white gold greek coins. an enigmatic start that shaped the world (powerpoint)

White gold Greek coins: an enigmatic start that

shaped the world

White gold Greek coins: an enigmatic start that shaped the world

White Gold: Revealing the World’s Earliest CoinsInternational Congress at Israel Museum, Jerusalem Monday June 25–Tuesday June

26, 2012

Michael Kerschner and Koray Konuk The chronology of the electrum coins found in the Artemision of Ephesos: The contribution of the archaeological find contextJack Kroll On the Ephesus InscriptionBob Wallace Chronology of CroesusNick Cahill, Jill Hari, Bülent Önay, and Esra Documacı Preliminary Analysis of Electrum Coins and Natural Gold from SardisKoray Konuk and Jamie Knapp Punchmarking electrum: A hoard of Lydian tritesWolfgang Fischer-Bossert Some thoughts about the internal spread of the early electrum standards: local rather than chronological patterns?Jack Kroll “Don’t forget the dynastai”Peter van Alfen Public benefactor or profiteer? The role of “the state” and early electrum coinage.Frédérique Duyrat Proton activation analyses of electrum coins in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.Bernhard Weisser Electrum finds of Miletus and around.Ute Wartenberg The Klazomenai hoard and the context of electrum coinage after the introduction of bimetallismMariusz Mielczarek Cyzicene electrum coinage and the Black Sea grain trade.François de Callataÿ Art, finance and politics: the remarkable case of the Cyzicene electrum coinageKaterini Liampi Thraco-Macedonian electrum coinageKen Sheedy The electrum coinage of AthensSelene Psoma Electrum in inscriptions and literary sourcesAlain Bresson Metrology of silver ingots in the Levant and silver coins in Western Asia Minor — economic implications, implications for price of electrum coins.François Velde Electrum coinage in the light of monetary economic theory


Spanish Celtic “Hacksilber” hoard, circa fourth- or third-century BC. Silver coins and cut jewelry. 135 pieces. (ANS 2007.1.1., gift of Dr. Arnold-Peter C. Weiss)

Tel Dor Hacksilber hoardcirca 10th century BCE


Coercion or trust in the state


Arckesilas cup

Arkesilas cup, Paris, BnF, De Ridder 189 = Durand Collection; purchase, 1836

Painter of Taleides, ca. 540-530 BC, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art


What we don’t know for sure is:

1)when it first happened?

2)who were the issuing powers?

3)for what purpose these white gold coins were issued?

Sophocles's Antigone, 1037


CREON Old man, ye all shoot your shafts at me, as archers at the butts;-Ye must needs practise on me with seer-craft also;-aye, the seer-tribe hath long trafficked in me, and made me their merchandise. Gain your gains, drive your trade, if ye list, in the silver-gold of Sardis and the gold of India; but ye shall not hide that man in the grave,-no, though the eagles of Zeus should bear the carrion morsels to their Master's throne-no, not for dread of that defilement will I suffer his burial:-for well I know that no mortal can defile the gods.-But, aged Teiresias, the wisest fall with shameful fall, when they clothe shameful thoughts in fair words, for lucre's sake.


Gerard van Honthorst, Solon comes before Croesus

Nikolaus Knüpfer, Solon before Cresus, J. Paul Getty Museum

When the sacrifice was ended, the king melted down a vast quantity of gold, and ran it into ingots, making them six palms long, three palms broad, and one palm in thickness. The number of ingots was a hundred and seventeen, four being of refined gold, in weight two talents and a half; the others of pale gold, and in weight two talents. He also caused a statue of a lion to be made in refined gold, the weight of which was ten talents. At the time when the temple of Delphi was burnt to the ground, this lion fell from the ingots on which it was placed; it now stands in the Corinthian treasury, and weighs only six talents and a half, having lost three talents and a half by the fire (Herodotus, I. 50).


River Pactolus, near Sardis


Reconstruction of the principal operations carried out at the Sardis gold refinery (Ramage & Craddock 2000: 201)


100100

90

8020

Sm ooth surfaceStriated surfaceSardisLion's head facingEphesusMiletusStriated silver coin

% Cu

% Au

% Ag

100 60708090 20304050 10

10

0

60 7020 30 40 50100

0

Blet-Lemarquand & Duyrat 2012

0

2

4

6

0 20 40 60 80

Striated surface coinsSm ooth surface coinsSardis m int (lion's paw, lion's head)Lion's head facing (W XXXII)Ephesus m intMiletus m intother anim al type coinsSquare or flower designs coins

Ag %

Cu %

Fig. 5. Ternary diagram of the gold, silver and copper contents for the main archaic electrum series and the silver striated coin.

Fig. 6. Diagram of the copper versus the silver contents for all the electrum coins.


River Pactolus, near Sardis


Lead tablet of Ephesus (see J. Kroll)


“the largest electrum coins could only be used in large commercial transactions but the smallest coins were not out of range of weekly or monthly purchases” (Velde 2012).


F. Velde 2012


Ptolemy II Philadelphus issued coins for no less than 12 denominations: 4 for gold (mnaieia, half-mnaieia, quarters and eights), 2 for silver (decadrachms and tetradrachms) and 6 for bronze (from c. 100g to 3g, from one drachm to a chalkon [the values of these denominations is debated]). This number is nearly identical with what we experience today: 15 denominations for euros and 13 for dollars. Such a high number of denominations will not be approached before the second half of the 16th c. For France, it is only with Charles IX (1561-1574) that we do have 10 different denominations of coins (2 for gold, 2 for good silver and 6 for adulterated silver).


Triton, XIV, 4 Jan. 2011, 318. Lot of two early electrum: 1) EL Hekte (10mm, 2.33 g); 2) EL 1/24 Stater (6mm, 0.59 g).


F. Velde 2012

Electrum coins of various colors


Liselotte Weidauer 1972


F. Velde 2012

the so-called Milesian weight-standard is largely predominant, covering approximately 70% of all the coins. This unified metrological landscape rather pleads for a superior level of power.


Liselotte Weidauer 1972


Sphinx = Chios Seal = Phokaia

Tunny = Cyzicus Stag = Ephesus


Large silver coin of Getas, kings of the Edoni with the inscription:


« KUKALIM » = Kukas (not Gyges [ca. 680-644 BC]!)

« WALWET[AS] = Alyattes? (ca. 610-560 BC)


F. Velde, fig. 7

Noble Numismatics, 94, 27 June 2010, 4860.

Ira & Larry Goldberg, 28, 864.


Lygdamis destroying Ephesus

http://www.oeai.at/tl_files/img/Forschungen_Tuerkei/Ephesos-vorhellenistisch/Wien_Forschungen_Tuerkei_Ephesos_Feldforschungen_VorhellenistischesEphesos_5%20%5Blightbox_max800%5D.jpg


D. G. Hogarth, Excavations at Ephesus. The Archaic Artemisia (London 1908).


A. Bammer, Das Heiligtum der Artemis von Ephesos (Graz 1984).


http://www.oeai.at/tl_files/img/Forschungen_Tuerkei/Ephesos-vorhellenistisch/Wien_Forschungen_Tuerkei_Ephesos_Feldforschungen_VorhellenistischesEphesos_7%20%5Blightbox_max800%5D.jpg


Kerschner & Konuk 2012


Temple of Athena Polias at Priene

Tetradrachms of Orophernes found near the basis of the sculpure of Athena

Deposit foundation of the Apadana (Persepolis)


Weisser 2012


Two Archaic coins were discovered in excavations of the western fortification of Lydian Sardis in the summer of 2002. The coins, one gold and one silver, are Lydian 12th staters with the confronting foreparts of a lion and bull on the obverse and a square incuse punch on the reverse, the type of coins that are commonly referred to today as "croeseids." They come from under and around a cobbled pavement belonging to the fortification. The pavement and the coins under it were sealed by destruction debris when the fortification was demolished, an event that can be confidently assigned to the capture of Sardis by Cyrus the Great of Persia in the 540s B.C. A third coin, although not recognized as such at the time, was found in 1988 in the destruction debris itself with the skeleton of a young man, probably a casualty of the battle. Upon cleaning, this coin proved to be a croeseid silver 24th stater. The discovery of these coins from a secure context offers a new and much-needed fixed point in the chronology of the Archaic coinage of Asia Minor.


Croesus on funeral pyre - Louvre G 197, front side


Fiscal pressure ca. 50%

Fiscal pressure less than 20%

Fiscal pressure ca. 50%


Jack Kroll

Electrum coinage pre-560 BC : huge benefit for the issuer

« Croeseids » post-560 BC in gold and silver:moderate benefit for the issuer


Margaret Levi

“if electrum coinage had been used to generate revenue through overevaluation, the long-term effects of this tax may eventually have been political detrimental. Increased political stability would, in Levi’s model, see a correlating lowering of discount rates, and a subsequent change in internal taxation policies” (van Alfen, p. 21).


Alain Bresson


For trade?


« Lydian noble cavalry » (wargame)

For state payments?

white gold greek coins. an enigmatic start that shaped the world (powerpoint)

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