The historical portraits on early Greek coins are a significant contribution to the history of art. Within them they reflect the highest ideals of the traditional art of the day, as well as provide exact replicas of images of many sacred and important buildings and temples, making their historical importance incalculable. From their very beginnings, coins were not merely chunks of metal to be used in commerce, but important tools for the expression of art and the communication of religious devotion and civic pride.
The pre-Numismatic Age
In order to facilitate trade and business transaction, various metallics (diverse in weight and shape) circulated among the then known world in the pre-numismatic age. "Tripodes", "axes", "skewers" are among the names given to the above mentioned objects. The world's first coins appeared simultaneously in two places - China and the kingdom of Lydia in what is now western Turkey at the end of the seventh century BC.
The father of History, Herodotus, vaguely referred to the fact that the Lydians were the first, to mint coins around 600 B.C. No-one knows what the Lydians called their coins, but not long after the Lydian ruler Croesus was minting his legendary fortune. Around one hundred and fifty years later, increased commerce and civic pride had facilitated the spread of this currency around the Greek city-states.
The Coinage system
The Athenians of that era employed the obol as a currency, which was nothing more than a small iron rod. About six obols could fit into the average adult grasp, and therefore six obols became the drachma by a rule of grammar. The word derives quite logically from the Greek verb dratto - to grasp. Thus drachma in old Greek really means "the graspable" (or a handful).
Pheidon, who was the Head of the Amphyctiony (the confederation of the 7 Doric Greek city-States) Aegina included, was also at that period the president of the Olympic Games. He was the first to determine weights and measures for both liquids and dry goods. On the island of Aegina he minted the first silver coins, whose shapes were either elongated or round. The "turtles" the emplem of the city was impressed on one side and on the reverse was a square depression. In his reign coins representing the sea-wolf were also minted and with the passing of time the coinage system became universal.
Numismatic System of Aegina
Pheidon applied his own coinage system known as the Aeginitian numismatic system which is as follows:
- 1 Talent = 60 Mnas
- 1 Mna = 100 Drachmas
- 1 Drachma = 6 Obols
Pheidon preserved the ancient names of the Pre-coinage, the names of obol, Drachma and homeric Talent. The talent was only a conventional standard. Its standard weight, together with its value, varied from place to place. Another standard was also in existence, known as the semitalent. The talents were gold, silver and bronze. When not otherwise specified, the ancients reffered to the silver talent.
One of Pheidon's actions, in accordance with the religious believes of those days, was his offering to the goddess Hera (at the temple in Argos). It was a collection of various small metal objects used in the pre-coinage times, but he also offered, as a symbol of the new "numismatic" period which begins with his reign, one of the first coins minted in Aegina. This offering was discovered in 1906 during the excavations of the Argive Heraeum and is now held at the Numismatic Museum in Athens.
By 600BC, well before Pericles, the distinctive Attic drachma with the owl's head stamped on it had become established as Athens's unshakeable currency. It was made of 96% pure Laurion silver and weighed a little over 4 grams. Before long drachmas were being minted at Greek settlements in southern Italy, with the result that the Romans switched from using bronze bars to coins in about 300 BC. And at roughly the same time Philip of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great were producing huge quantities of coins to finance their military conquests.
