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An Athenian coin, circa 454-404 BCE, with the head of Athena and an owl near an olive branch. Credit: Laura Lipsei / Royal Ontario Museum
Did you know that the sound of change in your pocket is similar to that of coins used in ancient Greece?
In fact, the current design of our coins, dollars and dollars is almost identical to those used more than 2,000 years ago – an idea that Ben Akrigg, of the University of Toronto, is keen to share with a wider audience.
An associate professor in the Department of Classics in the Faculty of Arts and Science, Akrigg works with a team of researchers and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to study, catalog and publish information on more than 2,000 coins ancient Greeks as part of the ROMkomma project. .
“Greek currency is so interesting because it is almost the oldest currency, at least in the Western monetary tradition,” says Akrigg. “The idea is to ensure that our high-resolution photographs and up-to-date identifications, dating and commentary are available on the museum website for anyone who wishes to view them.”
The ROMkomma project – komma means “printing a coin” in ancient Greek – was launched last year. Akrigg works alongside Boris Chrubasik, associate professor and chair of the department of historical studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga; Kate Cooper, assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of historical and cultural studies at the University of Toronto at Scarborough; as well as a team of graduate students.
The first phase of the project, which will end in 2024, focuses on approximately 250 coins from two regions of ancient Greece: the city of Athens (6th to 1st century BCE) and the cities of Hellenistic empire of the Seleucid rulers (4th to 1st century BCE). first centuries BCE).
Akrigg and his team provide information such as the weight, size and dimensions of each coin, the approximate date it was minted, the meaning of the markings and other relevant information about its use and significance in history from ancient Greece.
Although most of the updated information is housed in a database reserved for ROM’s internal use, there is a small database accessible to the general public.
“To some extent, we can trace changes in the economies, daily life and everyday uses of money in Greek cities by seeing what types of coins they are minted,” says Akrigg.
To update the database, the team first had to refer to the original ROM files – some of which were decades old – and use their research skills.
“My favorite thing was searching for ‘mystery rooms,'” says Anastasia Zabalueva, a Ph.D. student in the classics department.
“Some old printed images of parts had incorrect inventory numbers or had no number at all. So we had to identify the correct number so we could match the image and part page in the database. data.”
Zabalueva and her colleagues also searched binders and other source documents to ensure the descriptions were accurate, sometimes comparing and matching the descriptions with those in other international collections of ancient coins.
“We felt like we were detectives solving a mystery,” she says.
Most of the pieces are made of silver and all have been made by hand. First, a blank coin was heated to become softer and placed on a die containing the design on one side: the obverse or “heads” side. Then another die containing the design of the other side – the reverse or “tail” side – was placed on top and struck with a hammer, creating a two-sided coin with a single hit.
One group of coins the team is studying comes from ancient Athens, one of the first Greek cities to create its own currency in the mid-6th century BCE.
“If you look at Athenian coins, what is striking is that they are immediately recognizable as coins, monetary instruments like ours, and partly because, in many ways, they resemble coins that we have in our pocket,” says Akrigg.
On the “heads” side, many of these coins feature a profile image of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war and protector of the city. The other side of the coins features symbols associated with Athena such as an owl or an olive branch.
“The owl is a symbol of wisdom associated with the goddess, although owls also have other meanings,” Akrigg explains.
Later coins of the Seleucid Empire often placed rulers on the front of the coin, particularly Alexander the Great, with the image of a god such as Zeus or Apollo on the reverse, as well as a variety of creatures such as turtles, lions, elephants. .
“In the late 4th century BCE, some of Alexander’s successor kings put Alexander’s portrait on their coins, but after a while the kings said, ‘Wait, why don’t we highlight ? “, explains Akrigg. . “Coins thus became a means of asserting their own legitimacy as kings in their new kingdoms.”
For Zabalueva, the ROMkomma project is more than analyzing ancient objects and identifying whose face is on what. piece of money…it’s a journey through cultural history.
“Each kingdom depicted on their coins represents something very important to the community: it could be a god or goddess, an animal, a ruler, an abstract symbol,” she says.
“It is much more than just a means of exchange. It is a demonstration of local culture, history, power and state propaganda.”
This tradition remains relatively unchanged. Most Canadian coins feature a portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II on one side, and for our coins, a loon, quarter and nickel, respectively, a loon, a caribou and a beaver, on the opposite side.
Although ROMkomma is a massive project that will ultimately take years, Akrigg says he will always benefit from seeing the pieces first-hand.
“The pieces are mass produced, but because they are handcrafted, each one is unique,” he says. “Not two coins are exactly the same. These are unique little works of art. »
