User:Generalissima/Athenian tetradrachm: Difference between revisions

 

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Around 5% of catalogued tetradrachms bear [[Test cut (numismatics)|test cuts]] to check for potential debasement or counterfeiting, with the coins chiseled open for inspection of their interior. Most of the cut coins have the expected purity of silver; it is likely a certain percentage of tetradrachms were routinely test cut when exported overseas, especially in Egypt, where they saw use as [[bullion]].{{Sfn|Davis|Sheedy|Gore|2020|pp=211–212}}

Around 5% of catalogued tetradrachms bear [[Test cut (numismatics)|test cuts]] to check for potential debasement or counterfeiting, with the coins chiseled open for inspection of their interior. Most of the cut coins have the expected purity of silver; it is likely a certain percentage of tetradrachms were routinely test cut when exported overseas, especially in Egypt, where they saw use as [[bullion]].{{Sfn|Davis|Sheedy|Gore|2020|pp=211–212}}

During the late 400s, the [[Athenian coinage decree]] banned the use of non-Athenian coinage within its territory.{{sfn|Howgego|1995|pp=44–46}}

During the late 400s, the [[Athenian coinage decree]] banned the use of non-Athenian coinage within its territory.{{sfn|Howgego|1995|pp=44–46}}

=== Peloponnesian War and debasement ===

=== Peloponnesian War and debasement ===

The Athenian tetradrachm was a large silver coin minted by the Greek city state of Athens between the late 6th century BCE and 42 BCE. For most of this period, they bore the goddess Athena on the obverse and the Owl of Athena on the reverse; for this reason, the coins are often referred to simply as “Athenian owls“.

The Ancient Greek city state of Athens began producing coinage during the reign of the tyrant Peisistratos, around 546 BCE. The motivation behind the initial production is unclear. Across the Aegean, the kingdom of Lydia minted the first coins around a century prior, and the practice became almost immediately adopted by the Greek city states in Ionia. Coinage spread into mainland Greece during the sixth century BCE, but precise dates are not available for it. Along with cities like Aegina and Corinth, Athens was one of the first city states in mainland Greece to mint coins.

The use of money began in Athens before the use of coins. The laws of the statesman Solon attest state payments made with hacksilver near the beginning of the sixth century. During this period, the Attic standard developed, and would remain the consistent weight standard for Athenian currency for several centuries. The first coins produced, termed Wappenmünzen, consisted of 14 attested types or designs, all with a simple incuse punch on the reverse. The didrachm (likely equivalent to a stater) was the base unit of the Wappenmünzen, and circulated alongside various smaller denominations. The coins feature no text or marking of affiliation with Athens; they have been identified with the city due to their adherence to the Attic weight standard and the discovery of most examples in the region around Athens. Fourteen different Wappenmünzen types are known. The different designs may have been to identify different mint magistrates working with Peisistratos, or may have simply been differing designs which appealed to him personally.

Around 525–520, during the tyranny of Peisistratos’s son Hippias, Athens began producing coins which featured the heads of gorgons. The gorgon was symbolically associated with the goddess Athena, the patron goddess of Athens, as the legendary hero Perseus had presented the head of the gorgon Medusa as a gift to her. However, it remained a common symbol in art and coinage across Greece. Although many were produced in the previous obol and didrachm denominations, these gorgoneion coins were also the first coins to be minted in the tetradrachm denomination. Unlike earlier forms of Wappenmünzen, the gorgoneion tetradrachms were bifacial. They initially featured a bull motif on the reverse placed within an incuse square. Only one example of a tetradrachm with the bull motif survives; the obverse dies of the coin were later used to strike some coins of another design, which instead featured a lion head on the reverse. Some early tetradrachms of the lion head type feature two pellets or dots on the reverse, with different dies having the dots at different locations. These were likely placed to indicate the tetradrachm’s value as a distater (two staters or didrachms).

The transition to the gorgoneion coinage was accompanied by a change in silver supply. Ancient sources suggest Thrace and Macedonia were the main source of silver in early Athens, as the Peisistratids owned mines in the Pangaeum and along the Strymon River. Modern metallurgical analysis has shown a variety of origins for the gorgoneion coinage. In comparison to earlier forms of Wappenmünzen, they have much lower amounts of lead and copper, indicating technological advances in metallurgy. Some of the tetradrachms may have been made with silver from the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Greece, but some were likely made with silver from the Attic Mines of Laurion. The smaller denominations of gorgoneion coinage, likely produced after the tetradrachm, have a much greater volume of Laurion silver. Silver had been mined at Laurion since the Bronze Age, beginning around 1600. By the 6th century, easily accessible silver was depleted, with very little archaeological evidence of mining activity. Activity resumed near the end of the century, as miners began to exploit the “second contact”, which required much more costly refinement.

The gorgoneion coinage was only issued for a short period. Around the 510s,^[α] Athens introduced a new form of tetradrachm coinage, made according to the Attic standard with Laurion silver. On the obverse, the design features a helmeted depiction of Athena. On the reverse, the Owl of Athena is perched on a branch next to the text ‘ΑθΕ‘ within an incuse square, abbreviating the name of Athens. Due to the clear provenance of the coin with its label and symbolism, numismatist Colin M. Kraay described the design as “deliberate advertisement” for the city. The introduction of the owl coinage was accompanied by the abandonment of the didrachm denomination. Athenian coinage in denominations smaller than a tetradrachm is scarce in the archaeological record, attesting that the vast majority was produced for use in overseas trade rather than domestic use.

In 512, the Achaemenid Persians under Darius the Great subjugated portions of the Balkans, including Macedonia; this cut off the supply of silver from the north during the last years of Hippiais’s rule. Laurion was left as the only remaining source of silver for the city.

After Hippias was exiled from Athens in 510, a brief period of oligarchy was followed by a period of democratic reform under the statesman Cleisthenes in 508 and 507.

Varieties of archaic owl tetradrachms were split into groups by the numismatist Charles Seltman in his 1924 book Athens: Its History and Coinage Before the Persian Invasion, listed from Group A to Group H. (talk more about the Seltman groups. Wallace 1962 has stuff as does Kraay 1956 and Williams 1966)

During the fifth century, the Laurion Mines produced an estimated 20 tons of silver per year, equal to 736 talents or 1,104,000 tetradrachms, much of which was rapidly exported outside of Athens to purchase supplies. This allowed for the monetization of the Athenian economy.

Around 5% of catalogued tetradrachms bear test cuts to check for potential debasement or counterfeiting, with the coins chiseled open for inspection of their interior. Most of the cut coins have the expected purity of silver; it is likely a certain percentage of tetradrachms were routinely test cut when exported overseas, especially in Egypt, where they saw use as bullion.

During the late 400s, the Athenian coinage decree standardized the currency among Athens’s allies and banned the use of non-Athenian coinage within its territory.

In 375 or 374, Nikophon’s Law outlined common types of counterfeited coins which circulated in Athens, and authorized the dokimastes (the public validator of coinage) to confiscate and destroy fraudulent coinage. Silver-plated coins, with either copper or lead cores, were specifically mentioned in the law.