Coinage

A standardized series of metal tokens, their specific weights representing particular values, and usually stamped with designs and inscriptions. They were used in many parts of the ancient world for everyday exchange. Greek coinage first appears in the Archaic deposit of the Artemision at Ephesus. Roman coinage was struck at Rome and various points throughout the empire.

Western Asia. The earliest true coins were minted in the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor in the 7th century bc and were made of the gold-silver alloy electrum. In the 6th century the legendary King Kroisos (Croesus) introduced coinage of pure silver and, to a lesser extent, gold. The coins were in origin simply pieces of metal of standardized weight and stamped with designs — and later, inscriptions — identifying the issuing authority. They were almost certainly used, like most early coinage, for specialized, prestigious purposes, and not for everyday exchange. The principal Lydian mint was at the capital Sardis. After Cyrus the Great gained control of Lydia in the 6th century, the Achaemenid Persians adopted a gold currency; their coins usually bear a punch mark on one side and a portrait of the king on the other. It was probably through the Achaemenid satrapy of Gandhara that coinage was introduced to India. Greece and Rome. The eastern Greek cities of Asia Minor adopted the new invention of coinage from their Lydian neighbours at an early stage and thereafter it spread rapidly throughout the Greek world. The early Greek coins were also made of electrum, silver or gold and were produced by the individual city states; the Greeks never adopted a copper or bronze The earliest coins were struck on one side only; then the same design appears on both sides; then, in the 6th century, separate obverse and reverse designs become common. Later the reverse often bore an inscription showing the coin’s place of origin. The first Roman coins were produced in the early 3rd century bc and were also made of precious metals. Later in that century the first bronze coin — the as — was introduced and this was followed by the silver denarius (equivalent to 10 as). Under the Republic coins were usually issued by senatorial decree, but in the imperial period they came under the close control of the emperors themselves, who used them for propaganda as well as economic purposes (for instance, designs commemorating important events often appeared on the reverse of the coin, while the emperor’s head appeared on the obverse). The coinage was altered and devalued several times during the Empire in response to inflation and other economic pressures. Prehistoric Europe. In the last two centuries bc, prehistoric communities in several parts of Europe, in close contact with the Romans, started to produce coins of their own. This coinage, labelled Celtic, was produced in Austria, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, France and southern England (associated with Belgic groups). These coins were normally of precious metals, although some copper coins do appear. They are derived from Greek and Roman prototypes — most commonly the 4th-century gold staters of Philip II and Alexander III of Macedon — but the designs were developed by the European Iron Age craftsmen according to their own artistic traditions (see Celtic art): the naturalistic human heads and animals of the classical coins appear in highly stylized versions or are entirely transformed into complex abstract designs. India. The earliest Indian coins were produced by the cities of the Ganges civilization in the 5th century bc; they take the form of small bent bars or circular pieces, both made of silver and with symbols punched on both sides. The symbols show connections with Achaemenid Persia — the most likely source of Indian Copper coinage was only introduced in the Maury an period (with coins cast in moulds), whereas die-struck coins appear only in the post-Mauryan period, introduced by Indo-Greeks from Bactria. These coins established the standard type for much of the later coinage of north India, carrying representations of the king and a deity and a legend, usually including a royal title. The Kushans produced gold coins, as well as the more common copper and silver coinage. China. Cowrie shells were used as money in China at least as early as the Shang dynasty; inscriptions name them as royal gifts, and the tomb of Fu Hao contained nearly 7000 cowries. Hoards of miniature bronze axes suggest that these also served as money in Shang times, at least in the Yangzi region. A few bronze copies of cowries are known from the latter part of the Shang dynasty (12th-11th centuries bc) but metal coins were not in wide use until the Eastern Zhou period, and even then did not replace cowries altogether. Eastern Zhou coins were usually of bronze, though a few silver coins have been found; they fall into two main categories, spadeshaped and knife-shaped, varying in size, shape and inscription according to the issuing state or city. Unlike coins made in the West, Chinese coins were not as a rule minted (i.e. struck) but nearly always cast, inscription and all. In the Yangzi region, however, the Eastern Zhou state of Chu circulated both bronze cowries and gold bars, the latter stamped with mint marks. Towards the end of Eastern Zhou several states began issuing round coins provided with holes for stringing, and such coins were made standard throughout the country after the Qin unification in 221 bc. The Qin coin, round with a square hole, remained the pattern for Chinese coins until the 19th century.