Money originated in the 7th century BC, in Lydia, a country in Asia Minor. It was made of electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, as well as of gold, silver, copper, bronze and brass.
Ancient Greek and Roman coinage testifies to the skills of ancient craftsmen to achieve high metal purity — some of the coins are small masterpieces.
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Silver tetradrachm of Athens (with the owl on the reverse) and silver tetradrachm of Alexander the Great
featuring Heracles - one of the staple coinages of the ancient world
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The first money was handmade, and this technique continued to be used, with minor modifications, until the 16th century, when the first minting machines were introduced.
In the 1st century it was customary to
countermark coins with a symbol, monogram or name. This was done by merchants and other citizens, as well as by states. For example, a state would
countermark a foreign coin to provide for its free circulation on its territory. Coins were also
countermarked by their owners who deposited them, expecting to get the same coins back.
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One person could mint a hundred coins
per hour
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In ancient times and in the Byzantine empire coinage was issued by states and sovereigns.
Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) followed the suit of his father Phillip II and had Greek divinities and heroes featured on his coinage, a stand-out example of which is the silver tetradrachm depicting Heracles. After Alexander's death, his successors (the Diadochi) continued to issue his coinage because it was highly valued. The next decade was marked by constant conflicts and rivalry among Alexander's successors, who, out of respect for him and to demonstrate their connection with him, minted the coinage with his image on the obverse and their names inscribed on the reverse. A turning point was the replacement of Alexander's image with the image of one of his successors: the first to do this was Ptolemy I Soter, the king of Egypt, motivated by the strong economic, military and cultural development of his state.
In Ancient Greece money was issued by the poleis. As there were several hundreds of them, the money of the time was very varied. Each polis was an independent state with its own territory, whose government was entitled to issue money. The coinage depicted deities and heroes worshipped by the polis which issued it.
Legend has it that
Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus and that it was ruled by kings. In 509 BC it became a republic, and it underwent political turmoil in the period from 133 to 31 BC (Sulla, Pompeius, and Caesar). By crossing the Rubicon, Caesar forever changed the course of history. His political successor, Octavian Augustus, laid the foundations of the Roman Empire, dealing a mortal blow to the Roman Republic by conquering Egypt. Under the rule of his successor, emperor Traianus (98-117) the Empire rose to the peak of its power and territorial expansion.
The minting and circulation of coins in the Roman Empire were closely related to politics and warfare. Gold and silver coins were, as a rule, issued by the emperor and copper and brass ones by the Senate. The earliest Roman copper coinage featured the images of deities.
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Caesar
put his image on the silver denarius, thus becoming the first Roman
to mint coinage with his own image.
The Roman emperor Constantine the Great (285-337), established a
strong monetary system, with the gold solidus as the basic
monetary unit, which became the core of the Byzantine monetary
system and was highly appreciated for centuries. |
Silver denarius |
The Byzantine Empire — the Roman practice of depicting rulers on the coins that they issued continued with slight modifications.
The portrait in profile was replaced by the full-face portrait of the ruler, which also included the bust. The power and authority of the emperor was accentuated by resplendent robes and the crown.
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Christian symbols first appeared on the reverse of coins in the 6th century (an angel holding a long cross).
The image of Jesus Christ was for the first time put on the coinage in the 7th century by Justinianus II.
The minting of the coinage depicting religious motifs was forbidden during the iconoclastic period (726 to 843).
Both the obverse and reverse of the coins was dominated by the images of sovereigns and their sons.
After over a century, when the ban was lifted and icon worship allowed again, the coinage depicting Jesus started to be reissued.
In the 10th century, the solidus was replaced by the tetrateron and histamenon.
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Gold solidus |
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