Ancient Coin Project

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Ancient Coin Project
Photo by Doug Smith http//dougsmith.ancients.inf
o/

• created by Latin teacher Cathy Scaife for
• Ancient Coins for Education
• classroom attribution project.

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Ancient Coin Project
Photo by Doug Smith http//dougsmith.ancients.inf
o/

• Part I
• Evolution of Coins

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Money
Latin pecunia, pecuniae, f. money pecus,
pecoris, n. herd, cattle, beast
Greek chremata, chrematon, n.pl. possessions,
belongings
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Animals and Products as Forms of Money
Advantages? Disadvantages?
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Metals as Prize Money
Bronze cauldron tripods, Olympia, 6th c. BC.
Top relief is handle of a cauldron.
Copper pots first prize for wrestlers, Homers
Iliad
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Metals as Valued Possessions
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Metal as a Medium for Exchange
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Metal in Measured Forms
Greek obols
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Bronze Ingots
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Silver Ingots(in pots in which hoard was buried)
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Scales and Weights
Folding scales Left of wood and Right of ivory
Stone weights and scale pans
Egyptian wall painting, tomb at Thebes, 14thc.
B.C.
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Scales Always Associated with Money and Justice
--ANA Museum, Colorado Springs --Seal of
Treasury, U.S. Mint --Juno Moneta holding
scales on reverse of coin minted by Constantius
as Caesar
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Earliest Coins of the Mediterranean --approximate
ly 650 B.C. in Lydia --made of electrum, natural
alloy of gold and silver
King Ardys (652-615 B.C.) ---lump with incuse
obverse King Alyattes (610-561 B.C.) ---stater
had established weight of 168
grains ---fractional denominations ---reverse die
(intaglio) King Croesus (561-546
B.C.) ---bimetallic coinage ---gold content 98
Lydian coin, minted under Croesus, 561-546
B.C. Gold stater, foreparts of lion and bull ANA
Museum
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Early Greek Coins
Silver turtle coins from Greek island Aegina, 500
480 BCE
Ear of barley, incuse bucranium Lucania,
Metapontium, 470-440, silver triobol
Arethusa with dolphins quadriga and Charioteer
Sicily, Syracuse, 485-480, silver tetradrachm
Athena owl coin, Athens, 449-431 BC silver
tetradrachm
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Athenian Tetradrachmacoin clippedto create
smallerdenominations
Challenges of Bullion Coinage
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Challenges of Bullion Coinage
Top Aeginetan Coinage, relative
Denominations Left Lydian coinage
Tiny Coins
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Intrinsic Value (metallic value roughly equal to
tariff value) vs. Token (Fiduciary)
Value (intrinsic value less than tariff value)
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Image Sources

• Meshorer, Yaakov. Coins of the Ancient World.
  Lerner Archaeology Series Digging Up the Past.
  (Lerner Publications Company, Minneapolis, 1980).
• Russell, Solveig Paulson. From Barter to Gold
  The Story of Money. (Rand McNally Company,
  Chicago, 1961).
• Website by Doug Smith. http//dougsmith.ancients.i
  nfo/
• Website, American Numismatic Museum.
  www.money.org
• Other coin images donated by supporters of
  Ancient Coins for Education as listed at
  http//www.bitsofhistory.comace/CI.html