Archaic letters on
Greek coinsOne thing a collector of ancient
Greek coins might collect is an example of a coin with an Archaic letter on it, either alone or in an
ethnic or other
inscription.
These letters include the vau or digamma
pronounced as a W as in the word Wanax or
king, a word used in
Homer, without the vau, but meter of
Homer shows it was originally there.
Also the koppa
or Archaic 'Q' later replaced by the kappa.
Also the
san, which is a sigma, but appears like
not a
The vau is also called the digamma because it has not one but two arms extending to the right, (like an F), Elis has for its
ethnic , also the
incuse issues of Laus have a vau in the middle of the
inscription starting on the
obverse,
, continuing the the
reverse Also, some Poseidonia
incuse coins have the
inscription The koppa is used on Corinthian coin as an
ethnic, also it is found in the
ethnic on the Archaic and early Classical for
Kroton (
or
) in Southern
Italy. Also, early on,
Syracuse used a koppa in its
ethnic.
The
san is seen on the coins of Sy[baris], Sirinos-Pyx[oes], Pos[eidonia] and some of those mentioned above.
One variant of the
san is found on the coins of Messembria, called a "disigma". The 'double sigma' appears as a wide, short 'T' with tabs hanging from the arms of the T. Around a wheel is the
inscription E
M 'T'
A
The "disigma", unlike the digamma represents a double letter combination, not a separate letter.
The vau or digamma represents the Greek number 6,
The koppa represents the Greek number 90,
The
san is incorporated in the sampi, representing the number 900.
Another example of an Archaic usage of a letter is the consonantal
which, if I accurately recall, Halartus (spelling?) in
Boeotia uses the consonantal eta.
There are other nuances to the letters on
Greek coins, strange letter forms. There are classical letters that probably did not exist in the Archaic Greek, like the vowel eta, or probably the omega. But that is an issue for another time.