One of my favorite joys is going to the library in the Museum of fine arts and reading (usually with the help of Google Translate) really really old books. One of which was “La science des medailles” written between 1600-1700. It talks about the science of medals (which are much like coins!)
Seeing how people wrote back then and what they where thinking about (without the internet) always impresses me!
> Plutarch tells us in Lysander 17 that, in early times, nails (ὀβελοί (obeloí)) were used as money, six of which made a handful (δραχμή (drakhmḗ)), and that the name was changed to ὀβολός (obolós).
In the (legendary) Spartan version of this, though, the currency was more cumbersome and deliberately less practically useful. You don't want people coveting money for its intrinsic utility — it's bad enough they'll covet it for its trade value! So the Spartan iron money was (allegedly) quenched in vinegar to ruin its intrinsic value.
One of my favorite joys is going to the library in the Museum of fine arts and reading (usually with the help of Google Translate) really really old books. One of which was “La science des medailles” written between 1600-1700. It talks about the science of medals (which are much like coins!)
Seeing how people wrote back then and what they where thinking about (without the internet) always impresses me!
https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/ces-pieces-i...
Here are some photos from it
https://share.icloud.com/photos/07banOauKpgh0wnSkLGK7dScg
Wiktionary:
> Plutarch tells us in Lysander 17 that, in early times, nails (ὀβελοί (obeloí)) were used as money, six of which made a handful (δραχμή (drakhmḗ)), and that the name was changed to ὀβολός (obolós).
In the (legendary) Spartan version of this, though, the currency was more cumbersome and deliberately less practically useful. You don't want people coveting money for its intrinsic utility — it's bad enough they'll covet it for its trade value! So the Spartan iron money was (allegedly) quenched in vinegar to ruin its intrinsic value.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelanor
It's unlikely that the legend corresponds to any ancient reality, though.
The Spartans, PR masters. https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/spartans-war-m...
Bret Devereaux has a great series of essays on nearly every aspect of Spartan society (https://acoup.blog/category/collections/this-isnt-sparta/) that's also worth the read.