The copper currency was the lest introduced into Greece, and its appearance was not well received, it was first issued at Athens in the arcbonship of Callias, B.C. 406, and the orator who recommended it went by the nickname of the Coppersmith. The oldest dated copper coins are those of .Eropus II., king of Macedon, B.C. 399 ; and the necessity of change diffused its use, and it ultimately superseded or was current with all denominations as high as the obolos. The principal bronze coins are the obolos, worth lid. 5, the chalkous, or of an obolos, and the lepton, 3 of a chalchous : there were sub divisions of the of an obolos, and pieces of 2 oboli, worth 31d. Besides the oboli, there was an assarion worth of a denarius, and two other copper coins called the symbolon and kollybos, the value of which is unknown. Some of the monetary systems named the copper currency after the silver, and struck drachms, and didrachms and tetradmchms in this metal. Under the Roman empire, the copper currency was left to the care of the Greek municipalities, but after the national bankruptcy this was suppressed, and the copper issued only by the imperial mints. In the days of the republic, some of the states of Magna Grwcia and Sicily used the Roman standard of the as and its subdivisions.
The types of the Greek coins had a religious aim, and either alluded to the eponymous deity, or some local tradition : their meaning was strictly religious. On the earliest coins the types consist of a single emblem, generally an animal or vegetable ,placed upon one side only : as the tortoise on the coins of JEgina, the dolphin on those of Thasus, the vine-leaf on Camirus. Some pieces were familiarly known by the names of their types ; thus the drachms of Delos were called boes (cattle); the tetradrachms of Athens, korai (virgins), alluding to Athene, or gloats (owls) ; the didrachms of Corinth, pato/ (colts), from the Pegasus ; those of ..rEgina, chelonai (tortoises); the staters of Macedon, hippotai (cavaliers); and the darics, toxeutae (archers). Other pieces were named after the princes who issued them, as, Crcesi, Alexandri, Philippi, Demerateioi, Ptolemaioi, and Berenica.i. The types of the two sides often have a connection with one another, as the head of Apollo with the reverse of a lyre, that of Neptune with a trident, or the head of Hercules with his bow and quiver on the reverse. In many eases, however, no connection can be traced, as on the coins of Tarentum, and the artist selected his subjects from different statues or monuments.
Besides the principal types, various smaller representations, called adjuncts, are introduced upon the field on coins of the third epoch, especially on those of such states as struck a Iong series. On the coins of Alexander the Great and his successors, these adjuncts or mint marks refer to the cities at which the pieces were struck, as a bee on those of the mint of Ephesus or Aradus, the club of Hercules for Tyre, an anchor for Abydos, a trident for Byzantium. On the contempora
neous coins of cities these episema have relation to the eponymous magistrates by whom the coins were issued ; and a remarkable instance is the stag on a coin of Athens, the emblem of the great Mithridates with his name, and the elephant of Pyrrhus on coins of Tarentum. Such marks will be found on the currency of Athens, Corinth, the Acheran and Lycian leagues, and on the consular denarii ; but they dis appear at the time of the Roman empire.
The coins of the earliest period have no inscriptions, the type showing the state from which the coins issued ; at first a single letter was intro duced, the initial of the name of the city, as A for Argos, 0 for Thebes, for Corinth. By degrees these letters became monosyllabic abbrevia tions of the names of the cities, as 9P0 for Croton, nom for Poseidonia, FA for Elia; dissyllables then appear, as AOE for Athens, Am for iligina, PEC I for Ithegium, and these continued to the latest times. But as the arts developed, the inscriptions become more complete, as HIMEPA (Himera), MEI1ANION (of the Messenians). These inscrip tions generally give the name of the city in the genitive, as OAIIIIN (of the Thasians) ; but the nominative sometimes replaces it, as MEIIANIOI (3Iessenian),/TPAK02101 (Syracusans); and unusual forms are found, as 7.EPEITAZIBEMI (I am from Segesta), EPTOEMMH (I am the stamp of Erythr,e), ZETOA KOMMA (the type of Scathes). The neuter form is also found, as APKAAIKON (Arcadian money). These inscriptions follow the style of the epoch, and are written from right to left, or rice rend, and boustrophedon. Generally the name or initial of the city is on one side of the coin, occasionally it is repeated on the other; it is inserted to suit the type, at one side, across the area, or all round the hollow square : in some instances it is divided, the first half, as ABA, on one side, and KAINON (Abaennum) on the reverse. In some rare caries it is placed on the type, as AINI (Aenos) on the petasus of Hermes; ANTI (Argos) and FAAELCIN (Elia) on the diadem of Hera. Till the fall of Greece into the power of Alexander, the civic legends generally continue very simple ; but after that period epithets are used, as TTP (ou) IE (pas) Al:T (Aou) (Tyre a sacred Asylum); and under the Romans the states arc called by their epithets, as ATTONOMOZ (self governed), ATEAEIA (untaxed), EAETOEPA (free), MHTPOIMAII (metro politan), NATAPXII (a port), A1TAOI (an asylum), nPrrrx (first). Explanations are rarely given, as AAPII1A CoEllAACiN (Thessalian Larissa), NIKAIEX2N TX2N KM IKTOOTIOAITI1N (of the Nicteans, alias Seythopolites in Samaria). The municipalities out of flattery often adopted Imperial epithets as KAATAIO•IEAETKEriN (of the Claudian Seleu clans), TAPIOT IETHPIANHI (of the Severian Tarsus), after Claudius 1. and Severus. Occasionally the names of rivers are recorded, as HTFA1 (the Hypsas) on coins of Selinus, APE002A (the Arethusa) on those of Syracuse ; and the names of local deities often accompany the types.