Everyday Blog

You can collect ancient coins in a number of ways. Some coin collectors like to concentrate on coins from a specific historic time period, while others prefer to go even further and only collect coins of a certain type. For example, I believe that a number of coin collectors only care about ancient Greek coins of the “owl” type. Such coins, nearly always made of silver, were produced in the ancient city-state of Athens for centuries, and were always featuring an image of the goddess Athena on the obverse and a cute owl on the reverse.

One of the chief reasons for the power and wealth of Athens during this period, roughly 500-300 BC, was the fact that they had their own silver mines. However, toward the end of the fourth century BC., the conquests by Alexander the Great meant the end of independence for Athens as well as all the other city-states of ancient Greece. Indeed it was during these turbulent days that Athens was forced to melt down some of their precious sacred gold statues, representing deities, to use for making coins; since they had lost access to their silver mines. (Coins were urgently needed to pay off mercenary soldiers.)

I feel the main reason why I am so interested in ancient Greek coins is that they are often so very beautiful. And I guess many others feel the same about them. These coins can be stunning works of art. While the “owl” coins of Athens are one example, there are certainly several coins from other parts of ancient Greece which in my opinon are even more fantastic.

I have for instance seen a silver coin, a 4-drachm piece, made in the city of Akragas sometime near the end of the fifth century BC. On one side you see a magnificent pair of eagles standing on their prey, a hare. One eagle raises its head in a scream while the other looks down at the prey, ready to start tearing it apart. On the opposite side of the coin there is a beautifully rendered crab and below it a sea monster; Scylla, with the face and breasts of a beautiful woman. All of it so skillfully engraved you can hardly take your eyes off this coin.

Clearly, the ancient Greek coins were a source of civic pride. They had a function as works of art showing off the glory of the people who had made them. By contrast, the Romans who later became the absolute rulers of the whole Mediterranean area seem to have had a more mundane view of coins. The ancient Roman coins do indeed sometimes show excellent craftsmanship, although I believe it hardly ever reaches the level of the ancient Greek coins. The Romans appear to have regarded coins from a more practical perspective.

While the ancient Greeks would never have an image of a living person on their coins, the Romans soon began this practise - which remains standard to this day. Thus, the Roman coins typically feature an image of the ruler on the obverse. And the ancient Roman coins are also often used for political propaganda - as when Brutus, one of the men who murdered Julius Caesar, issued a coin with a picture of himself plus a “cap of liberty” and two daggers! This is to be interpreted as: by killing Caesar, Rome was liberated from a tyrant.