Many potential collectors of this series might hesitate these days to embark on a hobby which, on the face of it, appears to be beyond their financial resources. Greek coins have so much to offer the collector that I feel it would be a pity for him to dismiss them, in favour of something less interesting but less costly, without going a little further into the subject.

Greek numismatics spans a period of no less than nine centuries, though for the last three hundred years Greek coins were merely a secondary ‘local currency’ in the eastern half of the Roman...

For several centuries prior to the invention of coined money the Greeks, then emerging from the dark ages following the destruction of Mycenaean civilization, had been engaged in colonization. The pressures created by an expanding population, together with the desire to foster trade led to the establishment of settlements far from the mother cities. Southern Italy and Sicily, and the northern coastline of the Aegean were areas particularly popular with the settlers, but colonies were also established in Spain, southern Gaul, north Africa and along the Black Sea coastline.

Prior to the advent of coinage, then, the Greeks were already...

The designs appearing on ancient Greek coins are remarkably varied. Even the issues of one mint can exhibit a surprising diversity of types, but the underlying theme is nearly always religious.

In the archaic period a design is normally found only on the obverse of the coin, produced by the lower (anvil) die. The reverse die, consisting merely of a square or oblong punch, was employed simply to hold the blank firmly in position during striking and to ensure that sufficient pressure was exerted to obtain a clear impression of the obverse die. Towards the end of the archaic period,...

The earliest coins, issued by the Ionians or the Lydians in western Asia Minor in the latter part of the 7th Century B.C., were produced in only one metal, electrum, a naturallyoccurring alloy of gold and silver. They were based on a stater weighing a little over 14 grammes, and although various fractional denominations were struck from an early date (half, third, sixth, etc.) the relatively high intrinsic value of the metal precludes the possibility that these coins enjoyed a wide everyday circulation. The truth of the matter would seem to be that the earliest coins provided a convenient means...

In general, Greek coins were not marked with their year of issue until a very late period (2nd Century B.C.), when the Hellenistic Kingdoms of Syria and Egypt commenced the practice. The Seleukids dated their coins according to an era commencing in 312 B. c., when Seleukos I regained possession of Babylon. The Ptolemies, on the other hand, used the less satisfactory method of indicating only the regnal year; and as every Greek King of Egypt bore the name ‘Ptolemy’ the dates appearing on their coins provide only limited assistance in our efforts to be establish the precise chronology of...

Western Asia Minor was the birthplace of coinage in the Mediterranean World. Whether it was the Lydians or their western neighbours the Ionian Greeks who produced the first coins, in electrum, we shall probably never know. But the former may have the stronger claim being the possessors of rich deposits of electrum, an alloy of silver and gold, which was the only metal used for coin production in its earliest stages. The Lydians later demonstrated their inventiveness in monetary matters by being the first to introduce a bimetallic currency consisting of coins struck in pure gold and silver instead of...

During the first half of the fifth century B.C. Greek coinage in western Asia Minor followed the patterns already established in the archaic period. The growing influence of Athens tended to restrict the development of coinage in this area and from circa 450 B. C. most silver issues ceased altogether—no doubt as a result of the Athenian Coinage Decree. However, the great electrum coinages of Kyzikos, Lesbos and Phokaia continued without interruption.

With the weakening of Athenian power towards the end of the fifth century a number of cities resumed issuing their own types. This trickle of new coinage...

The lands at the eastern end of the Mediterranean—Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, etc. were under Persian rule down to the time of Alexander. No coinage was produced in the area during the Archaic period. Persian imperial currency sufficed for all monetary transactions until the mid-5th century B.C. when this was supplemented by issues from some of the Phoenician cities. From the time of the Macedonian conquest the area was under the rule of the two great Hellenistic kingdoms, the Ptolemaic of Egypt and the Seleukid of Syria. These two Greek dynasties vied with one another for control of Phoenicia and...

The ancient civilization of the land of the Pharaohs felt little need of coinage before the time of Alexander the Great. However, demand for silver was high and large quantities of Greek coins, from all areas, found their way into Egypt from the closing decades of the 6th cent. B.C. Once it had been imported this silver was treated merely as bullion and many Egyptian hoards of this time contain coins cut into halves, quarters, etc. for the purposes of individual transactions. Large numbers of Athenian tetradrachms entered Egypt in the second half of the 5th century and these served...

The accession of Philip II to the Macedonian throne in 359 B.C. marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Greek World. Having made himself master of Greece, by a mixture of military skill and diplomacy, he was free to pursue his greatest ambition-the conquest of the Persian Empire. But the assassin’s sword prevented Philip from realizing this dream (336 B.C.) and the invasion of Asia was undertaken instead by his son Alexander, known to posterity as ‘the Great.’ The total destruction of the two-hundred-year-old Persian Empire and its ultimate replacement by a number of independent...