A Formal Analysis of the Beginnings of Coinage in Antiquity

Jacques Melitz

No 2015-08, Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics

Abstract: This is the first attempt to model the beginnings of coinage in Ionia, Lydia and Greece before the fifth century B.C. Apart from bringing together all of the influences on the essential choices facing the government and the private sector within a coherent whole, the effort yields one important result. Contrary to popular assumption, early coinage was not highly profitable. The Lydian government and the Ionian and Greek city-states provided an extreme-ly wide array of denominations of coins in a single precious metal at considerable cost. Their willingness to bear this cost must have reflected a political strategy of promoting coinage. Such a political strategy would also be easy to explain. In addition, the paper examines the fact that the early Ionian and Lydian coins were composed of electrum, a subject of consider-able interest and importance in itself.

Keywords: ancient coinage; seignorage; small change; full-bodied coins; ancient monetary history. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E40 E42 N10 N20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 2015-08
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Working Paper: A formal analysis of the beginnings of coinage in antiquity (2015)
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