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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Pellinore, post: 7312560, member: 74834&quot;]That Bactrian 20 stater gold coin probably was a posh gift by the king of Bactria to foreign ambassadors or heads of state. Coins like this were not circulating, they were a sign of trust by your godlike king, and you were proud - or some oil to lubricate negotiations between states, and it would vanish in the ambassador&#039;s deep pockets.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the ancient world, probably also some types of coins were specially minted to be scattered at festivities or handed out as a gift to elected poor people (like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Maundy" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Maundy" rel="nofollow">Maundy money</a> in more modern times). As I understand it, for instance Sasanid obols were used as scatter coins (&quot;Auswurfsmünzen&quot; in the German technical jargon of pioneer scientist Robert Göbl). </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1278255[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This is a 12 mm, 0.6 g silver coin, an obol of King of Kings Shapur II (309-379) that was scattered at Persian festivities. </p><p><br /></p><p>Probably some Roman types were used like this, too.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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