Nevertheless, novel understandings are possible through a close reading of Herodotus' text, focusing on its underlying structure and thematic topoi and reading beyond the literary constructions that pervade Herodotus' process of composition to reveal a complex underlying political and socio-cultural symbiosis. Relations between the Lydian kingdom and the East Greek polis of Miletos have previously been defined by antagonism, as represented in Herodotus' Lydian logos (1.6-94), focusing on conflict between the two. The problems of studying spatial and temporal cultural interaction through the lens of competing ethnic groupings - now understood to represent social rather than genetic constructions – is likewise widely recognised. 19-30.*UPDATED DRAFT* Recently, Graeco-barbarian antithetical polarities have undergone significant reassessment, with post-colonialist interpretations illuminating mutual cultural developments. 9-25.Ĭarradice, Ian “Early Coinage and the Ancient Greek World.” Greek Coins (Austin: University of Texas Press 1995), pp. Metcalf (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. “The Monetary Background of Early Coinage.” The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage, ed. Standardized and guaranteed by the government, that quarter allows you to buy a single gumball without bringing round your sheep for trade.
Though much more complicated than a coin worth its weight in silver, our current monetary system still relies on the basic principles discovered by the Greeks and the Lydians almost 2,500 years ago. That quarter in your pocket has long lineage of forebears that significantly influenced its design and functionality. Bronze solved the problem of low-value transactions and solidified the use of coinage as the primary system of exchange for thousands of years. It was not until the fourth century BCE that bronze coinage was readily found in the greater Greek world, including Athens. Smaller denominations of coins, made of bronze, started in the fifth century BCE, apparently in Sicily, where an onkia was valued at 1/60 of a drachma. This might be odd to the mind of a modern consumer since it seems silly to be able to buy a sheep with coins but not a cabbage. It was more plentiful, more convenient and flexible, and good for low value exchange but, if you wanted to buy something quite cheap, you would have to break a silver coin into pieces, or revert to trading in unstandardized lumps. Coins were first only minted in gold and silver, and by the sixth century BCE, silver was the dominant metal.
ROMAN ELECTRUM COIN PRICE HOW TO
Private Collection.Įven with this success, there was one small problem yet to be resolved in the use of standardized coinage: how to make small change. It was always guaranteed and did not need to be double-checked this was the first kind of exchange that could be accepted "on trust."īronze onika, Camarina, Sicily, Italy, 410-405 BCE.
Even so, the obvious benefits of state-issued coin, which was verified in weight and standardized by a trusted local government, were not lost on the ancient world. This introduction of state-issued, standardized coin became one of the largest and most influential happenings in monetary history.Įlectrum, even when verified by the state, was too easily overvalued by lowering the amount of gold in each piece so, with the invention of gold refining techniques in the sixth century BCE, electrum was phased out of circulation and replaced with pure gold, silver and eventually copper. To combat this problem, seventh century BCE authorities in the area decided to issue small, standardized and stamped pieces of electrum that would be verified in worth by the state. No other cities would accept Lydian electrum as payment. The electrum, however, was very hard to value since the amount of gold in each piece could vary greatly. This alloy, readily available in the area, was used as currency. The earliest coins were made of electrum, a gold and silver alloy naturally occurring in Lydian stream beds (located in modern-day Turkey).
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