Speaker
Description
My investigation into the gold coinages of the two first Ptolemies, the quadriga stater and the trichryson (with its division, the tenth), has brought to light several points of interest. Struck under Ptolemy I Soter (and in the first part of Ptolemy II Philadelphus’ reign for trichrysa), these gold coins follow the development of the Ptolemaic coinage: the progressive abandonment of the Attic standard and the affirmation of the king’s person. These two coinages are hardly represented in hoards, probably because they were recalled to strike the next gold coinage, the mnaieia. The die study of this series revealed that the gold and silver coinages appeared around 294 BC in a linked production structure, something suggested already by common monograms. The trichrysa are mostly likely linked with the financing of military conflicts and the payment of soldiers, even though papyrological evidence shows that bankers, merchants and probably priests also handled these high-value coins.
