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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cmezner, post: 24585273, member: 87809&quot;]An example of the very earliest form of coinage; a type-less (blank) electrum globule, weighed to a specific standard, with a simple square punch mark on one side (two or three punch marks on larger denominations). Nine similar electrum pieces were found in the famous Temple of Artemis hoard at Ephesus.</p><p><br /></p><p>Whether they were invented by the Ionian Greeks or by the neighboring Lydians will probably never be known, but the Greeks spread coinage throughout the Mediterranean, introducing it to many non-Greek peoples with whom they came in contact.</p><p><br /></p><p>With certain matters relating to the first coinage, suggestions and speculation, deduction and theorizing are necessities because of the paucity of written, archeological hoard find spot, and die-study evidence. What is not known about early coins is at least as much as what is known, and with what is thought known, there can be much disagreement and debate. First, much depends on the definition used for &quot;coin.&quot; A commonly held numismatic definition of what a coin is, according to the Webster: &quot;A piece of metal (or, rarely, of some other material) certified by a mark or marks upon it to be of a definite exchange value and issued by governmental authority to be used as money.&quot; Key here are &quot;mark or marks&quot; and &quot;certified ... by government authority.&quot; Some have argued that the type-less electrum globules aren&#039;t true coins, and should be classified as pre-coins because they lack an essential feature - a &quot;type,&quot; or mark, of a recognized issuing authority.</p><p><br /></p><p>At first, Greek coins were stamped with designs, which numismatists call &quot;types,&quot; only on the front or obverse, and the reverse carried the impression of the punch used to stamp the metal into the obverse die. By the end of the 6th century the punch also carried a die for the reverse, and from this point onward most Greek coins had types on both sides. It is not always clear what dictated the choice of types, but it soon became almost universal practice to use types and inscriptions that identified the polis issuing the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is well known that there are many more types than there are cities that might reasonably be supposed to have issued coins in this period, and it has often been assumed that the commoner types, particularly those repeating the same one or two dominant obverse designs, are civic issues, while smaller issues with varying obverse images are mostly &quot;private&quot; issues funded by local &quot;merchants and bankers&quot; (although probably coined, at least in the larger cities, at the official mint). This idea has been criticized on various grounds but once a (coined) money economy had been established, it would seem likely that the wealthier merchants, basically traders and wholesalers for example, would have issued coins in order to facilitate local trade, particularly in the smaller cities which may not have been in a position to issue their own coinage. The coins may have been issued as credit tokens in exchange for bullion or other goods, to small traders and shopkeepers, who could then have used them as change in settling accounts with their suppliers and customers, thus passing them into the local economy. This is of course just what 19th century merchants in various countries did when they issued their own trade tokens to compensate for the scarcity of official small change.</p><p><a href="https://www.glebecoins.org/electrum/Early_Electrum/early_electrum.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.glebecoins.org/electrum/Early_Electrum/early_electrum.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.glebecoins.org/electrum/Early_Electrum/early_electrum.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The most useful form of classification has been by weight standard, based on two major and several lesser-used standards. The Milesian standard, with a stater of roughly 14 grams, circulated in Lydia and parts of Ionia. The Phokaian standard of roughly 16 grams was also used in Ionia as well as Mysia. Persian, Aeginetan, and Euboic standards saw scattered use in early coinage, limited in time and extent of circulation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Though some numismatists have identified these type-less pre-coins as transitional pieces leading to the Lydian coins, Mitchiner argued that they were Ionian Greek and led to typed Ionian Greek coins, and that chronologically they came after the Lydian coins. (<a href="https://rg.ancients.info/lion/article.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rg.ancients.info/lion/article.html" rel="nofollow">https://rg.ancients.info/lion/article.html</a>)</p><p><br /></p><p>In my collection:</p><p>Plain Globular Type, EL Hemihekte or 1/12 stater</p><p>uncertain Ionian mint ca. 650 - 600 BC, period of the Artemis Find (Ephesus region? may have been, as Karwiese has suggested, a Lydian controlled mint in the vicinity of Ephesus, rather than a mint of Ephesus itself)</p><p>1.168 g, 7.7 mm</p><p>SNG Kayhan 676; SNG Von Aulock 7763; Rosen 324; Boston MFA 1750; Traité II -; Weidauer –</p><p><br /></p><p>Ob.: smooth plain globular surface</p><p>Rev.: incuse roughly square pyramidal punch;</p><p><br /></p><p>Picture courtesy Forum Ancient Coins:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1560995[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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