Ancient Greek coins have a variety of attributes that enable differentiation between the currencies of individual poleis. Each polis independently designed and created its own coins, with symbols that were representative of the deities and heroes important to that particular government. This theme supersedes all of the other trends in Greek coin making throughout the centuries.
Archaic period coins are simple and crude. Rather than being symmetrically round, they approximate lumps of metal that have been pressed into irregular disks. Usually made from gold, silver, or electrum, they have a basic impression of the patron deity of the originating polis.
During the Classical period, coin-making techniques were refined. Most coins were minted from gold or silver. The coins were more consistently shaped, with intricate representations of deities or heroes on one side and a symbol for the polis on the reverse. Inscriptions were initially incorporated into the design for coins created during the Classical period. Coin designers paid special attention to the meaning of the symbols, and used them to incorporate political messages into the currency. For example, coins depicting an owl (a symbol for wisdom) are usually from Athens during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., when the polis was focusing on portraying an image of peaceful strength and power.
Hellenistic period coins are not as detailed as Classical period coins because they were designed to be easier to mass produce for wider circulation. They are most commonly minted from gold and are often much larger than their predecessors. While earlier coins only featured images of animals or inanimate objects, for the first time, Greek coins portrayed living people, such as a profile of the ruler of the issuing polis. The name of the ruler may be inscribed under the portrait, and on the reverse of the coin is usually a symbol for the polis.
Greek coin denominations are determined by weight. Gold coins were measured in terms of the stater, which could be divided into smaller denominations. Silver coins were measured in terms of the drachm, which could be either divided into smaller denominations or multiplied into larger denominations. Bronze coins were measured in terms of the litra. Despite the standardization in the assignment of names to the units of measurement, however, each polis defined the units of measurement differently, such that how much a stater, drachm or litra weighed in one polis did not necessarily correlate to the weights for the same units of measurement in other poleis. Thus, what sufficed as a drachm in one polis may have been too light or too heavy to be used as a drachm in another polis.
Ancient Greek pottery is frequently signed, sometimes by the potter or the master of the pottery, but only occasionally by the painter. Hundreds of painters are however, identifiable by their artistic personalities, where their signatures haven't survived they are named for their subject choices, as "the Achilles Painter", by the potter they worked for, such as the late Archaic "Kleophrades Painter", or even by their modern locations, such as the late Archaic "Berlin Painter".
For 200 years the Corinthians sold their pottery all over the Greek world, and Corinth became a wealthy and busy trading center. In metalworking and pottery, the work was very hard. The potters could be found in a part of Athens known as the Kerameikos, or Potters' Quarter. They acquired their clay from the quarries at Cape Colias, six miles from the city. They mixed it with ochre or vermilion to color it yellow or red, and turned it on simple wheels. The molded articles were then dried in the sun and specialized painters decorated them by hand. The Sphinx, an imaginary creature of ancient myths, is most remembered for the riddle given to her by the Muses, "What creature has only once voice walks sometimes on four, sometimes on three, and sometimes on two, and is weakest when it walks on four? "Man!" She often sat perched on Mount Phicium, asking each passing person a riddle. If they answered her wrong, she would eat them. It is also believed that The Sphinx leaped to her death when she asked Oedipus a riddle and was given the correct answer. The Egyptians, Greeks and peoples of the Near East all had stories about such a creature. The Egyptian Sphinx usually had the head of a man and the body, legs, feet and tail of a lion. The Greek Sphinx usually had the head of a woman and according to Greek literature, lived on a high rock outside of the city of Thebes. The Great Sphinx that stands at Giza near the Great Pyramid in Egypt is 240 feet long and approximately 66 feet high and is one of the most famous monuments in the world.
The ancient Greeks were the firs to develop a democratic way of life. More than 200 years age, they started the idea that every citizen should take an active part in Government, historians regard them as the founder of western civilization. Greek civilization was far more advanced than any other historians were. Orators, philosophers, and poets were Greek. The Greeks were the first to study botany, geometry, medicine, physic and zoology on a scientific basic. They also held the first athletic games.
The ancient Greeks called themselves Hellenes, and their land Hellas. They never formed a national government, but a common culture, religious, and language united them. Greeks called anyone whose active language was Greek a Hellene, even if he did not live in Greece, and anyone not speaking Greek a barbarian. Greek civilization developed on a rocky, mountainous peninsula that juts onto the Mediterranean Sea from southeastern Europe, and on the Islands in the nearby sea. The people of each plain and island formed an independent community called a city-state. No city-state had enough good land to support its entire people. Communities quarreled with one another instead of uniting. Athens and Sparta became the most famous city-states.
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