Sort

By publication date

By relevance

• 01 nov 2017

  Utrecht

  Scholarship, prize and job offer - Prehistory and Antiquity

  Post-doctorate researcher in Coinage in Ancient Greece

  Anchoring Work Package 4

  The use of minted coins was one of the major innovations in the ancient world of the first millennium BCE. Invented in Lydia in the seventh century, coinage spread rapidly throughout the Greek world, first in the Greek cities in Asia Minor, next to Aegina and Athens and soon to the other cities across the Aegean and Mediterranean area. Before the introduction of minted coins, exchange was largely based on weights of precious metals, in smaller amounts weighed on scales, a practice to which striking fixed weights of metal seems just a small and logical step. Yet the swift success of coinage, evidenced by rapidly increasing number of Greek poleis adopting the new medium, shows that the potential of coins to surpass weighed bullion in practical use for all kinds of transactions was recognised early on.

  Read announcement