The Greek Currency
Currency is an invention of the Greek cities established on the Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea and is another of the legacies of this culture. The concept of currency spread from these cities, becoming the most suitable and versatile form of mobile wealth for paying for goods and services.
The first coins were issued in the area of Lydia (Turkey) in the last third of the 7th century BC. From the 6th century they were minted in Greek cities on the European continent (Aegina, Corinth and Athens). The relationship between the metropolises and the colonies extended their use to the western Mediterranean (Sybaris, Croton, Himera, Selinunte, Syracuse) from the end of the 6th century BC.
Greek coins illustrate Greek society and the historical development of the cities. Their designs show the symbols that identified the society as a whole and its religious cults and patron deities, depicting them in portraits or mythological scenes. They are a source of portraits of rulers, which reveal their appearance and uniqueness, such as the Hellenistic kings. The coins followed the artistic conventions of each period, and many of them are works of art, due to the perfection and quality of the designs made by expert craftsmen such as Cimon, Evainetos and Eumenes, who signed the dies they engraved and achieved great social prestige.
Coins were money and objects of an economic nature. They were the basis of the great enterprises of the Greek world, as they were used to finance their conquests, such as those carried out by the kings of Macedonia. In the case of the Carthaginians, coins were used to pay their mercenaries in the wars of Sicily (4th century BC).
