Greek Gold Coins

Electrum coin from Lydia
early 6th century


60 Litrae, Siracuse
317-310 BC

Ancient Greek coins are considered to be the first coins in the world (no counting China and India where the coins were invented independently). The first Greek coins appeared to be minted in Lydia (which is currently Turkey) and spread through all numerous free cities of the Ancient Greece.

There're are three definite periods that can describe the history of Ancient Greek coinage (as well as most of the ancient Greek arts) and they are: the Archaic, the Classical, and the Hellenistic. The Archaic period lasted from 600 BC until the Persian Wars in about 480 BC. The classic was until 330 BC, when the Alexander the Great started his conquests, and the Hellenistic period lasted until the Ancient Greece was absorbed by the Roman empire in around 100 BC.

The first Greek coins were mostly struck from electrum, a natural alloy of gold (~55%), silver (~45%), and a bit of copper (~1-2%) and either had very basic designs or no designs at all. The first Greek gold coins were introduced during the reign of King Croesus in Sardis (561-547 BC), showing a lion or a lion and a bull on one side and still having nothing on the other. Early coins were very crude and weren't very round or even flat, they didn't have any standards and had quite approximate values. Later with the coining techniques improved, the coins were standardized to be flat round object and most commonly had a patron god of the city that produced the coin. There were at least 100 independent cities in the Ancient Greece and they all were minting their own coins.

The first denomination used at that time is believed to be a drachma, which was originally a silver coin. Later, in the Classic period, the coins started to be more sophisticated and gold drachmas started to be minted by free cities of the Ancient Greece. Those Greek gold coins had already both sides, reverse and obverse, and usually had a patron deity on one side and a coat of arms of the city where the coin was minted on the other. The other two denominations of Greek gold coins of that time were a Litrae, which was roughly an equivalent of 1/50 of drachma, and an Obol, which was a fractional denomination of a drachma as well.

You can see current listings for Ancient Greek Gold Coins below:
And you can find more information about Ancient Greek Gold Coins after the current listings (scroll down).

Here is more information about Ancient Greek Gold Coins:

Gold Obol, Tarentum
334-330 BC


Gold Stater, Philipp II
349-336 BC

The Hellenistic period can be characterized by spreading Greek coins throughout most of the know world of that time and introducing a new concept in the art of minting coins. The new idea was using portraits of living people (mainly kings and rulers) on the coins. The idea was rejected by the most of the Greek cities as they thought it would give too much pride to a single person and don't forget, with all kings and rulers, they still had democracy in the Ancient Greece. But some Greek territories in Egypt and Minor Asia didn't feel this way and produced interesting and beautiful gold coins featuring their kings and their names. A very popular Greek gold coin of that period was a Stater, which was struck in many Greek cities and colonies and the same denomination was used widely in the Roman and Byzantine empires later. It is probably one of the most popular a ncient gold coins available for modern collectors.

The best Greek gold coins are of course in museums and in private collections and they are not very easy to come by. But with recent discoveries of hordes of Greek and other ancient coins in Europe, there's always a chance that something can get to online auctions and be available for ordinary coin collectors.