Hill, George Francis: A handbook of Greek and Roman coins (London: Macmillan, 1899)

36 GREEK AND ROMAN COINS [bk. i
almost equal probability from the second full form of the royal
norm. The stater in question implies a mina of 630 g. This is
Ή of the light Babylonian silver mina, f-f- of the light weight
mina of this norm.
Whatever may have been the origin of the Aeginetic standard,
its spread was, with the course of trade, towards the West.
There are sporadic cases of its use as far east as Mallus and
Celenderis in Cilicia, and Cyprus, but these are quite excep-
tional ; it prevails largely, though not exclusively, in the Aegean
islands. We find it also in Crete ; and as far north as the
western coast of the Euxine. But its chief home is on the
Greek mainland, from Thessaly downwards, and in the Ionian
islands (if the Corcyrean standard is a light form of the
Aeginetic); Aegina itself counts as part of the mainland in
this respect. Through the field occupied by the Aeginetic
standard, the Euboic-Attic-Corinthian standard (to be de-
scribed below) forced its way like a wedge, reaching across
towards Italy and Sicily. The Aeginetic standard passed to
Italy and Sicily with the earliest Chalcidian colonies, showing-
how great was the Aeginetic trade in this direction ; for
Chalcidian colonies, one would expect, would have used the
standard of their mother- country
The Euboic-Attic standard (stater of S yag., mina of 436-6 g.)
has generally been explained as derived from the Babylonian
royal gold standard (stater of 8-42 g., mina of 421 g.). This
derivation is open to the objections that a gold standard would
be thus transferred to silver, and at the same time raised by
a small amount2. Lehmann’s suggestion 3 is again more plau-
1 If, however, we accept the theory of Imhoof-BIumer, that the silver
coins of Naxos, Zancle, Himera, and Rhegium were thirds and eighteenths
of the Euboic-Attic tetradrachm (and this seems on the whole most
probable), it is still noteworthy that these curious denominations must
have been chosen because they fitted in with the Aeginetic standard.
Mr. A. J. Evans notes (Num. Chron. 1898, p. 321) that the coins weighing
about -90 g. struck at these cities have no obvious relation to any but the
Aeginetic system, of which they are obols ; on the other hand, what
appear to be Euboic-Attic obols were commonly struck at Zancle and Naxos.
In any case, therefore, the system was a dual one.
2 A principle to be observed in the explanation of standards is that
when two standards resemble each other so closely, the resemblance
may be due as well to coincidence as to relation. It should, however,
be noted that this standard was actually used for electrum ; see below,
p. 38.
3 Hermes, 1892, p. 549, note 1.