What Do You Consider As Ancient, And What Are The Oldest...

I consider ancient coinage to end when Anastasius reformed Roman currency into unquestionably Byzantine denominations. Byzantine coins are still kind of ancient, but thats where id draw the line.

My oldest coin is a bee from Ephesus, from roughly 400-288BC.

The oldest coins are from Lydia as shown, but older forms of money exist from thousands and thousands of years ago. We'll discount bartering systems (trading cattle or standard objects like bars of bronze) and go for things that are purely monetary in nature - they have no purpose except to facilitate commerce (though it should be noted that these wont be fiat money - the object traded will be of value and the value should be extractable, e.g. of good bronze - an exception is cowry shells). The Chinese had all sorts of ingots and knives which were used in place of money, but I havent researched it enough to tell you more than that.

From a western perspective, I'd say until about the end of the (western) Roman Empire for me personally. The line is somewhat artificial, but I'd say I'd say early Medieval coins such as Merovingian sceattas are already definitely medieval. So perhaps from the moment Odovacer deposed Romulus, coins are no longer 'ancient'. But definitely from the 6th century onward.

The problems with definitions start when you don't focus on the western Roman Empire, seeing as the Byzantine empire was of course directly continuous. The problem (if it is indeed a problem) becomes even more pronounced when you start talking about non-European coins. Perhaps the term ancient should be avoided altogether among collectors.

In the end; what's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, whether named late-Roman Valentinian or ancient (for example).

Exactly where you draw the line between "ancient" and "mediaeval" is, as others have said, somewhat arbitrary since there is no universally accepted definition of the word. Western Historians often pick the date 476, being the end of the Western Empire. Many coin collectors prefer 498, being the coinage reform of Anastasius. Collectors of Islamic, Chinese and other non-Western coins generally avoid using such terms or redefine them for their own situation. Personally, I use 500 AD, being a nice round number and near enough to 498 to be identical for the purpose.

As for the "oldest coins", it does in part depend on your definition of "coin". If your definition includes "precious metal", "stamped" and "roughly round in shape", then yes, the standard answer given on the above-linked webpage that the Lydian Greeks invented coinage sometime around 620 BC is correct. If, on the other hand, you're prepared to generalize your definition such that a coin is "a metallic object made specifically for use as money", then the Chinese win, with their knife-money (c. 685 BC) and spade-money (c. 1200 to 700 BC). They even made bronze replicas of the cowry shells that they also used for money (c. 900 BC), which are just as "coin-like" as the earliest Lydian coins.

Finally, my oldest: it's not much to look at, a 1/12th stater from Miletus, circa 500 BC.

@Sap Yeah the Chinese were using currency alot earlier than any other records. Tangent-I read somewhere they used paper money hundreds of years earlier than the west but stopped using due to inflation. (Decided to find a link about it):- http://content.time.com/time/specia...4593,00.html

Very nice coin, over 2 1/2 millenniums old amazing! Great condition also.

:O Ancientnoob, wow I can't get over how old that is. Just imagine the people who used it, and what they bought with it. Great share, and thank-you for the reply. I only have two man made items dating back around that time or later, but not currency.

Interesting, you see I never would of looked at it quite that way. But now I can see what you're saying, this was an interesting choice of topics. Thank-you for replying :).

"And Michael that latter part was very philosophical, interesting perception :)."

Thanks - but it was not really meant to be philosphical. I was just misquoting a bit of Shakespeare. That said; I used that sentence many times before during my studies when people would debate terminology rather than matter.

My attica owl is circa 415 BC, I also have an olbian dolphin which is between 300-500 BC.





My favourite coin which I drag out at every opportunity!