New Book on Greek Numismatics

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Cambridge University Press recently released The Archaic and Early Classical Greek World: Using Coins as Sources by Keith Rutter, who was professor emeritus of Greek history and numismatics at the University of Edinburgh. In collaboration with the American Numismatic Society, Cambridge University Press publishes a series of “Guides to the Coinage of the Ancient World.”   Superbly illustrated (in color!) and clearly organized, this book is the latest title in that series.

For centuries, ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies maintained sophisticated economies without coins. For example, the workers who built the pyramids were paid in loaves of bread and jars of beer. Many cash transactions in the Bible’s Old Testament involved chunks of silver weighed out on a balance. 

Late Invention

“A coin is a piece of money that bears a stamp and conforms to a standard.” This definition, widely accepted by numismatists, highlights the fact that coinage is a relatively late invention in human history.  Many things functioned as “money” before round bits of metal issued by governments came to be widely accepted as mediums of exchange, stores of wealth, and standards of value. Payment of mercenaries was an important function of ancient coinage.

Six Chapters

Rutter’s book is organized in six thematic chapters, an epilogue, and two useful appendices:

1. The Terminology and Methodologies of Greek Numismatics
2. The Beginning of Coinage
3. Coinage in the Achaemenid Empire
4. The Aegean World: Weight Standards and the Spread of Coinage
5. Colonisation
6. Coins and Art

Epilogue: The Nature of Early Coinage

Appendices

1. Numismatic Glossary
2. The Production of Ancient Coinage

While this book will mainly be of interest to professional numismatists and coin collectors,  it also has much to offer students of economic history and art history. 

Author Keith Rutter (1939-2024) was professor emeritus of Greek history and numismatics at the University of Edinburgh. His books include Campanian Coinages 475-380 (1979) and Greek Coinages of Southern Italy and Sicily (1997). He was principal editor of the third edition of Historia Numorum Italy (2001).

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