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Hoards, Small Change and the Origin of Coinage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Colin M. Kraay
Colin M. Kraay
Affiliation:
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
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Extract

Numismatists necessarily deal in minute detail, often so minute that it passes unnoticed by those used to a larger scale; yet as much historical knowledge may depend on such minutiae as on the far larger details of sculpture or architecture. This difference of scale, however, is dangerous because it tends to increase the gulf between numismatists, who seem to be pursuing ever smaller details, and historians, who want to be told how coinage may affect the larger picture with which they are concerned. The following pages are an attempt to assemble and evaluate some of the very incomplete, but annually increasing, evidence, which bears on the function and use of coinage in the Greek world in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. The treatment will be divided into three sections:

1. Evidence for the movement of coins from their various areas of origin.

2. Evidence for the incidence of fractional coinage.

3. The implications of 1 and 2 for an understanding of the function of early Greek coinage.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 84 , November 1964 , pp. 76 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1964

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References

1 The substance of this article, though in somewhat different form, was given as a paper to the Hellenic Society on January 10, 1963. I have benefited from a number of interesting and useful points which were raised in the subsequent discussion.

2 By this term I mean staters (pieces of two or three drachmae), usually weighing about 7–8·6 gm according to standard, and tetradrachms weighing about 17 gm. Small change, intended for local use, is not relevant in this section, since it does not travel widely; it will be examined in Section 2.

3 Reference to hoards will be to Noe, , ‘Bibliography of Greek Coin Hoards’ (2nd edn.), NNM 78Google Scholar, hereafter referred to as Noe.

4 Poseidonia and Velia are exceptions, because they lie outside the main area of S. Italian colonisation, and because they both employ a weight standard different from that of the majority.

5 The representation of Sybaris declines progressively the later a hoard is buried after 510.

6 Noe 180 (Calabria); Noe 854 (Reggio); Noe 857 (Reggio?).

7 Noe 1052: probably more than one hoard; this does not affect the present argument, since all the material is thought to have been found in Italy, S. (cf. NC 1962, 421 ff.)Google Scholar.

8 From near Taranto; now fully published by Noe, , The Coinage of Caulonia (ANS Numismatic Studies no. 9) 59 ff.Google Scholar

9 Most of these are recorded in Museum Notes vii 13 ff. and NC 1960, 66 ff.

10 NC 1960, 71 ff.

11 The only instances appear to be Noe 729 (Naucratis), one Syracuse; Noe 730 (Naucratis), one each of Syracuse, Leontini and Messana; Anatolian, S. hoard (NC 1961, 107 ff.)Google Scholar, one Samians at Zankle.

12 They also had a long life for they continue to be found in hoards buried at least down to the middle of the fourth century; cf. Noe 718 (buried c. 350, not ‘after 338’, as Noe), which still contained many sixth-century turtles.

13 See also Schmidt, , Persepolis ii 113.Google Scholar

14 NC 1961, 107 ff.

15 To be published by Monsieur P. Strauss of Basel.

16 Seaby, 's Coin and Medal Bulletin, January 1960, pl. 3.Google Scholar

17 This hoard is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

18 Hesperia xxiv (1955) 135 f.; the deposit includes a number of fractional denominations.

19 There is no evidence for political control of Siphnos by Aegina.

20 NC 1960, 71 ff.

21 Cf. Jenkins, G. K. in Centennial Publication of the American Numismatic Society, 368 ff.Google Scholar; only from the mid-fourth century onwards are Corinthian coins found in considerable numbers in the West.

22 AJA lxv (1961) 381.

23 Cf. note 9 above; for the rather more numerous S. Italian overstrikes on Sicilian coins, see p. 78 above.

24 See above, n. 14.

25 Preserved in the Corinth Museum.

26 See above, n. 18.

27 Cf. BMQ xix 13.

28 Kraay, , NC 1956, 43 ff.Google Scholar; Wallace, , NC 1962, 23 ff.Google Scholar; Kraay, , NC 1962, 417 ff.Google Scholar

29 The list of internal finds remains as drawn up by Seltman, , Athens, its History and Coinage 146 f.Google Scholar, sects. I–III and VII, with addition of three stray finds from the Agora excavations; farther afield we have Taranto (Noe 1052) 2 exx., Benha (Noe 143) i ex., Sakha (Noe 888) 2 exx. and Fayum (n. 16 above) 1 ex.

30 Imported coins only.

31 See above, p. 77

32 See above, p. 80

33 Owls are known to have been found recently together with mid-century Lycian issues; several Lycian coin-types are derived from Athenian owls.

34 See above, p. 78

35 NC 1962, 1 ff.

36 BMC Ionia, 358, no. 87.

37 NC 1945, 78 f.

38 BMC Cyrenaica 1, no. 1.

39 Noe 611, 953 and 1161 are typical in this respect.

40 NC 1948, 48.

41 NC 1937, 182.

42 Iraq xii 44 ff.

43 Schlumberger, , L'argent grec dans l'empire Achéménide 50 ff.Google Scholar

44 Op. cit., 31 ff.

45 NC 1947, 115 ff.

46 Cf. NC 1956, 62 f.

47 Her. v 17 (Lake Prasias); v 23.2 (Myrcinus); vii 112 (Mt. Pangaeus).

48 NC 1938, 80 ff.

49 Noe 341, 1013 and a hoard from Nevrokop.

50 Noe 188 (=667), 685, and the Gela hoard (p. 77 above).

51 Mus. Notes vii 26 (Metapontum on Thasos) and 37 (Gela on Mende).

52 Mélanges Syriens offerts à M. R. Dussaud (1939) 461 ff.

53 See n. 14 above.

54 See n. 15 above.

55 It is worth noting that practically all known examples of the Dionysus on ass type of Mende derive from a single very large hoard found on the site of Mende itself (Noe 522); also the only known hoard to contain a substantial number of coins of Acanthus comes from the neighbourhood of Acanthus itself (Rev. Beige 1949, 42).

56 L'argent grec dans l'empire Achéménide 12 ff.; to his material may now be added Noe, ‘Two hoards of Persian sigloi’ (NNM 136) and a hoard from the American excavations at Gordium.

57 Schlumberger, op. cit. in n. 56, p. 6 ff.

58 Lederer, , Neue Beiträge zur antiken Münzkunde 44.Google Scholar

59 Information from Dr H. A. Cahn, Basel.

60 Schw. Münzbl. 1956, 45 ff. and 1957, 73 ff.

61 Cf. Schw. Münzbl. 1958, 99 ff.

62 Noe, The Coinage of Caulonia (ANS Numismatic Studies no. 9).

63 A bronze coinage was also used during this period, but as only some four specimens are known, it does not materially affect the picture.

64 The chief disturbing factor is likely to be an uneven incidence of hoards within a period, so that whereas one part of it may be well covered, another may lack a representative hoard.

65 Boehringer, , Die Münzen von Syrakus (1929).Google Scholar

66 I am grateful to him for allowing me to use here his unpublished figures for the frequency of dies.

67 See BMC Attica, etc., 126 ff. for denominations at different periods; the dates there given are too high.

68 Seltman, , Athens, 151 ff.Google Scholar

69 May, , Aenus 8 and 70.Google Scholar

70 The diobol at Aenus was slightly lighter than at Athens.

71 These figures are taken from an as yet unpublished study by the late J. M. F. May.

72 Raymond, , ‘Macedonian Regal Coinage to 413 B.C.’ (NNM 126).Google Scholar A light and a heavy tetrobol were struck; the former was of impure silver and may have been intended for local circulation only (Kraay, , The Composition of Greek Silver Coins 20 ff.Google Scholar).

73 Kraay, , ‘Monnaies provenant du site de Colophon’, Rev. suisse de Numismatique xlii 5 ff.Google Scholar

74 The term ‘internal’ must be understood to cover both transactions within a city and those between cities within the same area, such as S. Italy or Sicily.

75 Strabo 378; Aristotle, fr. 611, 20.

76 The so-called Constitution of Chios, (BSA li (1956) 157Google Scholar) and the Eretrian laws (IG xii 9, 1273–4) are sixth-century examples.

77 E.g., the 5 per cent duty levied by Athens on all imports and exports in 413 (Thuc. vii 28.4); some taxes were levied in kind (Ath. Pol. 15.4).

78 Her. iii 57; vii 144. Thasos also enjoyed a considerable income from mines under her control (Her. vi 46).

79 In a stimulating article in Historia vii (1958) 257, R. M. Cook suggests that this was indeed the original purpose of coinage; I have applied here to a wider area many of the points which he makes in relation to Lydian electrum.

80 Her. iii 131.

81 This is the phrase used in the Eretrian laws (n. 76 above); compare the use of ἀδόκιμον in the account of Hippias' so-called reform in Oec. 1347a 8.

82 1347a 8.

83 At both Athens and Siphnos the mines were owned by the state; ample resources were thus available to cover the costs of minting.