In contrast to this early electrum coinage, irregular, alike in quality, types and shape, is the almost contemporary earliest coinage of Greece proper, even the oldest specimens of which, unlike the electrum, are at once recognisable as coins to the least trained eye. This is of silver and capable of definite attribution. The oldest are those of Aegina and if the not early but persistent ancient tradition which says that coinage was invented by Pheidon king of Argos is correct, these would be his coins. The type of Aegina is a turtle—an animal associated with Aphrodite—on the obverse, an incuse square on the reverse. That the coins of Aegina are the earliest is supported by the fact that the Aeginetic standard is the commonest on the earlier coins of the islands, the Peloponnese and Greece proper; it was later sup planted by the Euboic-Attic standard, the adoption of which by Solon for Athens led to its wide dissemination. By the end of the 6th century the practice of striking coins was well established in many centres. Corinth with its pegasi (Pl. I.-9)—from their type of a pegasus—struck staters on its own standard, a variant of the Attic and began to strike not long after Aegina ; it is not im probable that Periander was the institutor of the Corinthian coin age which became one of the great commercial currencies of the Greek world. The date of origin of the coinage of Athens is still uncertain ; the well known types of the head of Athena on the obverse and her attribute the owl on the reverse date from the middle 6th century and are the earliest coins with a type on both sides and the earliest to bear a human head (Pl. 1.-8). The exact attribution to Athens of its Solonian and pre-Solonian coins is still disputed. By the institution the "owls," a type of coin, obv. deity and reverse an attribute of the deity, was developed which had a far-reaching effect on the development of coin-types; the head of the king on an English penny goes back to the head of Athena through the deified head of Alexander and the Britannia on the reverse similarly can be traced back to the owl. Other important towns like Thebes and trading centres like Corcyra be gan to issue coins about this time but a number of important towns seem to have still been content to use the currency of their neighbours. In the 6th century also we have the earliest coins of Africa in the issues of the Spartan colony of Cyrene with its badge the silphium plant, the cultivation of which was its great source of revenue. Coinage was also begun by the Greek colonies in South Italy and Sicily; these latter are of a characteristic fabric. Instead of the thick dumpy piece with a type on the obverse only and an incuse square on the reverse which are corn mon to the cities and islands of Greece, we have broad thin pieces with the type struck on both sides, in relief on the obverse, in cuse on the reverse (P1. I.-5). We possess many coins of this type of Tarentum, Metapontum, Croton, Rhegium, Zankle (Messana), etc. By the time of the Persian Wars coinage was a familiar fea ture of everyday life in the cities of the Greek world. Traders and colonists had carried the art to Cyrene in North Africa from Sparta to south Italy from Corinth, and to Sicily from Athens and the Peloponnese. In Asia Minor also coinage spread southwards and had reached Cyprus but not yet Crete. The Phoenicians and Egyptians were already familiar with Greek coins but did not attempt to copy the invention; in the north however the silver mints of Thrace and Macedon were beginning to be worked vigorously and not only the Greek cities but the barbarian tribes, also, who employed Greek legends on their coins, were actively striking.
The various coinages of this early period (down to 48o B.c.) have a number of features in common. One of the most remark able to the modern eye is the absence of inscriptions ; these are either non-existent or consist only of the initial letter or letters of the town issuing the coin. The device of the town was originally sufficient for local circulation but as coins began to go further afield it became necessary to add some indication of its name. The earliest coin legends are therefore very brief : a koppa for the initial of Corinth, a cl) (phi) for Phocaea, I' (Su) for baris, AOE for Athens, and so on. The earliest inscriptions of any length are still written from right to left. Long inscrip tions like "I am the badge of Phanes" above a stag on an archaic coin of Ephesus or "the stamp of Gortyna" on an early coin of the Cretan mint of Gortyna are remarkable exceptions and impor tant as showing the original nature of inscriptions and of the types themselves. They show that the genitive, which is the
usual form of the name when written in full, although nominatives are not very rare, is explanatory of the type.
Types.—The types in the early period are mainly taken from the animal world; they include domestic—particularly the bull— wild animals, birds and insects (the bee at Ephesus) ; fabulous creatures are also common like the griffin at Abdera, the pegasus at Corinth, the Chimaera, etc. ; the vegetable world is also repre sented, notably by the silphium plant at Cyrene. Representations of the human figure are rarer and later than other types to appear, but once the human head became established as a coin-type, its use spread rapidly and widely and with the disappearance of the incuse square and coming of the double typed coin a head began to be regularly used as one of the types. Complete human figures are rare and are represented either kneeling or standing, both very stiffly like the Poseidon at Poseidonia ; the nymph and satyr or centaur common in Thrace (Pl. 1.-7) hardly deserves the name of a group; elaborate compositions like the Hercules and Hesperides at Cyrene and the flight of Aeneas at Aeneia are quite unique. With the coming of legends on coins it was no longer necessary that the main type should be the badge of the town, which is fre quently relegated to the reverse or becomes merely a symbol or disappears altogether to give the artist a subject more worthy of his talents. Except in the doubtful case of the earliest electrum, coinage was always a matter for the ruling authority whether civic or regal and the earliest types are chosen to show who these are. That coinage was early recognised as too important a right for private ownership is seen from the traditions which associate all the great law-givers, Pheidon, Solon and Lycurgus, with the institution or improvement of coinage. The sanctity of the re public's right of coinage is seen in the coinage of cities ruled by tyrants, who never put their name or other indication of their existence on the coins, although they occasionally made altera tions in the types, as when Peisistratos added the head of Athena to the Athenian coins or when Anaxilos of Rhegium introduced the mule-chariot type in memory of his Olympic victory.
The early types are generally chosen from simple motives.
Many of them are a punning allusion to the name of the town like the lion at Leontini, the seal at Phocaea, the goat at Aegae or the quince at Melos, or the sickle-shaped harbour at Zancle. Some times it is chosen from the history of a town like the figure of the mythical founder Taras at Tarentum or the Minotaur and Laby rinth at Cnossos (Pl. 1.-6). Types like the ear of corn at Meta pontum allude to the fertility of the country about. Thrace and Macedon are notable for their huge silver octodrachms with the type of a local hero in a chariot drawn by two bulls. In Italy, Croton takes as its type the tripod of Apollo like its mother city Zacynthus. Poseidonia has a statue of Poseidon brandishing his trident. Naxos in Sicily, whose founders came from Naxos in the Aegean, has a head of Dionysos who was born in the Aegean is land. Himera has a cock, a punning allusion to the name of their town for the cock proclaims the dawning of day (hemera). Selinus has another punning type, the wild parsley leaf (selinon). Towards the end of the 6th century B.C., Syracuse introduces the celebrated type of the head of Arethusa, the nymph of a spring in Ortygia, which was in the next century to become the most famous of Greek coin-types. The reverse, a victorious chariot, became a popular one in other towns. The finest specimen of this type of late archaic style is the Demareteion (Pl. 1.-14) commemorating the victory over Carthage in 480. The head of Arethusa on the ob verse wears the laurel wreath of the victorious and beneath the chariot on the reverse is a lion, the emblem of conquered Africa. This type of obverse spread throughout Sicily ; the main types of Sicilian towns in the 5th century are local nymphs and river gods. At Catania we have the river god Amenanos ; Gela has a manheaded bull swimming, a personification of the river Gelas.