Some Ancient Greek Coins Have Unsurpassed Beauty

Posted by User Contributed

May 15, 2008

It appears that the population living in the area of ancient Greece did put a great emphasis on art and artistic beauty. Many art objects produced back then are still very much admired by us, and fuels our continued interest in the ancient Greek culture.

Although you may consider numismatics a nerdy subject, I suggest you take a good look at some ancient greek coins. These coins, when produced during the classical period, are now two and a half millena old but still show us an exquisite level of artistic skill.

These ancient Greeks surely must have been proud of their coins. There was a competitive atmosphere between these city-states and likely each one aspired to make the prettiest coins! The coins were usually made of pure silver and some were large enough to be adorned with quite detailed imagery.

For instance, some of the silver coins produced in Syracuse were even signed by the artist. You can still see his name, “Eukledias”, written in tiny letters on those ancient coins.

Later, the Mediterranian region came to become dominated by the emerging Roman empire. Sure, the Romans produced many beautiful coins also but in my own opinion none of the ancient Roman coins can quite match the freshness of the very best ancient Greek coins.

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