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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IanG, post: 7736932, member: 109252&quot;]Ed Snible asked if I had a theory about why ancient people made tiny bronze coins. I am sure there are people on this forum who would know a lot more than me but my reasoning has always been:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Originally coins were issued in precious metal; electrum, gold or silver. They were supposed to be worth their weight in metal. A large coin would be of considerable value but as people needed small values to make small purchases, small coins such as obols were made, frequently 10mm or less. Then later on cities introduced token bronze currency but in many cases they were made by the same mints that were producing the precious metal coinage. If the population was accustomed to very small coins and the mints were set up to produce very small coins why not make them in bronze as well if that was advantageous to the issuing authorities in terms of saving copper, ease of manufacture, or whatever? And when one city saw that another city was issuing such coins without problem, they would do likewise.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Many cities issued coins of an identical type in different sizes. Take the city of Neonteichos in Aeolis as an example. It only ever issued bronze coins with a helmeted Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse sitting on the city monogram but it issued them in two sizes, roughly 10mm and 17mm. Presumably the different sizes had different purchasing power, so that issuing the smaller coin was a bit like issuing a halfpenny with the larger coin being the penny.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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