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XXI
Hacksilver or hacksilber, is ancient silver disks, bars, rods, foil, and broken and cut fragments of those forms and also of coins, jewelry or other silver items used as a medium of exchange by weight. It was common in trade beginning at the end of the Iron Age, c. 1200 B.C. in the Levant, and lasted until the first century B.C., were it was used by the Celts and other tribal people in Hispania and Gaul. It was used again in the Middle Ages by the Vikings.
Hacksilver for sale in the Forum Ancient Coins shop.
Balmuth, M. (ed.). Hacksilber to Coinage: New Insights into the Monetary History of the Near East and Greece. ANS Numismatic Studies No. 24. (New York, 2001).
Garcia-Bellido, M. "Hackgold and Hacksilber in protomonetary Iberia" in Garcia-Bellido Barter (2011), pp. 121-135.
Gitler, H. "A Hacksilber and Cut Athenian Tetradrachm Hoard from the Environs of Samaria: Late Fourth Century BCE" in INR 1 (2006), pp. 5-14, pls. 1-2.
Golani, A. & B. Sass. "Three Seventh-Century B. C. E. Hoards of Silver Jewelry from Tel Miqne-Ekron" in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research No. 311 (Aug 1998), pp. 57-81.
Kim, H. "Archaic Coinage as Evidence for the Use of Money" in in Money and its Uses in the Ancient Greek World. (Oxford, 2001), pp. 7 - 21, pl. 1.1.
Kim, H. & J. Kroll. "A Hoard of Archaic Coin of Colophon and Unminted Silver (CH I.3)" in AJN 20 (2008), pp. 53-103, pls. 12-36.
Kroll, J. "A Small Find of Silver Bullion From Egypt" in AJN 13 (2001), pp. 1-20, pl. 1.
Van Alfen, P. "Herodotus 'Aryandic ' Silver and Bullion use in
Persian-Period Egypt" in AJN 16/17 (2004-2005), pp. 7-46, pls. 2-5. (Includes the "Ingot Hoard")
Van Alfen, P., M. Almagro-Gorbea, & P. Ripolles. "A New Celtiberian Hacksilber Hoard, c. 200 BCE" in AJN 20 (2008), pp. 265-293, pls. 65-68.
Garcia-Bellido, M. "Hackgold and Hacksilber in protomonetary Iberia" in Garcia-Bellido Barter (2011), pp. 121 - 135.
Page 132, figure 11 (part of).
Gitler, H. "A Hacksilber and Cut Athenian Tetradrachm Hoard from the Environs of Samaria: Late Fourth Century BCE" in INR 1 (2006), pp. 5 - 14, pls. 1 - 2.
In
1999 the Israel Museum received a donation of a hoard consisting of
five cut Athenian tetradrachms plus 32 Hacksilber pieces reportedly
found in the vicinity of Samaria. The importance of this Samaria-region 1999 Hacksilber hoard lies in the fact that it further illustrates that the practice of cutting coins and using them alongside Hacksilber and jewelry to be weighed in transactions continued into the second half of the fourth century BCE.
Kim, H. & J. Kroll. "A Hoard of Archaic Coin of Colophon and Unminted Silver (CH I.3)" in AJN 20 (2008), pp. 53 - 103, pls. 12 - 36.
This hoard of the later 6th century BC consists of 903 minute silver coins in essentially two denominations, and 77 pieces of unminted silver, over half of which are small, unweighed disks apparently made for monetary exchange. The coins are the earliest coins of Colophon, and the circumstance that they are smaller than all but three of the pieces of unminted silver suggests that when the hoard was buried the Colophonians were employing what might be termed a bi-specie monetary system: small coins for very low level transactions, and bullion weighed on the balance for transactions involving more substantial sums.
Unminted silver (Pls. 12-13)
Weights are given in grams. Dimensions (length/width/thickness) in millimeters.
Hammered disks (and other shapes)
Flat
on both sides. One face normally shows two to five slight facets from
hammering, while the other face, compressed against the surface of an
anvil, is perfectly smooth.
1. 25.39 31/21/6 Thick.
2. 14.83 23/17/5
3.
12.02 25/16/4.5 Because of the tapering thickness, hammering failed to
flatten the metal at its thinner end, which retains traces of relief on
both sides from prior working. The lines and grooves in the relief are
jumbled and do not suggest any design or lettering, such as would
indicate that the metal had previously been a coin.
4. 11.61 22/22/5
5. 10.84 26/15/4 About a quarter of the original metal was chopped off at one end with three chisel cuts.
6. 10.24 20/16/5
7. 8.62 20/14/5
8. 7.20 21/16/3 Multiple small facets on upper face; cf. 22, 35.
9. 5.90 15/12/3.5 The smoother, anvil side is lightly scratched with nine, apparently random lines.
10.
5.72 15/14/3.5 The wide, deeply punched hole on one side was presumably
punched for testing, probably before the piece was hammered.
11. 5.12 15/13/3
12. 4.53 16/12/3 A piece had been chopped off the small end before hammering.
13. 4.16 12/8/3 Cut into rectangle and then hammered (facets on one face).
14. 4.04 14/13/3
15. 4.01 13/13/3
16. 3.82 12/11/4 Thick.
17. 3.72 16/13/2
18. 3.72 16/11/2.5
19. 3.55 18/11/2.5 One side cut before hammering.
20. 3.29 13/11/2.5
21. 3.14 16/12/2
22. 2.93 18/12/2 Multiple facets on one side.
23. 2.89 13/11/2
24 2.61 12/11/2
25. 2.52 16/8/2
26. 2.49 13/12/3-1 Half of disk that was snapped in two after the thickness was reduced with small facets towards the middle.
27. 2.46 11/11/2.5
28. 2.24 8/12/2-1.5 Half of disk that was snapped in two after the thickness was reduced, like 26.
29. 2.11 12/9/2
30. 1-97 11/7/2
31. 1.94 11/11/2
32. 1.91 14/10/1.5-1 Thickness tapers towards both ends.
33. 1.86 11/9/2
34. 1-77 10/7/3
35. 1.72 15/9/1-0.5 Thickness tapers towards both ends. Multiple small facets on both sides, cf. 8.
36. 1.70 10/9/2
37. 1.67 10/9/2
38. 1.66 8/8/4 Thick.
39- 1.61 12/10/1.5
40. 1.44 11/9/1.5 Rough, unworn edges.
41. 1-37 11/10/1.5 Rough, unworn edges.
42. 1.36 10/9/2 Half of a sharply cut disk.
43. 1.32 10/Ii/1.5 Metal probably with 1 or 2 cut edges before flattening.
44. 1.10 10/9/1.5
45. 1.09 6/6/3.5 A partially flatten cube. Thick.
46. 0.92 9/8/1
47. 0.76 11/10/1
48. 0.69 7/7/1
49. 0.58 7/7/1
50. 0.43 7/6/1
51. 0.41 7/5/1 Rough edges before flattening
52. 0.24 5/5/1
Amorphous lumps
53.
40.84 31/18/15 Lumpy, curved piece of silver, cast roughly in the shape
of the letter pi. If straightened out into a more or less flat bar, the
bar would measure 60 x 18mm, with a thickness of about 10 mm.
54. 10.22 22/13/6 Bean-shaped lump, rough and rounded on all sides.
Van Alfen, P., M. Almagro-Gorbea, & P. Ripolles. "A New Celtiberian Hacksilber Hoard, c. 200 BCE" in AJN 20 (2008), pp. 265 - 293, pls. 65 - 68.