ABSTRACT
The invention of coin-shaped currency at the end of the seventh century BC in the area of Lydia and Ionia may be regarded as the culmination of a millennium's experience of trade. Each city-state, as an independent political unit, attempted — especially when it succeeded in acquiring certain power — to impose its own currency policy through seeking, frequently by legislation, to dictate the use of its own coinage for commercial exchanges. Tetradrachms and drachms on the Attic standard became the 'common currency' of the Hellenistic period, flooded markets and spread out to the far reaches of the East — from Phoenicia to present day Afghanistan. During the long history of numismatics from antiquity to modern times there were, on certain occasions, several attempts by various cities and states to form federations and alliances — usually of regional character and influence — with common goals, common institutions, common political agendas and common coinage.
