This is just a few pictures of our Huntsville Antique Show Coin Dealer. They did the show last year and are back again for another smashing crowd, and good times! You will not believe the array of coins, and paper monies they have displayed. Don't worry, there is an armed Officer on premises 24/7. The Coin Dealer also buys coins, so bring some by and cash them in.
Ancient Greek coinage
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The history of Ancient Greek coinage can be divided (along with most other Greek art forms) into three periods, the Archaic, the Classical, and the Hellenistic. The Archaic period extends from the introduction of coinage to the Greek world in about 600 BCE until the Persian Wars in about 480 BCE. The Classical period then began, and lasted until the conquests of Alexander the Great in about 330 BC, which began the Hellenistic period, extending until the Roman absorption of the Greek world in the 1st century BCE. The Greek cities continued to produce their own coins for several more centuries under Roman rule, called Roman provincial coins.
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Archaic period
The first coins were issued in Lydia in Asia Minor at some time before 600 B.C., either by the non-Greek Lydians for their own use or perhaps because Greek mercenaries wanted to be paid in precious metal at the conclusion of their time of service, and wanted to have their payments marked in a way that would authenticate them. These coins were made of electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver that was highly prized in that area. By the middle of the sixth century B.C., technology had advanced so far in Lydia that it became easier to produce pure gold, and so coins in pure gold and silver began to be produced, although some mints continued to use electrum.
The Greek world was divided into more than two thousand self-governing city-states (in Greek, poleis), and more than half of them issued their own coins. Some coins circulated widely beyond their polis, indicating that they were being used in inter-city trade; the first example appears to have been the silver stater or didrachm of island of Aigina that regularly turns up in hoards in Egypt and the Levant, which were deficient in silver supply. As such coins circulated more widely, coins of other cities came increasingly to be minted to the same "Aeginetan" weight standard of 6.1 grams, though marked with the symbols of the issuing city. This is not unlike present day Euro coins, which are recognisably from a particular country, but usable all over the Euro zone.
Athenian coins, however, were struck on the "Attic" standard, with a drachm of 4.3 grams of silver. Over time, Athens' plentiful supply of silver from the mines at Laurion and its increasing dominance in trade made this the pre-eminent standard. Tetradrachms on this weight standard continued to be a widely used coin (often the most widely used) through the classical period, by Alexander the Great and his Hellenistic successors, the large denomination being regularly used to make large payments, or saved for hoarding.
The word drachm(a) means "a handful", literally "a grasp". Drachmae were divided into six obols (from the Greek word for a spit of iron), and six spits made a "handful". This suggests that before coinage came to be used in Greece, spits were used as measures of value, perhaps for paying fines. In archaic/pre-numismatic times iron was valued for making durable tools and weapons, and its casting in spit form may have actually represented a form of transportable bullion, which eventually became bulky and inconvenient after the adoption of precious metals. Because of this very aspect, Spartan legislation famously forbade issuance of Spartan coin, and enforced the continued use of iron spits so as to discourage avarice and the hoarding of wealth. In addition to its original meaning (which also gave the euphemistic diminutive "obelisk", "little spit"), the word obol (ὀβολός, obolós, or ὀβελός, obelós) was retained as a Greek word for coins of small value, still used as such in Modern Greek slang (όβολα, óvola, "monies").
Classical period
Obverse: head of the nymph Arethusa, surrounded by four swimming dolphins and a rudder
Reverse: a racing quadriga, its charioteer crowned by the goddess Victory in flight
The Classical period saw Greek coinage reach a high level of technical and aesthetic quality. Larger cities now produced a range of fine silver and gold coins, most bearing a portrait of their patron god or goddess, or a legendary hero, on one side, and a symbol of the city on the other. Some coins employed a visual pun: coins from Rhodes featured a rose, since the Greek word for rose is rhodon. The use of inscriptions on coins also began, usually the name of the issuing city.
The wealthy cities of Sicily produced some especially fine coins. The large silver decadrachm (10-drachm) coin from Syracuse is regarded by many collectors as the finest coin produced in the ancient world, perhaps ever. Syracusan issues were rather standard in their imprints, one side bearing the head of the nymph Arethusa and the other usually a victorious quadriga. The tyrants of Syracuse were fabulously rich, and part of their public relations policy was to fund quadrigas for the Olympic chariot race, a very expensive undertaking. As they were often able to finance more than one quadriga at a time, they were frequent victors in this highly prestigious event.
The use of coins for propaganda purposes was a Greek invention. Coins are valuable, durable and pass through many hands. In an age without newspapers or other mass media, they were an ideal way of disseminating a political message. The first such coin was a commemorative decadrachm issued by Athens following the Greek victory in the Persian Wars. On these coins the owl of Athens, the goddess Athena's sacred bird, was depicted facing the viewer with wings outstretched, holding a spray of olive leaves, the olive tree being Athena's sacred plant and also a symbol of peace and prosperity. The message was that Athens was powerful and victorious, but also peace-loving.
Hellenistic period
The Hellenistic period was characterised by the spread of Greek culture across a large part of the known world. Greek-speaking kingdoms were established in Egypt and Syria, and for a time also in Iran and as far east as what is now Afghanistan and northwestern India. Greek traders spread Greek coins across this vast area, and the new kingdoms soon began to produce their own coins. Because these kingdoms were much larger and wealthier than the Greek city states of the classical period, their coins tended to be more mass-produced, as well as larger, and more frequently in gold. They often lacked the aesthetic delicacy of coins of the earlier period.
Still, some of the Greco-Bactrian coins, and those of their successors in India, the Indo-Greeks, are considered the finest examples of Greek numismatic art with "a nice blend of realism and idealization", including the largest coins to be minted in the Hellenistic world: the largest gold coin was minted by Eucratides (reigned 171–145 BC), the largest silver coin by the Indo-Greek king Amyntas (reigned c. 95–90 BC). The portraits "show a degree of individuality never matched by the often bland depictions of their royal contemporaries further West" (Roger Ling, "Greece and the Hellenistic World").
The most striking new feature of Hellenistic coins was the use of portraits of living people, namely of the kings themselves. This practice had begun in Sicily, but was disapproved of by other Greeks as showing hubris (pride). But the kings of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria had no such scruples, and issued magnificent gold coins adorned with their own portraits, with the symbols of their state on the reverse. The names of the kings were frequently inscribed on the coin as well. This established a pattern for coins which has persisted ever since: a portrait of the king, usually in profile and striking a heroic pose, on the obverse, with his name beside him, and a coat of arms or other symbol of state on the reverse.
Minting
All Greek coins were hand-made, rather than machined as modern coins are. The design for the obverse was carved (in incuso) into a block of iron, named a die. The design of the reverse was carved into a similar punch. The blank gold, electrum, silver or bronze planchet, heated to make it soft, was then placed between these two and the punch struck hard with a hammer, "punching" the design onto both sides of the coin.[1]
This is a fairly crude technique and produces a high failure rate, so the high technical standards achieved by the best Greek coins - perfect centering of the image on the disk, even relief all over the coin, sharpness of edges - is a remarkable testament to Greek perfectionism.
Ancient Greek coins today
The best Greek coins are rare and expensive, and many can only be seen in museums, of which the National Numismatic Museum in Athens, the British Museum and the American Numismatic Society are among the finest. An active market in both high quality and common ancient Greek coins exists, dominated by on-line auction houses in the United States and Europe. Moreover, hoards of Greek coins are still being found in Europe and the Middle East, and many of the coins in these hoards find their way onto the market, often via the Internet. Coins are the only art form from the Ancient world which are common enough and durable enough to be within the reach of ordinary collectors.
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