Athenian Mines, Coins and Triremes

Abstract

A state-owned trireme navy began to be formed in Athens by the tyrant Hippias c. 515 and pay was increasingly required in coin for the crews. At about this time silver from the Laurion mines began to be used in small quantities in the early Athenian coinage, the Wappenmünzen, of which the last type, the ‘gorgoneion’, may have originally been intended for the expenses of the fleet. The first Athenian ‘owls’ appeared after the fall of Hippias in 510, as a product of democratic Athens.

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