modern about the use of quantities of heavy metal as a medium of
exchange. One of the most distinctive features of classical economies is
the high social and economic value accorded to metals, whether coined
or accumulated in other forms, notably as plate.
Another distinctive feature is the circulation of base and precious metals
in numerous small denominations. Until recently, the very smallest copper
alloy and silver coins were rarely discovered, because of their exiguous
dimensions. The discovery of a large hoard of tiny silver coins from the
vicinity of ancient Kolophon in Ionia (902 quarter and half obols, plus one
obol), together with 77 pieces of worked and unworked silver metal, has
done a great deal to change perceptions of how coined money was actually
used. Such silver issues can be matched by similar small denominations of
copper alloy coins from recent excavations, where dry sieving andflotation
is regularly practised, as well as metal detecting. Such tiny copper alloy
coins have been recovered from the Thracianemporionat Vetren, Bulgaria
(ancient Pistiros) (Fig. 3.1).^42
These tiny coins may have been discontinued once Roman-sponsored
issues replaced these particular Greek denominations during the second
half of the second centurybc. There were two phases within this transi-
tion. Thefirst began some time after the reopening of the Macedonian
mines in 158bc, (following their closure in 167), and the issuing of new
denominations, with different face types from those of the defeated Mace-
donian monarch, Perseus. Bronze coins began to be issued under the
authority of Roman administrators. The second phase is marked by a
series of silver tetradrachms, showing a portrait head of Alexander the
Great, and on the reverse the club of Herakles, together with the names of
Roman magistrates, particularly Q. Braetius Sura and a man known only
from this coin series as Aesillas.^43 The wide circulation of these issues,
along with the‘New Style’large denominations of Thasos and Maroneia
(which shadow the Athenian issues of this new form), is symptomatic
of the wider economic changes that were affecting the whole east Balkan
region. It is perhaps ironic that the whole area was more closely integrated,
from an economic perspective, in this very period, than at any time
before or afterwards, until the Ottoman era. The gradual replacement of
Greek coins by Roman ones marks the economic transition from the
forms explored in this book to the new economic order driven by
Roman taxation. The most visible expression of this transformation is
articulated in the regulations set out in the Tax Law of Asia, preserved in
(^42) Kim and Kroll 2008 (Kolophon hoard); the copper alloy fractional money comes from
the British excavation trenches at Vetren (unpublished; see Archibald forthcoming 2015).
(^43) Touratsoglou 1993; Bauslaugh 2000; de Callataÿ 1997b; Dahmen 2010, 54–6, 59– 61
with discussion.
Societies and economies 101