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Having the 6th c. B.C. as a starting point, Georgian money issues gradually absorbed all the types, styles and standards which were popular around, especially those from the West. Greek deities and their symbols (Apollo, Helios, Hecate, Nike, Tyche, Dionysus, Dioscuri, Isis) were replaced by the Roman types (Emperor, Mars, Concordia, Annona, Victoria, Mithras), and the pagan deities – by Christ and the saints depicted on Byzantine coins (Blachernitissa, Saint Eugene). A motif drawn from an entirely different environment were fire temples and fire altars. For millennia Georgia has been of great importance to Europe as a frontier and in international commerce as a bridge to Asia. Coins issued in Georgia facilitated both, defense and trade. Defense and trade shaped themselves as international issues, thus these coins are mostly bilingual. And this story is fully related in Online English-Georgian Catalogue of Georgian Numismatics (T. Dundua et al.).
