Electrum Coins
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This site is meant to provide ordinary collectors of ancient coins electrum coins catalogue a basic guide to the earliest coins in the western world, namely the electrum issues of Ionia and Lydia, and the gold and silver coins of Croesus Kroisos. Most collectors of ancient coins are naturally interested in the early electrum issues of Ionia and Lydia.
As a result ordinary collectors often see these coins as a bewildering confusion of unattributed types, and hence they hardly know where to start when trying to put together a meaningful collection of the period. Not surprisingly this is enough to discourage the interest of many collectors, particularly as even the smaller examples of these types are not exactly cheap. Therefore, in order to give collectors a better overall understanding of these types and how they relate together I have taken the limited evidence that we do have to go on and put together some charts of images of the key electrum coins catalogue electrum issues, ordered in space and time, down to roughly the fall of Croesus.
These electrum coins catalogue can be found on the "Early Electrum Coins" page. Ultimately of course the basic aim of the study of these early types is to determine when and electrum coins catalogue and why coinage was first introduced. I'm not going to try to electrum coins catalogue these questions definitively here myself, but I hope that the data electrum coins catalogue presented here will help readers assess the various theories that have been put forward over the years, and to understand the problems still to be solved in this key area of research.
I will say however that, taking the charts at face value, it electrum coins catalogue seem likely that coinage was introduced in two phases. Just where and when these new denominations originated is not clear, but they were soon incorporated into the striated series at Miletus and the issues of Samos, and as electrum coins catalogue "smooth and rough unfigured types" they make up what seem to be the earliest regular issues of Ionia A Ephesus?
What does this mean? In fact the earliest Lydian lion-heads would seem, on the basis of their general style, to be no earlier, and possibly a little later, than the "panther" face type of probably Miletus, which was hardly the first issue of Ionia.
Again we don't really know, but one possibility is that it was connected with the weights of the earliest coins. Thus the earliest Milesian staters weighed c. Thus the Milesian stater would have had a weight of 12 Euboic obols. A trite would then weigh 4 obols and hence the weights of its binary fractions would have been convenient electrum coins catalogue multiples or fractions of an obol in which case the coins could also do double duty as weights.
Similarly, if the Samian electrum stater of At this stage households would generally have run accounts with local shopkeepers and tradesmen which were settled periodically. Electrum coins could then have been used to settle accounts, while odd purchases for small amounts would still have been covered by uncoined silver or bronze.
It is unclear however whether this new catalog will be anything more than an updated version of Weidauer, i. For the present collectors have to make do with Michener's "Ancient Trade and Early Coinage" ATECwhich is fairly comprehensive but somewhat out of date and rather speculative electrum coins catalogue many areas and not easily accessible to most collectors.
I would guess that that the earliest opposing lion-head types of "Lydia A" attributed mostly to "Walwet" were inspired by the similar but much less common lion-head types assigned here to Ionia J, which is possibly a Lydian, or at least Lydian controlled, mint.
These latter types presumably evolved from the later striated issues of Ionia B where opposing lion and human heads were engraved on electrum coins catalogue large size striated obverse die plates used for the earliest staters.
These obverse dies could perhaps then be the ultimate model for the oversized obverse dies used for the later two-headed types of "Walwet". As noted elsewhere, after not too long the weight of the Milesian stater declined to the Lydian standard of For a clear and reasonably up-to-date discussion of the basic problems of the early electrum electrum coins catalogue see Velde's "On the Origin of Specie", which can be found in various forms on the internet via the usual search engines.
For a more general view of the origin and role of coinage readers should also familiarise themselves with the ongoing "chartalism" versus "metallism" debate don't be put off by the academic terminology - it just means token or fiduciary money versus real-value money.
More specifically, for the moment the electrum coins catalogue popular explanation of the introduction of electrum coinage, due originally to Wallace, is that electrum coins likely originated as a means of standardising the use of natural electrum as a means of exchange.
As more or less pure materials, gold and silver could be simply exchanged by weight, and silver in particular had for centuries been the prime medium of exchange in the electrum coins catalogue. However, at some stage this system seems to have broken down, possibly due to dilution of the natural electrum with added silver, so that a new approach was needed to restore the reputation of electrum as a medium of exchange. In his initial exposition of this theory Wallace doesn't specify this but clearly he assumes that the certified lumps will be token coins, i.
This is of course basically an updated version of Sture Bolin's famous thesis that the debased electrum coins were essentially a state swindle, although in this new version the people were apparently supposed to knowingly accept and use them as credit tokens.
But would ordinary people have accepted such an advanced concept at this stage in the development of coinage? Possibly, but my impression is that overtly token coins were very much the exception electrum coins catalogue than the rule in ancient coinage, particularly in the early stages for the primary coinages in precious metal at any rate electrum coins catalogue at a somewhat later stage the secondary issues in bronze quickly became tokens.
Because of this, I incline to a slightly modified form of Wallace's idea. The stamping of the coins would then then have been done to guarantee the quality of the alloy as well as the weight, i. But is this what actually happened - were the first coins i. As electrum coins catalogue right now we don't actually know, as we don't have figures for the composition of the alloy for the very earliest coins although hopefully data on this question will soon be forthcoming.
Clearly these types were generally made of diluted alloy, although with rather poor quality control. Now whether the Samos situation was typical of other early mints or not we don't yet know we need more data on the alloy content of the other mintsbut in any case after not too long we find that in most places the coin alloy appears electrum coins catalogue have been more or less standardised, with the average gold content of the alloy now varying from c.
In particular, in Lydia we find that by the time of the lion-head issues the gold content of the alloy was quite electrum coins catalogue controlled suggesting that, at Sardis at least, a completely electrum coins catalogue electrum alloy was being used, meaning presumably that the Lydians were now routinely separating their electrum into gold and silver.
This all sounds simple enough, but nonetheless there are still a number of problems. One obvious question at electrum coins catalogue point is what determined the various specific and differing alloy content figures that were ultimately adopted at the different mints? We don't really know, but one theory is that the new controlled alloys were meant to equate to diluted verions of some theoretical "natural" alloy. This sounds reasonable at first sight, although it's hard to reconcile this idea with the differing and seemingly arbitrary composition of the actual electrum electrum coins catalogue the various mints, and hence an alternate idea worth electrum coins catalogue is that the standardised alloy coins were real value issues rather than tokens, and that the alloy was diluted electrum coins catalogue match the real value of the coins to foreign weight standards, such as the Persian shekel, rather than the local Greek drachms.
A related question is, and always has been, why was so much care taken, even right at the start, to electrum coins catalogue the actual weight of the coins? After all, if they were basically tokens, who cares what they weigh? Was the weight control simply part of a great con job, as Bolin suggested? This would seem unlikely, electrum coins catalogue so it is tempting to conclude that it confirms the theory that the initial idea was electrum coins catalogue restore the use of natural electrum as a means of exchange in the form of coins certified by the state to be of fixed weight and electrum coins catalogue value, an idea that Wallace himself apparently eventually adopted.
Overall, then, it would seem electrum coins catalogue that initially there may have been an attempt to value electrum coins as if they were made of natural electrum, or even to return to the actual use of undiluted natural electrum, but if so then this scheme soon unravelled and debased coins of variable alloy may have taken over for a while, as seems to electrum coins catalogue happened at Samos. After not too long though a new system was introduced in most places under which coins were made once electrum coins catalogue from controlled alloy, with, perhaps, a fixed overvaluation against electrum coins catalogue theoretical bullion.
In fact, there are still a few more problems with Wallace's theory. Firstly, as noted above, after not too long a time it seems that the coin metal in Lydia at least was actually made by combining refined gold and silver to produce a purely artificial electrum, possibly because the natural electrum had run out, but more likely to improve electrum coins catalogue control of the alloy's composition.
But if you now have regular supplies of gold and silver, why go the trouble of making an artificial electrum - why not take the obvious step and produce gold and silver coins? And finally, the prime mover in the introduction of electrum coinage is usually taken to be Lydia, which had, it is generally assumed, copious supplies of natural electrum, and hence a vested interest in utilising them.
However, the earliest actual electrum coins seem to have been issued, not in Lydia, but in Samos and Miletus. Clearly we have much to learn about the rise of the electrum coinage, but another question is why did it ultimately fail, or to put it another way, why did the gold and silver coinage take over?
Without getting too specific, in general terms the problem may have been that ultimately people simply lost faith in the electrum coinage system, with its inherently uncertain alloy particularly if the coins were fiduciariesand hence they tried, like the Samians, to avoid it wherever possible by reverting to bullion for example.
Nonetheless, despite the ultimate failure of the electrum coinage system, the electrum pieces were the first to have their value certified by stamping, and as such they became the first true coins, while gold and silver were still electrum coins catalogue exchanged as bullion.
Behind all this of course is an interesting further problem - what was the source or sources of the natural electrum in the first place it now seems doubtful that the Pactolus river was the main source of the Lydian electrumand who controlled those sources - i.
These basic questions are yet to be answered. In practice though the ancients wouldn't have been too concerned about the exact composition of the alloy as long as the coins maintained their nominal market value in terms of gold or silver bullion.
For example it has been suggested that coinage was used by wealthy merchants or populist tyrants to free up markets and trade, and hence wrest control of the economy from the domination of the aristocratic elites.
Electrum coins catalogue this electrum coins catalogue electrum was used precisely because it was not favoured by the elites as a store of value or medium of exchange, and hence gave the ordinary people an alternative to the gold and silver "monopolised" in this theory by the elites.
Just how much truth there is in this idea is hard to determine, but the spread of coinage would electrum coins catalogue doubt have benefited the "new men", i. It appears that while the electrum coins catalogue content of these types may have declined somewhat over time, it seems to have been fairly stable in the short term, so that they could be electrum coins catalogue internationally as real value coins.
By the middle of the 6th century B. C, and quite possibly earlier, the Lydians had mastered the technique of separating electrum into gold and silver, and it is usually thought that the world's first gold and silver coins were issued at Sardis in Lydia during the reign of Croesus c. These coins, with the facing lion and bull foreparts on the obverse, were evidently issued in various denominations at various times, and in fact their production was probably continued by the Persians for some time after Cyrus the Great had conquered Lydia.
Eventually they were replaced in the late 6th century by the gold daric and silver siglos of Darius featuring the sitting or running king. Several writers, notably Berk, Naster and Nimchuk, have attempted to classify the various electrum coins catalogue of the Croeseid types, with, implicitly at least, the ultimate aim of arranging electrum coins catalogue in electrum coins catalogue.
The results of these efforts have been limited, but nonetheless it's fair to say that significant progress has been made in defining the various issues, at least in broad terms. Unfortunately the key literature on these types is not easily available to the average collector, and therefore I have put together a chart of images of the different issues, arranged in time, which can be found on electrum coins catalogue "The Coins of Electrum coins catalogue page.
This chart is based on the ideas of various writers, but ultimately it reflects my own assessment of the available evidence. Given the peculiarities of the various browsers, viewers may need to adjust the displayed text size for comfortable viewing.
Chart of Northern Ionian types added. Section on the Coins of Croesus added. Discussion of reason for earliest coinage revised again. Discussion of earliest electrum coins catalogue coinage revised and clarified. Possible role of tyrants in coin issuance noted. Electrum coins catalogue on the introduction of electrum coinage revised again. Electrum coins catalogue me by email at: Appendix - The Introduction of Electrum Coinage. The first Gold and Silver Coinage.
Ross Glanfield Sydney, Australia November
