Origins of Greek Coinage

Coinage was invented in Lydia, on the eastern shore of the Aegean in the late 7th century BCE and spread quickly across the Greek islands, then across the Greek mainland and to the Greek colonies in South Italy, Sicily, Africa, Spain and the Black Sea. The arrival of coinage greatly facilitated trade and the bonds between scattered city-states and caused many a Greek to mutter, "Why didn't we think of this before?" No longer did you have to drag cows or grain bushels around to make purchases. And now it was possible to become wealthy without necessarily having to risk your life accumulating or plundering land, stock, slaves or other large material goods.

They were engraved in a bronze die set in an anvil (the "anvil die"). The annealed (fire-softened) flan was set on the die and struck with a "hammer die." The anvil die became the obverse and is often convex from taking the blow of the hammer die (the reverse). Early on, the hammer die struck a square or rectangle image, but soon images were placed on the reverse. They did not use collars to center coins, so many ancients are endearingly off-center, which detracts from their value to collectors.