Electrum Coins

Some Notes on the Monetary Treaty Between Mytilene and Phokaia

Numismatists firmly believe that the first coins were made of electrum, a naturally-occuring alloy mostly of gold and silver, with traces of other metals. The first coins were associated with the kingdom of Lydia and the Greek cities of Ionia. Dating from about 650 BC, these electrum coins were eclipsed about 100 years later by coins of gold and coins of silver. However, electrum still circulated. As late as 345, Timoleon of Syracuse halted the use of electrum in order to strike coins in pure gold.

The principle source of electrum staters in archaic and classical times was Kyzikos, a colony of Miletos, on the southern shore of the Propontis, in Mysia. In Xenophone's Anabasis, the first mention of kyzikenes is in part VI of Book V. At that point in the tale, the Greeks have made their way to the Euxine and are balking at the last leg of the journey. Timasion from Dardania in Troas promises the men a kyzikene a month from the previous first of the month. He promised them kyzikenes because that was the currency near Kyzikos. All through the Anabasis, the Greeks are paid in darics because they were hired by a Persian.

When Aylattes (615-550) destroyed Smyrna, the focus of trade at that point along the Ionian coast shifted north 80 km to Phokaia. Of the 93 coins uncovered at the Artemision of Ephesos, 83 are "true" coins with an identifiable type on one side. Two of these are attributed to Phokaia because they show the head of a seal (phoke). The coins of Phokaia are perhaps 100 years antecedent to those of Mytilene.

Jenkins places Mytilene's first electrum at 500 BC. Sear's first listing is dated from 480. These are of a late archaic style. Like the staters of Magna Graeca, these coins have an intaglio reverse. Unlike those issues, however, the Mytilenes have a different image on the reverse and obverse. This early method was abandoned a generation later.

Head writing at the start of the 1900s and Sear writing in the 1970s both date the classical sixths of Mytilene from 450 to 350 BC. This is a very long series. The weight is consistent. The fabric is consistent. But there are very many types. Sear asserts in Greek Coins and their Values, that the coinage of 428 BC may have been necessitated by the Lesbian revolt from Athens. In any case, in 400 BC, Phokaia and Mytilene entered into a treaty to produce a common series of sixth-staters.

Bodenstedt places the date of the treaty at BCE 400 and perhaps at 394, following the defeat of Sparta's fleet off Knidos. It is possible, however, that this treaty merely formalized a tradition of co-equal coinages going back all the way to the fall of Polykrates in 521. That the treaty allows for additions and erasures supports numismatic evidence that Phokaia and Mytilene long before agreed at least ad hoc on a common coinage in line with the Kyzikene gold stater.

The electrum was 55.5% gold in archaic Phokaia (600-522). In the early classical period (521-478), it fell to about 46% in Phokaia and about 43% in Mytilene. From 477 to 326, it remained at about 40% to 41% in both towns. Note that these are statistical ranges. Overall, these coins are very consistent.

It is most likely that any wrong-doing on the part of the moneyer would be discovered indirectly. If he and the gold disappeared, for instance, or if he gave evidence of new wealth, perhaps. Until Archimedes watched the bath overflow about 250 BC, there was no scientific method for assaying an alloy. If assaying were possible, the hektai would have been made to even closer tolerances.

One reason for the consistency of composition is that the treaty provided death as the penalty for anyone who debased the metal of the coins. The death penalty was always in place for mint officials who cheated the state. However, the exact nuance here is important. John Wickersham and Gerald Verbrugghe give this translation for the opening lines: ". . . whatever both cities . . . write on the stele or erase, it shall be valid. Anyone who debases the gold shall be subject to prosecution in both cities." That death was the punishment for debasement is clear. Actually, this is provided later on the stone and not in the place indicated by this translation. I believe that the word KERNAN means only "to make" or "to mix" and not "to dilute" or "to debase."

The second time the root word "KERN" appears in the stone, it refers to the make-up of the juries. We might believe that gold would be "debased" by silver, but we cannot expect that the courts of Mytilene would be "debased" by the presence of native-blooded Mytilene jurors.

The treaty was first published by Charles T. Newton in Transactions of the Royal Literary Society, VIII in 1866. Newton discovered the treaty in a home on the site of the ancient Mytilene acropolis while serving as the British Vice Counsel. The stone was left at a school and at some point disappeared until is was rediscovered in 1939.

Bibliography

Bodenstedt, Friedrich. Elektronmuenze von Phokaia und Mytilene (Tuebingen: Verlag Ernst Wasmuth, 1981). Gives Erasmian Greek and German translation. (One typo in line 3 caused by a misreading of the imaginary Alexadrian/Erasmian diacritical marks.)

Tod, Marcus Niebuhr. A selection of Greek historical inscriptions. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951) Gives Erasmian Greek and an English commentary that (1) highlights the terms of the treaty and (2) focuses on the dialect and restoration of certain constructions.

Wickersham, John, and Verbrugghe, Gerald. Greek Historical Documents: The Fourth Century. (Toronto: Hakkert, 1973) Provides an English translation only.

Hicks, Edward Lee, and Hill, G. F. Historical Greek Inscriptions. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901).

Healy, J. F. "Notes on the Monetary Union Between Mytilene and Phokaia," (London: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, LXXVII, 1957.)