MEDIUMS OF COMMERCE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 17

MEDIUMS OF COMMERCE

ORIGIN OF COINS

IN USE 2500 YEARS AGO

The same kind of coins that jinglel in the purse of the modern banker passed between the merchants of Athens in 560 8.C., when the tyrant Pisistratus first decreed that coinage should have a head on one side and a symbol of the State on the reverse, says a writer in the•''Christian Science Monitor."

This link between, the ancient and modern mediums of commerce was emphasised in a lecture on. numismatics just delivered at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts by Charles T. Seltman, university lecturer at Cambridge, Eng., and at the British School of Archaeology at Athens. ' The basic character ol coinage has been- unchanged for nearly 2500 years, he'said, the only alteration being ■in the/technical "perfection of manufacture an 4 design;; ! EGYPTIANS U^D, GOXJD. ■ The use of metallic '.currency as money was well organised around 1500 8.C., said Mr. Seltman. At that time! the Egyptians were using gold, silver, and copper according to a specific weight standard. But there was no mark of guarantee on each piece of metal, so that it was weighed out in each transaction. Gold money was usually found in rings in Egypt, but in. Cyprus, Crete, and the other islands ot the Aegean, it took the form of pelletß. The largest type of these pellets weighs approximately 8J grams, and there is every reason to believe that it represents the Homeric "talent," or the value of one ox or cow, lie said. This supposition as to the value of the pellet or ring of gold, he added, is borne out by the fact-that the copper money of the same period- is cast in ingots shaped like a 'stretched;6ut. hide with head and tail cut off- and weighs about 3000 times the gold piece;- It ia almost certain-that the gold pellet and the copper ingot tad the same; purchasing value, and the shape of the ingot is considered evidence of its equivalent as that of an ox or cow, Mr. Seltman declared. . , „

"Although there-was thus, a well denned system of .money currency over 3000 years ago, wo have to. come down to about 700 B.C. to fijid the origin of actual coinage," he said... "According to Xenophenes, the Greek philosopher, the credit for this important innovation belongs to tiie: Lydians. A ldng series of gold~ pellets was'issued by the Lydians, on the obverse side of which was stamped a lion's head, the heraldic symbol of the Lydian state. Then the father of famous Croesus, Aleates, stamped his name under the lion's head and coinage came into existence. For with the afiSring of i;he ■ King's signature, the Crown assumed responsi: bility for value of coinage issued and from that moment our present system whereby the seal of the State gives to its coinage a value greater than that of its metal content, became possible.'' FABULOUS WEALTH OF CROESUS.

Mr. Seltman digressed for a moment to speak of the fabulous wealth of Croesus. The extent of this wealth can be guessed at, he said, from a passage in ■ Herodotus, which; records that a grandson of Croesus;.a private citizen, entertained1 the, entire . army of, Xerxes as it was passing through Lvdia at his own expense, and ivhen asked told the Persian monarch that the coinage in his vaults amounted to 188,000,----000 drachmas of silver, or in modern values 2,380,000,000d0i5. (£472,000,----000). This sum did not include his real estate, slaves,, or buildings. This, Mr. Seltman-said, was only a hint of the possible wealth :of. Croesus himself. .■■"■-■ : : '■■ • ■.-, : -.■•

- Tor coinage the; Spartans 'were unusual in that they used iron instead of the precious metals," he continued. Their unit was an abel, a small bar of iron about 4 feet long. Bix of these made-up a comfortable handful for a man and; the word 'drachma' means handful. The silver drachma probably was intended to be the equivalent in value of six four-foot iron bars iwhen Sparta made the change from iron to silver..

It was about 140 years after the first use of coinage: that it assumed its «°/Jf1"*, characteristics.Up until about 560 B.C. coins were masked, on the reverse, only with, chisel niches, while Heraldic emblems of either .cities or rulers and names were used on the obverse. But when Pisistratus seized the supreme power in Athens in 560 B.C ' he changed the coinage completely and instituted the" most important innovations.in the history of numismatics. On the obverse side h« an image of his head stamped. Va the reverse side an owl, the symbol of. the city of Athens, was represented. The third innovatidn was the use of an inscription consisting of/more than one let- *{*• To-day our coinj bear a head on tne obverse, some symbol of the state on the reverse, and inscriptions of re *han one.letter on either or both