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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Finn235, post: 3236617, member: 98035&quot;]Nothing makes an ancient coin more fascinating than an inscription in a language that hasn&#039;t been spoken or written in over a thousand years! Unlike spoken languages, a pretty substantial portion of extinct writing scripts appear on coins that circulated in the region where the population could read it. Everyone knows about Latin, Greek and Chinese, so let&#039;s make a virtual collection of our dead-language coins!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Cuneiform</b></p><p>Sadly, despite surviving until the Parthian era, it does not appear that humanity&#039;s first written script ever made it onto a coin. I would love to be proven wrong!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Egyptian</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>- Hieroglyphics</p><p>As far as I know, only present on the prohibitively rare Nectanebo stater.</p><p>- Hieratic / Demotic</p><p>Both were used on imitations of Athenian tetradrachms. While not particularly expensive, they are rare, and I have never seen one at auction!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Cypriot</b></p><p>Originating from the mysterious Minoan &quot;linear A&quot; script, ancient coins of Cyprus up until the time of Alexander the Great use Cypriot syllabery. I only have one coin, where the letters are nearly impossible to distinguish. Unread Cypriot in front of the eagle&#039;s breast.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hemiobol of Pyntas II</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846313[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sabaean</b></p><p>A distant cousin to Phoenician-based languages, Sabaean was used particularly by the kingdom of Himyar until it was destroyed by Aksum in the early middle ages. It is the direct ancestor of the Ethiopian Ge&#039;ez script.</p><p>Himyar AR &quot;quinarius&quot;, Amdan Bayyin</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846315[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Phoenician</b></p><p>Although the Phoenician empire had collapsed by the time of the advent of coinage, the language persisted until at least the Seleucid era, and some coins were inscribed in Phoenician. Sadly, I don&#039;t have any to share yet.</p><p><br /></p><p>- Punic</p><p>The Phoenician language was modified into Punic for use in Carthage and her colonies. Sadly, none to share yet</p><p><br /></p><p>- Iberian</p><p>Before the Roman takeover of present-day Spain, Iberia was populated by a mixture of the indigenous population, Celtic settlers, Greek merchants, and finally Punic colonists. The Iberian script was loosely based on Punic, but functionally was closer to an abjad than an alphabet; vowels and consonants usually being combined into a single letter. The script and related languages were lost during the Romanization of Hispania.</p><p>Iberia, Bolskan AR Denarius</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846324[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Aramaic</b></p><p>Derived from Phoenician, Aramaic was the language of daily use in most of the Achaemenid empire, and remained as such until the Islamic takeover; most non-Indian scripts between Armenia and Mongolia are based on Aramaic.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cilicia, Tarsus? AR obol of Datames</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846333[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>- Hebrew</p><p>While surviving in an evolved form, &quot;paleo&quot; Hebrew was closely related to Aramaic</p><p>Awful example, AE Prutah of Alexander Jannaeus, Hebrew between spokes of wheel</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846336[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>- Nabatean</p><p>Closely related to Hebrew was Nabatean, used in the desert trading kingdom of Nabataea, centered on Petra. Their language is now extinct, but was adopted to become Arabic.</p><p>AE coin of Aretas IV &amp; Shuqailat</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846338[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>- Syriac and related</p><p>Variants of Aramaic were also used locally in middle eastern city states. I don&#039;t have any examples, but I have seen some coins with the Edessan Estranghelo script at auctions recently.</p><p><br /></p><p>- Kharosthi</p><p>Devised by Persian merchants for use in India, Kharosthi was a heavily modified Aramaic&nbsp; for use in transliterating Sanskrit. It was mostly used on bilingual coins, especially of the Greeks and Scythians.</p><p>AR drachm of Menander</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846341[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>- Pahlavi</p><p>Although it had long been the language of the people of Persis, Pahlavi became the state language o the Sassanian empire, and was a major trade language until the rise of Arabic. It comes in two flavors</p><p>Inscriptional Pahlavi on an Ardashir I drachm</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846342[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Book Pahlavi on a Tabaristan hemidrachm of Suleiman</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846346[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>- Sogdian</p><p>During middle antiquity to the late middle ages, Aramaic morphed into Sogdian on the Silk road. Over time, the preference shifted from horizontal to vertical writing, and Sogdian became Mongolian.</p><p>Chach AE coin, unknown &quot;Tudun&quot; or chief</p><p>[ATTACH=full]846348[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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