WAR TOKENS FOR SILVER? QUANTIFYING THE EARLY BRONZE ISSUES OF IONIA

What follows is a first attempt to look into the quantities involved with the earliest bronze coins of western Asia Minor and their survival rate, which may throw light on the circumstances of their introduction in c. 400.1 Bronze was first used as a metal for coinage in the Greek world sometime in the second half of the fifth century. Some of the earliest bronze coins were produced by casting by mints of Sicily and the Black Sea.2 Mints of other regions were quick to adopt base metal and by the first quarter of the fourth century most active mints struck their own bronze coins.3 It is generally believed that it was a practical response to the increasing use of coinage in everyday transactions4. Tiny silver coins were being replaced by bigger coins made of bronze whose bullion value was a fraction to that of silver. But bronze coinage, on the other hand, did not enjoy the same level of confidence among users and was even regarded with suspicion when it was first introduced.5 During the first wave of bronze issues, however, not all ancient mints struck chunky bronze coins.6 In Asia Minor, for instance, some of the earliest bronze coins were almost as small as the silver fractions they were replacing as will be described below. The exact circumstances which led to the introduction of base metal coins remain obscure, but the little evidence we have suggests that it often coincided with times of crisis such as war or periods of economic instability.7 It is interesting to note that some of the earliest bronze issues were struck by Persian officials such ∗ I am grateful to Professor John H. Kroll for his useful suggestions. 1 All ancient dates are BC. 2 Price 1968, 94-98; see articles in Anon. 1979. 3 For the silver plated base metal coinage of Athens, see Kroll 1993, 32