Heraldic coins of Athens

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Heraldic coins are silver coins from Athens, which were produced in the period from about 570 to 510 BC. Were minted. These are mainly didrachms , in the later phase also tetradrachms. If the assumption of some scholars is correct, the coinage in Athens was not introduced until 550 BC. Introduced by Peisistratos . Thus the dating would also shift to this time frame.

Assignment

Heraldic coins have no Athenian inscription, but can still be assigned to the city of Athens without any doubt, as all finds of such coins are concentrated in and around Attica . They most likely circulated there because smaller coin units were only found in Attica. The Athenian silver mines in Laurion would also have enabled the city to mint a large number of its own coins. Coat of arms coins have the same weight standard, have the same material basis and each have a diagonally divided quadratum incusum on the reverse. Probably the most striking thing they have in common is the occasional use of the same back stamp for different front motifs. This leads to the conclusion that the coins were produced in a single central mint .

Origin of name

In contrast to other mints of the period, Athens had not just one motif on the front, but a whole series of images. These motifs, surrounded by a circular line, were also often depicted as shield symbols of the warriors on Attic vases . For this reason, they were considered to be the coats of arms of leading Athenian families, who were commissioned to mint coins, and were referred to in research with the term “coat of arms coins”, which is still used today, although this interpretation is no longer accepted today. Colin M. Kraay suspects that the then ruler Peisistratos of Athens allowed individual families to participate in the coinage in order to gain political support. This assumption would explain the many motifs and their short minting time.

Period

In the seventh century BC The first coin occurrence is dated in Lydia in West Asia. Coins quickly gained acceptance as an easily transportable medium of exchange. 570 BC The minting of coins in central Greece begins. Many citizens used coins for everyday things like buying and borrowing. Most archaic and classical coins, however, had too high a value and played no role in everyday transactions. They were more important in overseas trade. Despite the growing prevalence, there were still large parts of Greece with no money with a smaller face value or no money at all. This shows that coins were not yet essential to the economy.

The coinage of Athens is strongly linked to the importance of the city. When Athens was already an important trading city and exported a lot of goods such as olive oil and fine ceramics , the heraldic coins were rather unpopular among traders due to their lack of easy recognition.

Attic unit coin with Athena and the owl

In the last third of the sixth century, the decision was made to use a single coin. The many front motifs of the coat of arms coins were replaced by the image of the Athena head and instead of the diagonally divided quadratum incusums the owl, the most important attribute of the city goddess, was now to be seen on the reverse. For the first time, the name of the city was now on the coin, which shows that the goal here had to be mainly distant trading partners, since naming the city for local use would not have been necessary. Cities like Aegina and Corinth already had an established system of coins before Athens, each with a concise obverse motif, which is why it can only be speculated why Athens minted a number of motifs. The expulsion of the Persians from Greece around 479 BC Is synonymous with the rise of Athens. The increased silver mining and the expansion of the port of Piraeus favored coinage. These factors and the decision to use a single coin ended the minting of the coat of arms coins, but favored the rise of the athena coin to the most popular long-distance trade coin of ancient Greece .

Motifs

Heraldic coins show motifs such as the amphora , the triskeles , the rear half of a horse pointing to the right, the protome of a horse pointing to the left, an astragalus , a bridled horse pointing to the left and an owl. All of these motifs are surrounded by a circular line. In contrast, motifs such as the wheel with cross struts, the protome of a horse pointing to the right, the wheel with the radial spokes, the cattle head and the gorgoneion were not framed. The coin motifs show a reference to the Panathenaic games and the city goddess Athena with her attributes. The motifs can be assigned as follows:

  • Horse, cartwheels → chariot races
  • Triskeles → running competitions
  • Amphora → Gift of Athena as a prize for the winner (filled with olive oil)
  • Cattle head → sacrifice for Athena
  • Gorgoneion → the head cut off from Medusa, Athena wears it on her shield as a deterrent

The last motif that was minted on the obverse in front of the unit coin was the Gorgoneion . In parallel with this motif, there was also an innovation in the production method. On the back of the Gorgoneion is a quadratum incusum with a lion's head from the front with two paws. This is the first indication of a reverse motif on the Attic coins. However, there is no plausible explanation for the choice of the lion's head as a motif.

literature

  • Charles Seltman: Athens . Cambridge 1924.
  • Joseph Grafton Milne: Greek coinage . Oxford 1931.
  • Colin M. Kraay: Archaic and Classical Greek Coins . Methuen 1976.
  • John H. Kroll: The Athenian Agora XXVI. The Greek Coins . Princeton 1993.

Web links

Commons : Heraldic Coins  - Collection of images, videos and audio files