The Hellenistic World: The Cities of Mainland Greece and Asia Minor

Abstract

A feature of mainland Greece from the fourth to first centuries BC was the production of silver, bronze, and gold coinage in the names of federations, with uniform types and weight standards. In Asia Minor, the only close parallel is with the coinage of the Lycian League struck in the second and first centuries BC. Some of the older weight standards of the Greek cities survived into the Hellenistic period. The coinage of Aegina ended in the fourth century, but a reduced version of its standard, based on a stater of about 11 g, was still used in central Greece and the Peloponnese during the third and early part of the second century. A more unexpected survival into the Hellenistic period in western Asia Minor was the Persian standard, based originally on a siglos of about 5.6 g. It was adopted by several mints in the northwest at the time of Alexander's conquest or shortly thereafter.