#ancient currency

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Solidus with Licinia Eudoxia.

Period: Byzantine, Reign of Valentinian III

Date: A.D. 439

Mint: Ravenna

Medium: Gold

[inspofromancientworld]

Ancient Coins in a Wall

By Marie-Lan Nguyen - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=884154

Around 1700 BCE, within the Code of Hammurabi, a rudimentary banking system was described, though developed enough to require laws about how it operated, though they were likely tied to the temples as they were the center of economic activities in city states, which were the type of governments that existed before Sargon I of Akkad (2335-2280 BE) established the first empire. Hammurabi's laws covered interest on a loans, deposits, and what we would recognize as deposit insurance. Around 1000 BCE, there are records of at least two families in Babylonia that engaged in 'professional banking' apart from the temples.

By Carole Raddato - https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolemage/53387950886/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=157922864

Around 353 BCE, what resembles a joint-stock bank was created by Xenophon in Greece, which is a bank where shareholders control the bank rather than a central government. Despite this, most treasures were still deposited within temples, especially those of Artemis in Ephesus, Hera in Samos, and Apollo in Delphi.

Ancient Egypt had a grain-banking system, one in which loans of grain were given out to farmers in return for the return of their crops and to traders in return for their goods, that was likely as fully developed and complex as modern baking systems in regard to administration and branches. It was also administered by the central government rather than the temples. This structure became more prominent in Greece during the Reign of Ptolemy I (305-284 BCE) and through the Greco-Roman world by the 1st century CE.

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With the Levant and the Jordan Valley being under the influence of all of these at various points in history, the exact status of banking in the area is unclear at the time, so some people stored their own money. In the Ruim es-Sia, on the path to the fortress of Sartaba of the Hasmonean dynasty. In the walls, 160 coins were found that were dated the 25th year of the reign of King Alexander Jannaeus, who reigned from about 103-79 BCE, born Yannaʾy (יַנַּאי‎), putting these coins to being minted in 80-79 BCE. It's possible that this location was a way station on the path to Sartaba rather than a private residence, given the size of the cache. Another theory is that it was an offering made for new construction. It is also possible that the site was some type of market location as the coins were stored in a part of the building that appeared to be used for food storage.

By PHG, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2417182

[shojogoestochina]

Ancient Chinese currency and some of the molds used to make said currency. 

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Tetradrachm of Lokroi Epizephyriori with head of Zeus, struck under Pyrrhos of Epiros.

Culture: Greek

Period: Early Hellenistic

Date: 280–277 B.C.

Medium: Silver

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Tetradrachm of Kingdom of Parthia with bust of Mithradates II.

Culture: Greek

Period: Hellenistic Period

Date: 123–88 B.C.

Mint: Parthia (Kingdom), Seleukeia-on-the-Tigris (Babylonia)

Medium: Silver

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Denarius.

Place oforigin: Rome, Italy

Maker: Lucius Hostilius Saserna

Period: Republican Roman Period

Date: 48 B.C.

[inspofromancientworld]

Croesus and the Gold Standard

By Marco Prins - Livius.org Provided under CC 0 license., CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74579875

Croesus (Kροῖσος, Kroisos) was a king of Lydia, the west of modern-day Turkey, from about 585-564 BCE, until Cyrus II of Persia conquered Lydia. He was renown for his wealth, as was his father Alyattes. His father claimed descent from Zeus through Hercules, and his mother might have been Hermodike II, one of Alyattes' wives and who claimed descent from Agamemnon, conqueror of Troy.

By Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72722827

Alyattes is credited with creating the first standardized coins. His coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver that is a pale yellow in color. According to Aristotle, however, Hermodike II was responsible for inventing coining and for spreading the idea to the Greeks. Electrum was often found in alluvial deposits of the Pactolus river. These coins were stamped on one side with the royal lion on one side and a valuation mark on the back. His coins were standardized to 4.71g but because of the variable makeup of electrum, the value could be variable. Regardless of the exact value, these coins would have represented at least a day's subsistence and therefore too valuable for most people to use.

By User:China_Crisis - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=826122

Alyattes is often linked to Midas (Μίδας), the king who turned all he touched to gold. In the myth, Midas was the king of Phyrigia, which is in what is now west-central Turkey but collapsed before Lydia controlled the area, and was the son of Gordias, who tied the Gordian knot and Cybele, a mother goddess and possibly the national deity of Phrygia. Midas was offered a boon by Dionysus for entertaining his foster father, Silenus, for ten days and then returning him. Midas requested the golden touch, not thinking through the consequences. This gift removed by bathing in the river Pactolus, which was said to be the source of the electrum in the river.

By Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74443716

Croesus took this beginning a step farther by separating out the gold and silver, creating a two metal coin system with a standardized gold and silver coin. Both coins had a lion and a bull on them while the back of the gold coins had two squares and the silver had a single square. These coins were standardized to 10.7g as well as having purified gold and silver. There were also smaller denominations, down to 1/96th, weighing 0.15g, though likely nothing under 1/12th was commonly used.

From Lydia, coinage spread through the Greeks to the Romans and around the Mediterranean world. The Ionian Greeks used coins on a large-scale basis, leading to the development of Market Economics. The Ahaemenid Persian Empire, which conquered Lydia, spread the idea of coinage to the east, influencing China and India.

These early coins were made by placing a weighed amount of the precious metal into an anvil with the carved design carved into it and the metal was then struck with a hammer. Later, a punch with a design carved into it was used to make double sided coins.

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Stater of Kroton with head of Hera Lakinia.

Culture: Greek

Period: Classical Period

Date: ca. 400–325 B.C.

Mint: Bruttium, Kroton

Medium: Silver