Ancient Coinages of Aegina and Corinth: A Historical Analysis

1. The Coinages of Aegina and Corinth Mairi Gkikaki

3. Early literary sources • Pheidon minted the first coins on Aigina (Brown, NumChron 1950, 177ff.) • When Pheidon issued coins, he received back the spits which had previously been in circulation and dedicated them to Argive Hera • Ath. Pol. 10: Solon replaced an aeginitan with an attic drachm

5. Aegina • Aegina: produced the earliest of all silver coinages • When? – third quarter of the sixth century • Which was the silver source: Trade, the silver from Siphnos (Herodotus 3,57)

6. The historical premises: favourable conditions for the early adoption of coinage • Aware of the use of precious metals as a means of exchange and storing wealth in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean • Trading power: transporting and selling at a profit goods and raw materials • The voyageur Sostratus (Herodotus 4, 152) • Active in the trading community at Naucratis in Egypt (Herodotus 2, 178) • Connections to Sinope and Panticapaeum • Accumulated wealth evident in the building programm

7. Aegina, 550/ 500 BCE

8. Aegina, 530/ 500 BCE

11. Hoards of Aiginitan coins • Cyclades (IGCH 6-8) • Crete (IGCH 1) • Foundation deposit of Persepolis (511 BCE) • The Taranto Hoard (IGCH 1874), deposited 508 BCE • IGCH 1637 (Demanhur Egypt), deposited 500 BCE • IGCH 1820 (Balkh) and 1830 (Cabul)

12. After Kraay, JHS 1964

13. Archaic Aeginetan Staters Megalopolis hoard CH III 10 = CH VIII 60

14. Aeginitan coin standard • Adopted in the Cyclades

15. Aegina, 480 – 456 BCE

16. Aegina, 456 – 431 v. Chr.

17. Aegina, 4th c.

18. Silver coinage of Aegina Date Obverse Reverse Down to c. 480 BCE • I. Turtle with row of dots down spine • II. Turtle with spinal dots in T patern • III. Tortoise with segmented shell • IV. Tortoise with segmented shell • Variously patterned punches • Formalised skew pattern c. 480-456 BCE • Formalised skew pattern • Similar pattern, but now rectangular c. 456-431 BCE (interrupted between 457/6 BCE Aegina captured by Athens and Resumed with the ‘Thirty Years Peace of 445 BCE

19. Circulation of Aeginetan coinage prior to 500 BCE • Persepolis foundation deposit dated prior to 511 BCE • Hoards buried at Taranto [IGCH 1874] and in Egypt [IGCH 1637] • Early fourth cent. BCE: hoard buried as far east as Afghanistan [IGCH 1820 Balkh and 1830 Cabul • Hoards containing ‘Aeginetan variety I’ are mainly found in the Cyclades [IGCH 6-8] and on Crete [IGCH 1] >> therefore there was a tendency for Aeginetan silver to be retained within the main are of Aeginetan activity rather than to be dispersed abroad for payments

20. Other Aegean coinages struck in the Aeginetan weight standard •Naxos •Paros •Siphnos •Coressia, Carthae, Iulis on Ceos

21. Aeginetan coinage periode ‘style II’ • Broader flans • The carapaces of the turtles are decorated with pellets arranged in the form of a T • Skew pattern in much more spacious form with thick bands separating the incuse elements of the design • Dating: terminus ante quem is their presence in a deposit sealed when the Isthmian temple of Apollo was burned in c. 475 BCE

22. Third period of Aeginetan Coinage • Tortoise with segmented shell, the skew pattern of the reverse remains unchanged • Terminus ante quem is provided by the overstrikes: King Azbaal of Citium in Cyprus sometimes overstruck such tortoises with his own types. King’s floruit is dated to third quarter of the fifth century BCE

23. Circulation of Aeginetan currency during the Hellenistic period • Nicolet-Pierre, H., La circulation des monnaies d’Egine à l’époque hellénistique et le trésor de Mageira (Elide) 1950, in (20), pp. 269–287

24. Corinth

26. Corinth • The geographical position: a natural bridge and a crossroad • Colonies: Corcyra, Suracuse and Ambracia, Anactorium, Leucas • Recorded friendship Periander - Alyattes

27. Corinth 550-500 BCE

30. Corinth, 510 – 480 BCE Berlin, https://ikmk.smb.museum/object?id=18203388 Athena heads included in the Taranto Hoard

31. Corinthian Coinage and the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War Building a Corinthian Fleet BM 1919,1120.69

32. Timoleon’s expedition and overstrikes

33. Corinth, 345 -307 BCE

36. References for Aigina • http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan38166 • The trade coinage of Aigina: https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=288424 Coinage of Corinth - References • Ravel, O., 1936, Les ‘poulains’ de Corinth I, Basel