Alain Bresson | Coinage: The Greek Way of Handling Money

Money Matters: The Development of Money through the Ancient World. A four-part series that traces the development of economic systems in the ancient world and explore how money as a financial instrument has evolved over the millennia.

Coinage: The Greek Way of Handling Money
October 1, 2014
Alain Bresson
Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor, Associate Member in the Department of History, University of Chicago

Why was it that the invention of coinage took place in Lydia and Ionia, and not in other countries or regions? And why was it that for several centuries the Greek world remained the sole region of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean world where coinage was in common use? The lecture will address the question of the birth of coinage in a comparative perspective. It will insist on the profound unity between the various forms of coinage, from the electrum coins of the seventh century BCE, to the gold, silver and bronze coinage of the later periods.

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