Ancient Coins


An Overview for Beginners

What follows is intended for persons with no previous experience in collecting ancient coins. Most of you will gain little from it but might ask how you would have approached this subject and what all of us can do to promote interest in our hobby.

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The idea of precious metal currency of a style we call coinage first appeared in Western Anatolia (modern Turkey) in the sixth century BC. The step from trading in lumps of metal to actual coinage was the stamping of a design certifying the value of a lump of metal. Following a short period when plain punches were used the idea occurred to mark coins with designs representing the issuing authority. As the idea spread across the region a variety of designs appeared with animal designs being most common.

This earliest coinage was struck in a mixture of gold and silver we call "electrum". Soon the two metals were separated and a ratio of value between the two was established. While interesting, coins of the earliest period are rare and better left for more advanced collectors. We will move along and pick up the history of coinage in the early fifth century BC.

The idea of coinage spread both east and west from its coastal birthplace. Going east we find the great Persian Empire ruled by a strong central king. The coinage of the Persian Empire consisted of one basic design: the king as a running archer. Going west across the islands of the Aegean Sea, coinage arrived on mainland Greece. At that time Greece consisted of hundreds of independent city-states. The coinage of these various cities was equally various; as varied as the Persian coinage was consistent. Each city-state selected a design that represented that city and would be recognized and accepted as the product of that city's authority. Again, many of these types were animals and the variety was huge. Few cities inscribed their names on the coins. Identification and attribution of this archaic Greek coinage has been the subject of numismatic scholarship since ancient times. Some types are not certainly identified today. Every now and then new evidence causes a reevaluation of some issues but, for the most part, numismatists today can attribute the range of Greek coinage to the general period of time and the city that produced it.

These "Archaic" coins were produced by laying a lump of precious metal on a die cut into (or positioned on) an anvil. The metal was forced into the design by a blow delivered from a hammer to a punch. While most of these punches were plain, a few cities used a specific design or pattern of divisions on the punch. An unknown Greek came up with the idea of cutting the surface of the punch with a second design complimenting the front of the coin. The coin as we know it today was born: a round disk with design on each side impressed by pressure on a blank of metal.

Naturally this change was not accepted by all authorities at the same time. The earliest two sided coins are two hundred years older that the last of the single sided designs. Some cities used the same basic designs for centuries. Within the series are minor variations but the coins of many cities can be recognized easily throughout the period of independent coinage.

Foremost among the cities issuing coins was Athens. After a few experiments in the early archaic period Athens settled down on a silver coinage with the head of Athena on one side and her owl on the other. As recognizable as it was, these coins also were inscribed with the name of the city. A rather different head of Athena was also used on the silver coins of Corinth but, in place of the owl, Corinth used the winged horse Pegasus.

The coins of Athens and Corinth illustrate an interesting technical distinction: heads and tails or obverse and reverse. General usage of the terms defines "obverse" as the more important side usually with the head of the honored ruler or god. "Reverse" is the other, lesser side. Technical numismatists define the "obverse" as the side struck by the anvil die and "reverse" as the side struck by the punch or upper die. Usually the coin surfaces struck by the punch is slightly concave compared to the anvil side. The coins of Corinth were struck with Pegasus on the anvil and Athena on the punch. Technically, therefore, the "head" was on the reverse while the "tailed" horse was on the obverse. For much of the period, Athens used a punch (the owl) considerably smaller than the anvil die (Athena). As a result the slight cupping normal for a reverse was considerably exaggerated. At least Athens had the decency to put the head on the "heads" side. As a practical matter, obverse or anvil dies lasted longer than reverse or punch dies. It makes sense that the more elaborate or important die would be placed in the protected position.

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(c) 1997 Doug Smith