History of numismatic

Numismatics (from the Greek word nòmisma) is the science of the study and description of coins from a historical, artistic and economic point of view. Through its coins, numismatics is like a history book of the world and of humanity. These small metallic discs are not only a means of exchange, but also expressions of art, of civilization and of the progress of peoples.

The earliest forms of coinage appear in the seventh century B.C., but the invention of this medium of exchange did not take place anywhere overnight, nor was it conceived by a single genius. Instead, the social function of coins was developed and perfected over many generations, much like navigation and writing.

Prior to the invention of coins, which in time became established as the main instrument of commerce, there had been other forms of exchange, forms as old as human history itself. These forms evolved in the following way:

- the simple exchange of one kind of merchandise for another (barter system);

- the choice of the most sought after and abundant product on the market;

- in a later period,  a preference for materials that had the greatest advantages, on the basis of their intrinsic value, homogeneous composition, durability, possible applications and general utility, in short, metals

Figurative monuments and literary sources prove that none of the peoples in their primitive phase of existence could avoid this natural law, neither the peoples of Egypt, Assyria or Chaldea, nor the peoples of the Tigris and Euphrates.

Among the metals most frequently selected as currency were gold, electrum and silver. Around 4000 B.C., the Sumerians, the ancient people of Mesopotamia, were the first to develop an infinite series of numbers and to set values for different metals independent of their relationship to other goods. Because the Sumerians believed that gold was sacred to the sun god as silver was to the moon god, they were able to calculate the values of these metals on the basis of the observed revolutions of the sun in relation to the moon at a ratio of 1:13, which corresponds to the time differential between the solar year and lunar months. They adopted this as the basis of their evaluations. This ratio of 1:13, which was established solely on the basis of astrological and mythological beliefs, remained unchanged and was later adopted by the ancient Greeks and the Romans, and throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance up to our own days or, more precisely, until 1971, when the Bretton Woods Agreements collapsed following the suspension of convertibility from US dollars to gold.

At first, these precious metals were exchanged on the basis of their weight, with a scale. The metals were broken into fragments or torn into pieces according to local units of measurement. Such a practice clearly reveals the seeds of the sense of accountability and competition that marked the final phase, a true and proper currency, a state currency, and a state monopoly which has remained intact up to this day.

Priests were responsible for handling precious metals as part of their duties in overseeing both the economy in general and individual transactions, which took place in front of temples. During disputes that inevitably emerged, priests also acted as arbiters, earning the trust of both the people and their rulers. The alliance between temporal and priestly power was consolidated in the management of money. As a consequence, money was stored in the temple and preserved its sacred nature. Even though it expressed temporal sovereignty, it came from the temple treasury and returned to the gods to be converted.

When we speak of the invention of money, we are talking specifically about a kind of innovation through which the state, at a certain point in time, monopolized its issuance. Everything leads to believe that an innovation of the kind took place in the Mediterranean basin between the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. During the reigns of the kings of Lydia, and particularly during the reign of Croesus, the first metallic disks appeared in varying size, bearing the king’s seal. Almost immediately but not simultaneously, coins began to be used in the major Greek cities on the shores of the Aegean Sea. Thereafter, coins quickly began to appear in the more important commercial centres, a phenomenon matched only by other great human inventions in history. At the same time of the appearance of coins, an important social change took place. Commercial activity as an occupation grew more intensely alongside traditional agriculture and stock-breeding, resulting in a gradual move towards settlements, which later evolved into new cities. Money thus lost its sacred character and, after about a half century from its invention, it began to circulate among people and to spread to all the great civilizations through the centuries.

Numismatic studies give us the opportunity to document and understand human history even in the absence of written texts, through the effigies, images, brief inscriptions and symbols, which characterized human evolution and are the foundation of our modern civilization.

Today’s decimalized and rationalized national monetary systems, along with the globalization of a number of large world markets (such as in Western Europe) and the introduction of the Euro denote a further expansion of economies linked, no longer to individual nations, but to an economic and financial superstructure in which the epicentre is no longer political or legal in nature, but economic and financial.

As the expression goes, "there is nothing new under the sun"  -- from the time of alliances (including monetary alliances) thousands of years ago, to the relatively recent experiences of the Latin Monetary Union (the second half of the 19th century), which collapsed during the wars that marred this particular historical period.