Ancient Coins Of The Graeco Roman World

Through the ages, coins have been more than a common standard or a means of exchange between peoples for goods and services. The development of coinage gave men freedom to move beyond their communities, served as a propaganda tool for advancing armies and visually showed people the source of politics which governed their lives. Today, these same bits of metal, these ancient video disks, transmit through time information that might otherwise be lost to us. This volume comprises a selection of papers given at a conference held at the Nickle Museum of The University of Calgary, Alberta, by perhaps the most distinguished gathering of numismatists ever to assemble in North America. Topics include specific coins of the Graeco–Roman world as well as discussions on coinage and propaganda, art, architecture, and archaeology. Archaeologists, historians, coin collectors, students of the Classics, in fact, anyone who is interested in art and life as it existed in ancient times will be captivated by this collection.

This outstanding introductory survey collects, presents and examines, for the very first time, the portraits and representations of Alexander the Great on the ancient coins of the Greek and Roman period. From 320 BC to AD 400, Karsten Dahmen examines not only Alexander’s own coinage and the posthumous coinages of his successors, but also the re-use of his image by rulers from the Greek world and the Roman empire, to late antiquity. Also including numismatic material that exceeds all previous published works, and well-illustrated, this historical survey brings Alexander and his legacy to life.

Aims to move away from describing the coins to giving some historical explanation, to integrate the coinage of the eastern Provinces traditionally abandoned to the last chapter of books on Greek coins to treat coins as economic objects, by explining both how and why they circulated and how they can illuminate economic history.

A large gap exists in the literature of ancient numismatics between general works intended for collectors and highly specialized studies addressed to numismatists. Indeed, there is hardly anything produced by knowledgeable numismatists that is easily accessible to the academic community at large or the interested lay reader. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage will fill this gap by providing a systematic overview of the major coinages of the classical world. The Handbook begins with a general introduction by volume editor William E. Metcalf followed by an article establishing the history and role of scientific analysis in ancient numismatics. The subsequent thirty-two chapters, all written by an international group of distinguished scholars, cover a vast geography and chronology, beginning with the first evidence of coins in Western Asia Minor in the seventh century BCE and continuing up to the transformation of coinage at the end of the Roman Empire. In addition to providing the essential background and current research questions of each of the major coinages, the Handbook also includes articles on the application of numismatic evidence to the disciplines of archaeology, economic history, art history, and ancient history. With helpful appendices, a glossary of specialized terms, indices of mints, persons, and general topics, and nearly 900 illustrations, The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage will be an indispensable resource for scholars and students of the classical world, as well as a stimulating reference for collectors and interested lay readers.

This 1968 study examines how Rome used currency to inform direct or deceive public opinion and also considers the results of this exploitation.