Ancient Coins
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Not all Greek cities, however were independent. Colonies were established in distant parts of the Mediterranean world. Coins issued by these colonies sometimes mirrored the issues of the mother city. For example, coins of the colonies of Corinth used the Pegasus/Athena types but bore the initials of the colony that produced them.
Ancient Greek civilization extended far beyond what is today called Greece. Many of the most prized "Greek" coins were issued by the cities founded by Greek colonists in southern Italy (Magna Graecia) or Sicily. To collectors, "Greek" coins include issues from Spain to India during the period that Greek civilization dominated the Mediterranean world.
Early Greek coins were made of precious metal, usually silver, equal in weight to the value of the denomination. Daily commerce required small denominations which resulted in some very tiny coins. Around the start of the fourth century BC some authorities took the practical step of issuing small denominations in bronze (collectors call several different copper alloys "bronze").
These coins did not necessarily contain the full value in terms of metal but they filled the need for a circulating currency as long as the populace trusted the issuing authority to back the value of the issue. As a result, silver coinage could be expected to circulate widely based on the value of its silver but bronze coins usually were accepted in the limited area of their issue.
Independent Greek city coinage began to disappear as more and more independent cities fell under the control of the great central power: Macedon. By the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) the need for coinage in many areas was being filled by the Macedonian royal coinage.
Following the death of Alexander the empire was subdivided among Alexander's
generals who issued what we call the Hellenistic coinage. Quite different from the city coinage, these issues usually bore a portrait of the ruler on the obverse. Legends became increasingly important with some coins bearing a long legend of royal names and titles. Some issues began to be dated to the year of the king or of the dynasty.
Parallel to the Hellenistic coinage are the issues of lands that bordered on the Greek world. The practical desirability of the Greek system of coinage was recognized by the kings of Parthia (in what is now Iran) and India, among others.
The Parthians issued a long series of coins that resemble the Hellenistic Greek issues. The king is shown, usually facing left, on the obverse with a seated archer surrounded by an extensive legend on the reverse.
This legend was usually in Greek but sometimes it was mixed with local script or stylized into an illegible blur.
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(c) 1997 Doug Smith