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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 1821999, member: 57463&quot;]Actually, they all were.&nbsp; We are not sure about why the first coins were struck, but soon thereafter, people did use them for promoting their families, their cities, or themselves.</p><p><br /></p><p>The earliest coins of Athens are called &quot;Wappenmuenze&quot; or &quot;Shield coins&quot; because the images on the coins are often known from the shields of Athenian hoplites: we accept them as family crests.</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman coins were intensely political, the Ides of March Denarius being the epitome. Not only did American colonies in revolt declare their politics on their paper money, but in the next decade British merchants issued tokens and coins with political themes.</p><p><br /></p><p>(In fact, money <b>is</b> speech. The first tokens from 5000 BCE were the origins of writing.&nbsp; <a href="http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2012/10/money-is-speech.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2012/10/money-is-speech.html" rel="nofollow">My article &quot;Money is Speech&quot; here</a> and&nbsp; <a href="http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2013/11/money-as-press-and-speech.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2013/11/money-as-press-and-speech.html" rel="nofollow">&quot;Money as press and Speech</a>&quot; also <a href="http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2011/10/accounting-for-civilization.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2011/10/accounting-for-civilization.html" rel="nofollow">another &quot;Accounting for Civilization&quot; here.</a>)</p><p><br /></p><p><b><i>Astronomical Symbols on Ancient and Medieval Coins </i>by Marshall Faintich </b>(McFarland &amp; Co., 2008, 232 pages, $55.00) provides a thorough catalog of attributable (and putative) eclipses and conjunctions shown on coins. His thesis is that these were taken as signs of heavenly support for the local ruler.&nbsp; (<a href="http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2012/06/astronomical-symbols-on-ancient-and.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2012/06/astronomical-symbols-on-ancient-and.html" rel="nofollow">My review here.</a>)</p><p><br /></p><p>Just to say, I probably own a hundred coins, but I have written over a hundred articles.&nbsp; Not all numismatists are collectors.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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