Coinage in the east

The introduction of coinage into history made a dramatic effect on the organization of states and on the economy of ancient societies. Before the invention of coinage other media of exchange like silver bars were used together with simple barter economy. In order to understand the difference of the coin we need an appropriate definition of it. Seltman defines money as metallic currency, the value of which is defined by specific weight standards. Hence money has an intrinsic value. Howgego defines the coin as 'a piece of money made of metal which conforms to a standard and bears a design'
The Lydians used coins which conformed to Howgego’s definition. The electrum pieces found in the base of Artemision at Ephesos are accepted as the first coins in the history. It is a paradox that Phoenicians did not adopt the use of coins the way the Greek world did, since it is widely accepted that the spread of coinage is related on the trading abilities of ancient societies. Some Greek colonial cities minted coins before their mother cities. Old practices of weighing out precious metals continued to the 6th century BC together with the use of coinage.
As an example the hoard in Dor can be given. The hoard contained silver fragments and ingots weighing between 8.5 to 26 kg. However it is known that there are no silver sources in this region. The fragmented pieces in the hoard are called Hacksilber “this is a German noun parallel to the Akkadian sibirtu and the Hebrew kesep; these words are related with verbs meaning 'to break' or 'shatter' and refer to pieces of silver used as currency or money. Pieces of Hacksilber can be all sorts of ingots and other bits and pieces as well as jewellery, amulets, cups, etc. Hacksilber are mostly from Cisjordan and they are like pieces of 'chocolate bars' or 'pre-portioned' ingots - thousands of individual portions are known.

Coinage
The idea of stamping metal pieces with marks of the ruler is a contemporary idea with the introduction of coinage. In the early coinage the cupolas were about the same size, and the technique for separating the gold from the silver was the same and the bits of metal reduced were probably of equal size. The production of coins became the greatest export article of the Lydian Empire.
Just when the first ‘coin’ was made is controversial. Numismatists generally agree that true-minted coins were invented at the end of the 7th century. During the reign of Croesus in the 6th century coins were generally in use. Lydia was on the intersection of the important routes and the coinage easily became widespread. The "Lydian" coins excavated in the Artemision at Ephesus are mostly dated to the seventh and earlier sixth centuries BC. Two of the pieces were dumps, not coins.
Early Greek coins were commonly in use in the east. The circulation of Athenian coins was especially widespread. To the 6th century from 4th century the “Athenian” type was the primary type in the east. And after the Persian occupation these coins continued to circulate in markets.
The earliest coins from Palestine are from Shechem and Jerusalem and these are Attic standard coins with Athena on the obverse and a bowl on the reverse dated to the mid 6th century BC and coins from Thasos were minted at the end of the 6th century BC, with a wuadratum incusum on reverse.

Quadratum Incusum
With the end of the 6th century Greek coins were commonly in use in the east. But it is uncertain if these were used commonly or just used by foreign merchants since the ingots were still in use in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.
Coinage in Cyprus: In 525 BC Kambyses conquered Cyprus. In Cyprus silver coins were minted first at the end of the 6th century BC for the Persian Kingdom. These coins were Greek in style. In this time period in Cyprus there were some small kingdoms ruling the Phoenician and Greek people of the land. There must be several early mints in the island but we do not know the actual mints although some coins are attributed to the Salamis mint, because most of these coins are bearing the name of Euelthon, the founder of the dynasty in Salamis. The other probable mints are Lapethos, Paphos and Idalion. Cypriote mints struck coins of 11 grams in the Persian standard which is equal to double siglos. The Dareikos is the gold coin of Persians and weighs 8, 3 grams while the silver siglos weighs 5, 4 grams. But these denominations were not in use in the eastern world. They were using precious metals mentioned above.
(Posthumous issue, struck circa 515-480 BC. Euelthon in Cypriot, ram kneeling left)
Coinage of Egypt: There is an important hoard found in Egypt (Asyut Hoard) that is dated to the early 5th century BC. comprising 900 silver coins from 70 different mints and this is one of the important evidence for Greek trade in Egypt. From 400 to 343 BC. autonomous Egyptian coins were found in the east. These are Athenian imitations.
Phoenician Coinage: The first coins were minted in the fifth century bearing the image of the Persian king killing a lion with his dagger and the image of god Melkarth riding a sea horse, both in Tyre and Sidon. The Arvad mint struck Persian standards with Athenian style in the 4th century BC, which bore a bearded head and a ship on the reverse. In the Byblos coins, four kings names were inscribed: Elbaal, Azbaal, Eneal and Adermelekh there is a war ship with a sea horse on the reverse, and a lion hunting a bull on the obverse.
(Coin From Byblos)
Sidon: Sidon issued a series of coins because it was one of the satrap cities. From the end of the fifth century city struck half Shekels. Circa 410-400 BC.with a design of city towers on obverse , two lions below Phoenician letter B above and on reverse King of Persia standing left, slaying a lion and the other types are with an obverse with Persian king in a chariot.

(Coin from Sidon)
Tyre: From the middle of the fifth century this city started to mint coins. Coins mostly have Melkarth on the obverse with Hippocampus or dolphin and at the reverse an owl or a lion hunting scene. In some rare examples, there are murexes on the obverse.

Philisto-Arabian Coinage: This coins consist of Athenian types and with Phoenician inscriptions and these are minted in the Kingdom of Gaza. From the fourth century BC the Philisto-Arabian cities started to mint coins. These coins are Greek in style.
Persian Coinage:
Rulers who issued coins;
• Dareios I., s. of Hystaspes 521-486
• Xerxes I., s. of Dareios I. 486-465
• Artaxerxes I. Makrocheir, s. of Xerxes I. 465-425
• Xerxes II., s. of Artaxerxes I. 425
• Ochos = Dareios II. Nothos, s. of Artaxerxes I. 424-405
• Arsakas = Artaxerxes II. Mnemon, s. of Dareios II. 405-359
• Cyrus the Younger, s. of Dareios II. 401
• Ochos = Artaxerxes III., s. of Artaxerxes II. 359-338
• Arses, s. of Artaxerxes III. 338-337
• Kodomannos = Dareios III., s. of Arsanes, s. of Artostes
or Ostanes, s. of Dareios II. 337-330


In general on the Persian coins we see the Great King carrying a strung bow in left hand and a spear or dagger in right hand

WEIGHTS
Mesopotamia
1 talent
(GÚ.UN; biltu) = 60 mina = 3600 shekel = 30.00 kg
1 mina
(MA.NA; manû) = 60 shekel = 500 gr
1 shekel
(GÍN; šiqlu) = 8.333 gr
Four weights found in Persepolis indicate that the mina was 499.80 gr.
Subdivisions of the shekel:
• 1 shekel = 2 divisions (zûzu) or half shekels
o 1 division = 4.17 gr = ca. 1 Greek drachm
• 1 shekel is 8 slices (bitqu)
o 1 slice = 1.04 gr
• 1 shekel = 12 grains (mahat)
o 1 grain = 0.69 gr (Parthian, Late Achaemenid?)
• 1 shekel = 24 carat (girû)
o 1 carat = 0.35 gr
• 1 shekel = 40 chickpeas? (hallûru)
o 1 chickpea = 0.21 gr
• 1 shekel = 180 barleycorn (ŠE, uttetu)
o 1 barleycorn = 0.0463 gr
Persia
1 Babylonian mina = 6 karšâ = 60 shekel = 499.80 gr
1 karšâ = 10 shekel = 83.33 gr
1 shekel = 8.33 gr
• King Darius I the Great introduced gold coinage based on the Babylonian standard (until then, the Lydian standard of king Croesus had been used). 1 gold piece (dareikos, daric, statêr) was between 8.25 and 8.46 gr of gold, which corresponds to the 8.33 gr of the Babylonian shekel. Darics were struck in extremely pure gold, 98-99%.
• Darius maintained the silver piece or siglos on its old standard. Sigloi were between 5.20 and 5.49 of silver. They had a 97-98% purity, although 94-95% is recorded in the fourth century.
• The later silver standard was 5.40-5.67 gr.
Phoenicia; Israel
The weight of the sheqel was differed from city to city.
• Palestinian sheqel 11.5 gr.
• In the great trade centers of the fifth and fourth century, it was slightly above 7 gr.
Tyre went over to the Attic standard ca. 350 BCE.
Greek: Attic standard (and Ptolemaic standard)
Weight
In the "Solonian" system:

1 talent-weight = 60 mnai = 6000 drachm-weights = 27.47 kg
1 mna = 100 drachm-weights = 457.8 gr
1 drachm-weight (holkê) = 4.578 gr
1 talent-weight = 60 mnai = 6300 coin-drachms = 27.47 kg
1 mna = 105 coin-drachms = 457.8 gr
1 coin drachm = 4.36 gr
Coins
1 talent
(to talanton) = 60 minae = 6000 drachms = 36,000 obols = 25.86 kg
1 mina
(hê mnâ) = 100 drachms = 600 obols = 431 gr
1 drachm
(hê drachmê) = 6 obols = 4.31 gr
1 obol (ho obolós) = 0.72 gr
• Alternative values:
o 1 talent = 21.45 kg
o 1 mina = 357.5 gr
o 1 drachm = 3.58 gr
o 1 obol = 0.60 gr
• 1 stater (ho statêr) or tetradrachm = 4 drachms = 17.24 gr
• 1 didrachm = 2 drachms = 12 obols = 8.62 gr (= 1 Babylonian shekel?)
• 1 obol = 8 chalkoi
• 1 deben silver (Ptolemaic demotic) = 20 drachms

Online Sources:
An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards is an interactive scholarly project which collects the hoard data from all over the world and can be visited at: http://shot.holycross.edu/projects/igch/home
Wildwinds is an interactive web page with thumbnail images of coins and updated pictures and references can be found there http://www.wildwinds.com This web-site is for scholars and collectors it is a non-profit organization and collects the data of the sold coins in auctions.
The Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum is a British Academy Research Project, the purpose of which is to publish illustrated catalogues of Greek coins in public and private collections in the British Isles http://www-cm.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/sng/
References
Porteous, J. 1980, “The Nature of Coinage,” Coins: An Illustrated Sruvey, 650 BC to the Present Day, Hamyln, London.
Jenkins, G. 1990, Ancient Greek Coins, Seaby, London.
Cook, R.M. 1958, “Speculations on the Origin of Coinage,” Historia 7, pp. 260-281.
Karweise, S. 1991, “The Artemisium Coin Hoard and the First Coins of Ephesus,” Reveu belge de numismatique, 137, pp. 1-28.
Hill, G.F. 1919, “Notes on the Imperial Persian Coinage,” The Journal of Hellenic Studies 39, pp. 116-129.
Balmuth, S.M. 2001 (ed.), Hacksilber to Coinage: New Insights into the Monetary History of the Near East and Greece. Collection of Eight Papers Presented at the 99th Annual Meeting of the American Archaeological Institute of America, Numismatic Studies 24. New York, American Numismatic Society.