Coins as Historical Sources
May 14th, 2017
Ancient coins constitute a major body of historical, economic and artistic material and evidence in the study of the Ancient World.
Very often, the surviving coins by far outnumber other sources such as ceramics and inscriptions, and they automatically mirror the public sphere, as by definition their value and acceptance must be guaranteed by the state.
Coins – both as individual finds and in the context of hoards – can also give extensive information about officials, religion and cult, political thought, ideology and autonomous artistic features such as portraiture as well as monetary policy.