Only a small quantity of the gold accumulated was used for coin, however, as Faucher (2018) asserts: “Whatever the calculations may be, studies show that the gold used for minting coins constituted only a small part of all the gold accumulated by the royal treasury.” And indeed as we will see from the text below, the Ptolemaic closed currency system fostered the absorption of foreign gold coinage for the minting of new Ptolemaic coins. Recent quantifications have estimated that the Ptolemies struck between 50 and 100 tons of gold. (Click the image to see more examples of this type.)
Hellenistic coinage series#
Pollin.įaucher has potentially identified two particular monetary series that may have substantially benefited from the new gold coming from these mines (Faucher 2018, 30), which allowed them to mint heavy gold coinage such as this example of a mnaeion of Arsinoe II in the Kelsey, weighing 27.75 grams. These describe their project and provide us with images and information on important archaeological contexts that allow us to understand the logistics of the mining industry, such as this stone mill used to grind ore. My copy should be arriving soon, but fortunately for us, they have also published several open-access articles (see bibliography, below). Just this past August, their excavation and project results were published in the volume Samut Nord: L’exploitation de l’or du désert Oriental à l’époque ptolémaïque. Their research is the most up-to-date published material on the subject (to my present knowledge), so I invite you to check their publications for further bibliography and details of their fascinating project. Well-known literary descriptions of the mines and the vast amount of gold available to the Ptolemies may be found in the works of Agatharchides of Cnidus, Diodorus, and Suetonius (Faucher 2018).Ī project in the Eastern Desert of Egypt led by Bérangère Redon and Thomas Faucher explored the Egyptian gold mining industry in the area during this highest period of exploitation. 128).Īs we will see from the papyrus discussion below, it is clear that the Ptolemies were absorbing metal and re-minting it as part of their closed currency system, but their need and use of gold bullion was large, which also fostered their exploitation of the Eastern Desert mines. This work is particularly important because it provides evidence for the absolute dating of two of the coinages, and more importantly, shows how Ptolemaic gold minting practice was not systematic or constant, but rather “a response by the royal authority to a particular historical context” (p. Perhaps the best introduction to understanding Ptolemaic gold coinage is Julien Olivier’s and Catharine Lorber’s 2013 article “Three Gold Coinages of Third Century Ptolemaic Egypt,” in which the authors present the results of die studies undertaken on three Ptolemaic gold coinages from Alexandria. After a hiatus in gold production while the Alexandrian mint was busy recoining tetradrachms, the production of gold coinage was resumed in 294 BCE, this time bearing for the first time the image and legend of Ptolemy as King, like the example below from the Kelsey (Lorber 2012, p. Gold staters were part of the earliest currencies of Hellenistic Egypt already in 323 BCE. In fact, the prominence of gold and bronze in the Ptolemaic currency system sets it apart from other Hellenistic kingdoms.
While there is evidence of its use since Predynastic times, its exploitation and the intensification of the industry reached a peak during the Ptolemaic period. Gold was always abundant in ancient Egypt. Abydos, Umm el-Qaab, Tomb of Khasekhemui. Child’s gold bracelet from Predynastic Egypt. Therefore, I decided to show a couple of our Ptolemaic gold coins along with a few historical, archaeological, and papyrological sources focused on Ptolemaic gold coinage. Thanks to “La Grand Mutation” ( see previous post) and the heightened role of bronze in the Ptolemaic monetary system, we have more Ptolemaic bronzes than silver and gold coinages in the Kelsey’s collection, and so I will probably be talking much more about Ptolemaic bronze in the future. We talked about how such a system allowed the Ptolemies to control the amount of precious metals in their economy, particularly silver, an element that does not occur naturally in the Egyptian territory, and the metal out of which the international currency of the time was made - the Attic silver standard (for a more detailed analysis on the implementation of a closed currency system by the Ptolemies, you can practice your French with de Callataÿ 2005 or read Lorber 2012).
Last post we talked a little bit about the closed currency system instituted by Ptolemy I in Egypt in the late 4th century BCE.
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