Ancient Greek Coins

The first Ancient Greek Coins appeared in Aegina around 600 B.C. and were amongst the first coins ever minted by a western civilization. Their design tells the story of a fascinating civilisation. A society that minted coins to celebrate outstanding individuals, gods, and religious practices, as well as ancient international relations. Examples are the Alexander the Great coins the Athenian Owl, and the Obol, just to name a few.

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Miletos Diobol 520-450 B.C. Good Fine

The city of Miletos on the coast of modern Turkey has been occupied since the Neolithic, rising and falling a few times before this coin was made between 520-450 B.C. In 499 B.C. the Ionion Revolt started, headed by Miletos’ tyrant, Aristagoras, against the Achaemenid Persian Empire. This revolt was the first act of the famous Greco-Persian Wars! Despite a good start it was crushed by Darius the Great in 494 B.C. He killed the men, sold the women & children into slavery with the young men made eunuchs so that no Milesian would ever be born again. Don’t worry, some had escaped to Greece so Miletos survived and the Persians quickly rebuilt the city for trade. These small silver coins called a Diobol were made before and after the revolt, show a Lion on the obverse with a stellate pattern on the reverse. Archaic, Greek silver coin in Good Fine grade, nearly £2,500 years old and at under £100!

£85.00

What were Ancient Greek Coins Called?

The coins of Ancient Greece, as well as modern-day Greece pre-euro, were called Drachma. The denominations used in the old city-states of Greece, differ from city-state to city-state (polis) and derive from the weights for gold and silver merchants used to trade goods. To make matters worse, the weights used also differed from era to era. And as you may know, their coinage went through 4 different periods: the Archaic, the Classical, the Hellenistic, and the Roman. So here too, there are substantial differences coin collectors need to be aware of.

So in the name of keeping things simple for newbie coin collectors, we are going to use the Attic standard to answer this question. As it was the most popular weight standard in the Greek world, due to the power and influence of Athens across the ancient world. In this standard, the Drachm is the base, divided by obols with a sixth of the value.

Starting from largest to smallest, the denominations of Greek coins were as follows:

Dekadrachm – ratio of 10
Tetradrachm – ratio of 4
the Drachm – ratio 1
Tetrobol – ratio of 2/3
Triobol/Hemidrachm – ratio of 1/2
Diobol – ratio of 1/3
Trihemiobol – ratio of 1/4
Obol – ratio of 1/6
Tritartemorion – ratio of 1/8
Hemiobol – ratio of 1/12
Trihemitartemorion – ratio of 1/16
Tetartemorion – ratio of 1/24

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Ancient Greek Coins

Miletos Diobol 520-450 B.C. Good Fine

What were Ancient Greek Coins Called?

Don’t miss out on the latest Antique Greek Coins we have for Sale

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