread use of emperors on the obverse and for multi-word legends about these rulers. These rulers were the generals of Alexander the Great who started dynasties from the carved up territories left after his death. Here, we see earthly power eclipsing divine power as the prime societal motivator.

Shall I Collect Roman or Greek? (or Roman Provincial?)
Probably three-fourths of the ancient coins traded are Roman, while the rest are Greek. The term "Greek coins" is used to mean all coinage of the Western world - Greek, Celtic, Phoenician, whatever - up until the death of Cleopatra and the rule of the first sole Roman emperor Augustus, about 33 BCE. This marks the start of Roman rule over most of the old Hellenistic empire and the start of Roman Imperial and Roman Provincial coinage. However, Roman Republic coins (before the Empire) are still considered Roman, not Greek.

Roman Imperial coins are the ones from Rome and its mints, bearing mintmarks (in later issues) and the emperor obverse and usually a deity reverse. Roman Provincial coins are the ones from the former Hellenistic empires of the Eastern Mediterranean (now Roman provinces), still bearing Greek inscriptions with Roman emperor obverse and a local temple, deity or symbol reverse. They are cheaper than Roman Imperial coins and represent a fascinating and complex subfield for collecting. The Romans let some cities, like Athens, just keep making coins with their old Greek images (Athena).

Roman coins are more approachable to the beginner, generally. They are cheaper and more plentiful than Greek and they use the same alphabet we do. Romans coins are organized by rulers' images, just like British coins. Large numbers were made to supply their vast empire and you can get them starting at a dollar.

Greek coins were issued by cities (in Archaic and Classic times) and have Greek images and legends. Don't let Greek letters scare you off. Most are the same as Latin and English; you only need to learn a few new ones: pi, phi, lambda, gamma, upsilon, etc. and pretty soon you are reading Greek! You can no longer protest: "It's all Greek to me." You can show off to your friends and hint that you are not just a coin collector; you are a classicist. Sort of.

As for the Greek images, no you don't have all these despots lined up in chronological order. You do have to learn a few dozen deities and pretty soon you will be picking them out without even using the book. Apollo is the one with long hair and no beard, often carrying a lyre. Demeter has grain stalks in her hair. Dionysos always has an ivy leaf wreath. Zeus looks like God - older, beard. Those are the main ones.

Greek coins are considered works of art, most of them. You can read the emotion on the faces of the deities. They created the facing bust and made it seem three-dimensional. No one can touch the Greeks. The Roman aesthetic sense was more pragmatic: stern-looking emperor and rather emblematic figures reverse, which in later times, on smaller flans decline almost into stick-figures.

The Roman aesthetic sense was more pragmatic: stern-looking emperor and rather emblematic figures reverse, which in later times, on smaller flans decline almost into stick-figures, a style which persists through the Byzantine era and well into the medieval coinages of all the European states. Only in the 1600's, coincidentally when scholars begin to study the classical aesthetic, do we see real art begin to emerge on coinage again.

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