I am not an expert, but I have thought a lot about some of your general questions as an anthropologist. Some of these questions involve why coins were created in the first place and who used this
money. This is especially interesting because it was a couple of hundred years after coinage was invented that bronze coins were introduced. No one was
buying a loaf of bread with a gold or
electrum or even a silver coin, unless gold was really not worth as much as I think it was. One theory is that coins were introduced as a means to facilitate payments of taxes to states, as well as commerce between states. It seems to me that the higher the coin value, the less wear it probably got because they were not in circulation as we think of coins being used in retail today. I know that doesn't answer your specific question.
My guess is that the only people who
had coins early on were rulers, states and their officials and rich people. I have often wondered how a peasant paid for small purchases. Or a traveler looking for lodging and a meal and a drink for a night. I am not sure the earliest coins were used for these purposes. There were early
electrum coins that were worth half a years wages. I am guessing that people were largely paid in kind for a long time after coinage was introduced and the period of your coin is quite early in that evolution. That is a beautiful coin.
Virgil
