Conveners
S10. GREECE 10. ADVANCES IN ARCHAIC ATHENIAN COINAGE: MORE ON MINES, METALS AND MONEY
- Kenneth Sheedy (ACANS, Macquarie University)
Description
Org. and chair: Kenneth Sheedy
This session will present papers dealing with the significant changes in our understanding of the coinage of archaic Athens - the Wappenmünzen and the archaic Owls (ca. 545 BC- 480 BC) and with our understanding of the Laurion and its silver mines during the archaic period. It will review the new catalogue and die study of Wappenmünzen together with extensive XRF research (Sheedy and Davis), present an overview of the evidence from Laurion for mining activity in the archaic period (Nomicos), present numismatic and scientific analyses of an unpublished plated Wappenmünzen tetradrachm (Sheedy, Salvemini, Olsen, Luzin, Davis) and review findings from new isotope studies of archaic Athenian coinage (Davis, Albarède). The papers jointly examine the new understanding that has emerged concerning the exploitation of silver sources in Attica and the nature and role of money in archaic Athens.
This paper provides an overview of work to produce a new corpus and die study of Athenian Wappenmünzen. The study is intended to replace the famous but now well out of date 1924 book of Charles Seltman (Athens, Its Coinage and History). We review the changes in coin numbers and die patterns. Among the results are challenges to Seltman’s various claims for various reverse dies linking coins...
According to the literary evidence and the scale of Athenian coin production during the 5th and 4th century BC the Laurion mining “industry” boomed during the classical period. This view is strongly supported by the archaeological record. The classical mining landscape in South Attica is preserved to this day in an astonishing number and diversity of sites: mines, workshops, furnaces and many...
Little is known about the techniques for manufacturing plated coins among the very earliest issues of Greek (and world) money. In this study we present neutron and synchrotron X-ray analyses of a plated silver coin produced in Athens around 525-515 BC. This unpublished coin, ACANS 14A09, is a tetradrachm, which should have been made with 17.2gm of silver. But this ‘false’ coin (with its bronze...
The Wappenmϋnzen were the first coin types at Athens instigated by the Peisistratid tyrants in the third quarter of the sixth century BCE with changing types long thought to be 'heraldic' rather than state-sanctioned, minted in small denominations mainly for domestic use. Late in the sixth century, a standard 'owl' type was adopted, minted primarily in large denomination tetradrachms. The...
