A Hoard of Archaic Coins of Colophon and Unminted Silver (CH I.3)

This hoard of the later 6th century BC consists of 903 minute silver coins in essentially two denominations, and 77 pieces of unminted silver, over half of which are small, unweighed disks apparently made for monetary exchange. The coins are the earliest coins of Colophon, and the circumstance that they are smaller than all but three of the pieces of unminted silver suggests that when the hoard was buried the Colophonians were employing what might be termed a bi-specie monetary system: small coins for very low level transactions, and bullion weighed on the balance for transactions involving more substantial sums.