Stories in metal: ancient coins

The museum collection comprises ca. 600 ancient coins, dating from the 6th c. BC to Roman times. They are minted of gold, silver, bronze, lead and sometimes of electrum. They cover a very wide geographical spectrum, including Magna Graecia and Sicily, Mainland Greece, the Aegean islands, Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria and some very remote Hellenistic cities of Asia.

Most coins are very well preserved. Some of the them are very rare, while others offer valuable information about the history of the corresponding city of kingdom. Particularly common are Macedonian coins, coins of Alexander’s Successors, and also Athenian coins. Through the collection the public can acquire a good understanding of Classical and Hellenistic coinages – the periods that are most often represented.

The study of the ancient coin collection is conducted by Dr Panagiotis Iossif (Curator at the Museum of Cycladic Art and Professor of Ancient Numismatics at the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen of Netherlands) and Mrs Anastasia Perysinaki (PhD student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens).

 

Athenian silver decadrachm, after 467 BC (Ν599)

Silver decadrachm of Demetrius Ι of Macedon, 290-289 BC (Ν28)