Pages: 159-184

The variety of the most ancient coin-weight systems of Ecumene can be explained by various parities of gold and silver in natural and artificial electrum. These parities in monetary face values were accounted by means of small standard fractions of the most ancient weight systems of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. This ensured metrological unity of all earliest coin-weight systems of Ecumene. Coin-weight systems of silver were adjusted to electrum coins in two ways: either by coordination with the total cost of such equivalent, or by taking the weight of silver of this equivalent as a basis. Further changes in ratios of precious metals in electrum coins of Cyzicus and changes in these metals`ratio caused changes in coin-weight systems of silver. Such changes are demonstrated on the example of coinage in Bosporan Kingdom. The proposed methodology of development of the earliest coin-weight systems can be used for calculations and corrections on many minting centres of antiquity.

Keywords: development of coinage and weight systems, electrum alloy in cyzicines, Miletus system, Phocaean system, Samos system, Aeginetan system

Information about author:

Oleg Melnikov (Nikolaev, Ukraine).
E-mail: [email protected]