The Trade Coinage of Aegina
ISLANDS off ATTICA, Aegina. Circa 550-530/25 BC. AR STater (20mm, 12.31 g). Sea turtle, head in profile, with thick collar and row of dots down its back / Deep incuse square of proto-“Union Jack” pattern with eight incuse segments. Meadows,
Aegina, Group Ib; Milbank Period I; HGC 6, 425; SNG Copenhagen –; Dewing 1654; Gillet –; Jameson 1198; Pozzi 1618. Near EF, lightly toned, insignificant die break in field on obverse. Well centered and struck on a broad flan. Exceptional for issue.
From the JP Collection, purchased from Platt, January 1986.
The island of Aegina, situated off the coast of Athens, has a rocky terrain, and the lack of good agricultural land compelled the early Aeginetans to seek their living from the sea. They became exceptional maritime merchants, and it is appropriate that the record for the most profitable voyage was held by an Aegenitan (Herodotus. IV. 152). In the early sixth century BC, Aegina was the central staging depot for Black Sea grain on its way to the Peloponnesos, and by the mid-sixth century, Aegina had obtained important grain concessions at Naucratis in Egypt. During the course of their travels, Aeginetan merchants were exposed to the coinage of Asia Minor, naturally leading to its introduction at Aegina.
The first coins produced on the island of Aegina were struck sometime in the mid-sixth century, depicting a turtle (emblematic of the marine interests of the Aeginetans) on the obverse, while bearing on the reverse the imprint of the punch used to force metal into the obverse die. Silver from the island of Siphnos is the most likely source for Aegina’s early coinage, and the fact that these coins have been found in hoards buried as long as two centuries later is testament to the mint’s prolific output. The Aeginetan chelones (turtles) had a Mediterranean-wide circulation in the mid-sixth century making them Europe’s first and most important trade coins until they were finally displaced by the owls from neighboring Athens during the 5th century.
The reverse punch originally consisted of an eight-pronged design that produced eight triangles on the reverse. With use the prongs broke and clogged, producing filled and absent incuses. This lead to the adoption first of a “mill sail” pattern around, followed by the development of a “skew” pattern. The obverse design was also modified by the addition of a row of dots added at the collar from the earlier collared turtle design with a single row of dots down its shell, hence the name “T-back.”
The production of turtles decreased over the next twenty years as silver from the island of Siphnos was no longer available and Mediterranean trade was now dominated by Athens, the new mistress of the Aegean. The two neighbors were constant rivals and the Athenians even referred to Aegina as “the eyesore of the Piraeus.” In 457 BC, Athens conquered Aegina and stripped her of her maritime powers.
The loss of Aegina’s sea power probably occasioned the replacement of the maritime turtle with the terrestrial tortoise as the emblem of the city and it was also at this time that she formed the reverse “skew” pattern in a more rectangular incuse punch. Subsequently in 431 BC, the Aeginetans were expelled from their homeland by the Athenians, only returning after the conclusion of the Peloponnesian war.
