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Hacksilber to Coinage: New Insights into the Monetary History

Balmuth, Miriam S.

Ancient Near Eastern hoards of randomly shaped silver pieces, generically called Hacksilber, have come increasingly to be interpreted as hoards of pre-coinage currency. These papers present new insights into the circulation and use of these hoards, drawing on new scientific and documentary analyses. The authors explore the important question of how roughly hacked material gradually evolved into pre-weighed and stamped coinage; the foundation of all modern monetary systems. Contents: The silver hoard from Tel Dor (Ephraim Stern); The Tel Mique-Ekron silver hoards: The Assyrian and Phoenician connections (Seymour Gitin and Amir Golani); The Silver Trail: response to the papers of Ephraim Stern and Seymour Gitlin (William G Dever); The impact on the natural sciences of Hacksilber and early silver coinage (Zofia A Stos-Gale); The conceptual prehistory of money and its impact on the Greek economy (David M Schaps); Observations on monetary instruments in pre-coinage Greece (John H Kroll); Analyzing and interpreting the metallurgy of early electrum coins (Paul T Keyser and David D Clark); Remarks on the value and standards of early electrum coins (Robert Wallace). 136p, 32 b/w pls & figs (American Numismatic Society, Numismatic Studies No. 24, 2001)

Review Quote

"Miriam Balmuth has put together an extremely interesting collection of essays in this beautifully produced volume that will be of interest to a diverse body of scholars with numismatic, metallurgical, archaeological, historical, and philological interests. There is much food for thought in this volume, and not a little controversy."

D T Potts
American Journal of Archaeology 107 (2003)

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