Since the Renaissance, people have been collecting coins from ancient times. Started in the mid-18th century, the coin collection of the Imperial Academy of Turku gave Finns the first opportunity to see authentic antiquities, whereas previously they could only be seen in books. Most of the coins in the collection were donated by private individuals. Before the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, the Imperial Academy owned more than 2,000 ancient coins, and more than 1,600 were still left after the fire. However, most of these are copper coins; only 16 Greek and 181 Roman silver coins were recorded among the coins found in the ruins.

After the fire, the collection was moved to Helsinki with the university. In the 19th century, the collection was also largely increased by donations. The donors included numerous soldiers and several sea captains. A hundred years ago, museums still typically arranged their coin collections in a systematic order, often losing the information about the origins in the process. The ancient Greek silver coins presented here all come from the collections of the University of Helsinki, but it is no longer possible to say exactly in which year and from whom a particular coin was received.

Coins struck by ancient Greek cities often followed the same themes. The front face usually featured a god or hero who had a special connection to the city through its mythical history. On the back face, there was an animal or symbol associated with the god, but sometimes also a play on words relating to the name of the city or something the city was known for. Coins struck by rulers include gods, heroes or other symbols relevant to the ruler in question and, in some cases, the ruler’s own portrait. Sometimes, the successors of important kings used the symbols of these kings instead of their own to make a visible connection with their predecessor, especially if there was doubt about the transfer of power.

In ancient Greece, there were several different monetary systems, three of which were more widely used. The use of monetary systems was often influenced by alliances between city-states. The Attic system was based on the Athenian silver drachma, which weighed 4.3 g. The Corinthian system, on the other hand, was based on the silver stater, which weighed 8.6 g and was divided into three drachmas weighing 2.9 g each. The third system was Aegean and was based on the didrachma, which weighed 12.2 g, i.e. as much as two drachmas of 6.1 g. The obol was a smaller unit of currency, weighing about 0.7 g, and six obols made a drachma. The diobol was worth two obols, the tetradrachm was worth four drachmas, etc.

The exact dating of coins is often difficult, since they do not contain years and rarely bear names known from other sources.

This selection was curated by trainee Ilona Hautamaa in spring 2021.