TCV Roundtable Blog

100 Greatest Ancient Coins Series: Athens Tetradrachm (Greece 440 BC)

A few entries ago in our series following along with Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest Ancient Coins, author Harlan J. Berk introduced us to a decadrachm from Athens. This time around, he has us zeroed in on tetradrachms approximately 20 years later. Let us look further at Berk’s theories surrounding these coins. Also, it is important to note that this top 100 list features coins from the earliest onward. This means that their rankings are out of order.

#10 – Athens Tetradrachm (Greece – 440BC)

Berk states right off the bat that author of The Temple Coins of Olympia, Charles Seltman, inaccurately stated that Athens began what they called the “Civic Mint” in 520 BC. It never existed, despite the sheer number of dies created during that period. Berk also claims that of the approximately 100 dies created, that only around 40 were of the “highly creative...read more