Ancient Coins: What About Spartan Coins?

One of my favorite joys is going to the library in the Museum of fine arts and reading (usually with the help of Google Translate) really really old books. One of which was “La science des medailles” written between 1600-1700. It talks about the science of medals (which are much like coins!)

Seeing how people wrote back then and what they where thinking about (without the internet) always impresses me!

https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/ces-pieces-i...

Here are some photos from it

https://share.icloud.com/photos/07banOauKpgh0wnSkLGK7dScg

Wiktionary:

> Plutarch tells us in Lysander 17 that, in early times, nails (ὀβελοί (obeloí)) were used as money, six of which made a handful (δραχμή (drakhmḗ)), and that the name was changed to ὀβολός (obolós).

In the (legendary) Spartan version of this, though, the currency was more cumbersome and deliberately less practically useful. You don't want people coveting money for its intrinsic utility — it's bad enough they'll covet it for its trade value! So the Spartan iron money was (allegedly) quenched in vinegar to ruin its intrinsic value.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelanor

It's unlikely that the legend corresponds to any ancient reality, though.