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[German version] Modern technical term for describing particularly heavy and large coins or coin-like items of high artistic quality made of gold, silver or bronze. In the Greek sphere, medallions are only encountered in the Roman imperial period, the term medallion for dekádrachmon is archaic. Medallions like coins were minted as part of the state's monopoly over coinage but were not intended for circulation. Gold medallions are based on the standards for coinage ( Coinage, standards of) and are multiples of the aure…

[German version] (Κροίσειος στατήρ; Kroíseios statḗr). Coin of the Lydian king Croesus (middle of the 6th cent. BC), made of pure gold (99%) with confronting foreparts of a lion and a bull on the obverse and two indented squares ( quadratum incusum) on the reverse, produced as a heavy and a light stater, weighing 10.71 g or 8.055 g, subdivided into thirds, sixths or twelfths of a stater. Besides the gold coin, staters were minted in pure silver, weighing 10.70 g, and hemistaters, weighing 5.35 g. A…

[German version] (Latin 'male prostitute', Tac. Ann. 6,1; Suet. Tib. 43). Modern term for bronze or brass coin-like tesserae , probably dating to the reign of the emperor Tiberius (AD 14-37) [2. 55-57], with 15 different representation of acts of copulation or fellation on one side and, for the most part, a number I-XVI on the other, with the numbers  II, IIII and VIII sometimes preceded by an A [1. 389 f.; 3. 20-25; 4]. The number may be an indication of the value in asses ( As ), and this may also explain the A. The number XVI would then correspond to a denarius [1. 391; 2…

[German version] (πεντάλιτρον; pentálitron). Value of five litrai (Litra); minted as a silver coin, for instance at Syracuse ([1], 3rd cent. BC) with a weight of c. 4·35 g. A Drachme [1] from Acragas in Sicily bears the legend ΠΕΝ(τάλιτρον) ([2], c. 450 BC), since 5 litrai correspond to 1 drachme. It occurs as an adjective, meaning '5 litrai in weight', in Poll. 4,173. Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) Bibliography 1 SNG München 1360 2 SNG München 75. Schrötter, s.v. P., 499  HN, 120.

[German version] (πεντηκοντάδραχμον; pentēkontádrachmon). Gold tetradrachmon in Ptolemaic Egypt with a weight of 13·84 g and a value of 50 silver drachmai (Drachme), minted from Ptolemy II (285-247 BC) onward with the double portraits of the dead ruling couple and the legend ΘΕΩΝ ('of the gods') and those of the living ruling couple and the legend ΑΔΕΛΦΩΝ ('of the brother and sister', see Philadelphos; [1]; Poll. 9,60). Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) Bibliography 1 SNG Copenhagen (Egypt: The Ptolemies), 133. W. Schwabacher, s.v. P., RE 19, 528f.  Schrötter, s.v. P., 499.

[German version] ('(The number) four'). Modern term for the quadruple aureus , also categorized as a medallion. These pieces are very rare, and the fluctuating 3rd cent. AD standards of coinage (Coinage, standards of) make them difficult to define exactly. Quaterniones survive from the reigns of Augustus (2 BC-AD 4, mint of Lugdunum (modern Lyon), RIC 1,204; 205), Domitian (AD 88, Rome, RIC 2,108, there classified as five aurei), Commodus (AD 188/9, Rome, RIC 3,184; 185, both categorized medallions), Severus Alexander (AD 222, Rome, RIC 4.2,15; 317 with Iulia [9…

[German version] (κεράτιον; kerátion, ‘little horn’; seed of the carob tree). Weight and coin, corresponding to the siliqua. As a weight 1/1728 libra = 0.189 g. The coin had a value of 1/24 solidus, but from the Constantinian period it was minted only in silver, not gold. Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) Bibliography Schrötter, s.v. K., 303.

Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) [German version] A. Definition (CT) Coin collections (CC), also known as coin cabinets, go back to the Renaissance and the penchant of the time for Classical Antiquity and its monuments, among which coins are certainly counted. The first famous coin collector was Petrarch (1304-1374). Most of the now state-owned CC came into being during the period of Absolutism, as part of royal art collections [19. 436]. It is in these collections that ancient coins (i.e. from the Celts, Greeks, …

[German version] (λίτρα; lítra, ‘pound’). In Sicily and Lower Italy weight and coin of 109.15 g, corresponding to a third of the Roman libra , like the latter divided up into 12 unciae. Only in Lipara minted with this weight as an Æ coin (bronze coin), also divided into hemilitron, tetras , hexas and uncia with 6, 4, 2 and 1 ball(s) indicating the coin's value [1; 2. 356], otherwise only in a reduced form. More important was the minting in silver with a weight of 0.87 g, a fifth of the drachma. There were various multiple face values, in Syracuse among others 4, 5, 8 and 16 litrai [3]. In the Roman Im…

Relates to the systems of weights upon which ancient coinage was based. [German version] A. Greece In the Greek coinage system ( Money;  Minting), there were various standards; however, the designations of the nominal values and  weights were uniform and usually had the following ratios: 1  talent = 60 minai, 1  mina = 50 staters, 1  stater = 2 drachmas, 1  drachma = 6  oboloi [1. 159]. The determination of ancient standards of coinage is based on the average weight of the largest possible number of well-preser…

[German version] A. Individual finds Individual finds of coins that were not intentionally buried, can be categorized as random and settlement finds. The information yielded by a single coin is minimal. Even if it is certain that the coin represents a primary find, namely that it was already lost in antiquity at the find location, one can hardly derive any historical conclusions least of all chronological conjectures. Only the evaluation of a larger number of random finds within a geographical area a…

[German version] Gaulish quinarius minting from the 2nd and 1st cents. BC of about 1.90-1.94 g. with the Greek inscription ΚΑΛΕΤΕΔΟΥ on the reverse, sometimes abbreviated as ΚΑΛ or as the remainder of a pseudo inscription in conjunction with a many-spoked wheel or a circle point decoration. The significance of the Greek letters has not been explained. The model for the minting was either a Roman denarius of P. Cornelius Sulla from the year 151 BC, or of the dictator Sulla from 89 BC, with the helmeted Rome head on the obverse and a biga on the reverse, which …

[German version] Folk term for a Celtic gold coin shaped like a small cup. According to folk belief RCs could be found where a rainbow touched the earth. RCs, which could often be found in ploughed fields after heavy rainfall, were thought to bring luck and had many different effects ascribed to them. On the obverse RCs have an abstract head or a smooth bump, sometimes a star, a hand, writing, an ornament, a cross or a bird's head. The reverse is concave, often with a representation of a torque (Torques) with spheres in it. It is esp. the Celtic t…

Statutory regulations issued by those authorized to produce coins (sovereigns, states), which relate to minting practice or money circulation in that state or its sphere of influence. [German version] A. Greece 1. The coinage decree of the Athenians (IG I3 1453; ATL II D 14; [1]): the people's resolution about the unification of the coinage system as well as weights and measures in the  Delian League probably dates from the time around 449 BC. With this decree, the Ath. currency as well as Ath. weights and measures were to be the onl…

[German version] French term for an alloy of copper, tin, lead and antimony, from which the Celts in eastern Gaul produced cast coins. The high proportion of tin and the softness of lead lowers the melting point to a few hundred degrees so that the coins could be cast at relatively low temperatures [1. 66]. Potin coins occur as anepigraphic, semiepigraphic and epigraphic types [1. 152-184]. Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) Bibliography 1 A. Burkhardt, W. B. Stern, G. Hennig (eds.), Keltische Münzen aus Basel. Numismatische und metallanalytische Untersuchungen, 1994 2 Göbl, vol. 1, 37 3 K. Grue…

[German version] (Derived from the Lat. pecus, 'livestock': Varro, Ling. 5,92, cf. [1]) in Lat., designates assets, originally in livestock, then generally money. The etymology shows that in Rome livestock used as currency preceded metal money. In the 4th cent. AD pecunia designated a coin, or piece of money (Eutr. 9,14), sometimes with specification of the metal (Aug. Civ. 4,21; 4,28) or in a limited sense, copper money (SHA Sev. 33,3). Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) Bibliography 1 Walde/Hofmann, s.v. P., vol. 2, 272. Schrötter, s.v. P., 492.

[German version] Reduction stage of the Roman-Italian aes grave, introduced in 217 BC, according to which the libral as weighed only half of the original anymore (RRC 38/1,  c. 132 g). Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) Bibliography 1 RRC, p. 615 f. 2 R. Thomsen, From Libral 'Aes Grave' to Uncial 'Aes' Reduction. The Literary Tradition and the Numismatic Evidence, in: Les 'dévaluations' à Rome. Epoque républicaine et impériale (Congr. Rome 1975), 1978, 9-30.

[German version] along with the adjective λεπτός/ leptós signifies ‘peeled, thin, small’, a small coin or small nominal [1]. The lepton may possibly be identified with the kodrantes known from the NT, or the prutot [2], the small coin of the Roman procurators of the Julio-Claudian period in Judaea, bearing the name of the emperor or governor, but without his image. Later metrologists equated the lepton to 1/6000 of a talent = 1 solidus. Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) Bibliography 1 LSJ s.v. λεπτός 6; III 2 2 B. Overbeck, Das Heilige Land. Antike Münzen und Siegel aus einem Jahrtausend jüd.…

[German version] (also quatrunx). Modern name for the Roman four-ounce piece in the decimal division of the as. There are cast quadrunces from Ariminum, Asculum Apulum, Hatria and Luceria, and stamped ones from Atella, Calatia, Capua, Larinum, Luceria, Regium and Teate Apulum [1]. Stumpf, Gerd (Munich) Bibliography 1 H. Chantraine, s. v. Q., RE 24, 708-710 2 Schrötter, s. v. Q., 543.

[German version] (ἡμιωβόλιον; hēmiōbólion or ἡμιωβέλιον; hēmiōbélion). Coin with the value of half an  obolos. On silver coins of the Peloponnese the abbreviated value indication ΗΜ, Η or Ε is often found. In Corinth the head of Pegasus was the symbol of the hemiobolion from the 5th cent. BC onwards [1. 400f.], in Athens in the 4th cent. BC it was the owl instead of the crescent moon common on the obolos and 1/4 obolos [1. 374]. The weight of the hemiobolion depended on the standards of  coinage of the minting places. On bronze coins from Aegae/Achaia in Roman times there is the nom…