Coins In Ancient Greece

1. Coins in Ancient Greece were normally made from silver, but also gold, bronze, copper alloy and electrum. Minters often imprinted famous gods and figures from Greek Mythology as such designs were very popular at the time, although early coins generally had a simple geometric shape such as a quartered square. For millennia, Greeks used barter as a primary way of purchase until eventually, they began to trade metal rods for goods. This form of currency slowly evolved into smaller, more easily held coins although barter still remained more common for most payments due to coins being valued differently across city-states. The few that were paid in coins included troops and foreign mercenaries. Mercenaries were unfairly paid by the Palace Society,

For many decades Greek farmers subsisted because when there was excess food in a fertile year there was no way of preserving it for an infertile year when little food was produced. The government in Ancient Greece known as the Palace Society resolved this issue by buying crops from farmers usually with coins so on fertile years farmers could sell their excess crops for money to buy food on an infertile year with no crops. The Palace Society redistributed the crops among the Greek hierarchy with the upper classes receiving greater quantities and the remains being cascaded down to lower classes. Very poor farmers often borrowed from rich farmers to stay alive but this method was flawed as eventually, their ability to repay debt diminished and they were enslaved by wealthy farmers and landholders. In Ancient Greece, there were 4 different social classes. The topmost class, traditionally known as ‘Aristoi’ comprised of wealthy, highly socialised individuals who were born in Athens. The middle class in Ancient Greece consisted of foreign people, who had settled in Athens to find a better life and had very little rights in comparison to the upper class. Citizens in the middle class were mostly manufacturers and traders. The lower class in Ancient Greece originally known as ‘Periokoi’ included non-citizen slaves who were freed in some way by their owners. The bottommost class is the slaves. Slaves in Ancient Greece had no rights or privileges. Slaves did not even possess the rights to their own life. Slaves normally did labour for an Aristocrat. Slaves were mostly criminals or foreigners rescued from war. It was very rare for a Greek to be a