During the Classical Period (c. 500 BCE to 326 BCE) there were approximately 2,000 of Greek states, most of which issued their own unique coinage. Sparta alone resisted the fashion, preferring to use iron, doused in vinegar, and cast into ingots. These were called pelanor, and were virtually valueless as the vinegar made the lead too brittle to be useful when melted down. This, apparently, discouraged the accumulation of wealth, which the rigid Spartans associated with soft living!
Coin designs varied across the region, with every state favouring its own gods, goddesses, rulers, animals, and legendary figures. The result are coins in which the everyday stands alongside the magical and the mysterious, from bulls and bees, to the Pegasus and mythic mazes (Cnossus).
Thanks to the mines of Laurion, which…