splittrumpetmodern

Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold

The invention of coinage in ancient Greece provided an arena in which rival political groups struggled to imprint their views on the world. Here Leslie Kurke analyzes the ideological functions of Greek coinage as one of a number of symbolic practices that arise for the first time in the archaic period. By linking the imagery of metals and coinage to stories about oracles, prostitutes, Eastern tyrants, counterfeiting, retail trade, and games, she traces the rising egalitarian ideology of the polis, as well as the ongoing resistance of an elitist tradition to that development. The argument thus aims to contribute to a Greek "history of ideologies," to chart the ways ideological contestation works through concrete discourses and practices long before the emergence of explicit political theory.
To an elitist sensibility, the use of almost pure silver stamped with the state's emblem was a suspicious alternative to the para-political order of gift exchange. It ultimately represented the undesirable encroachment of the public sphere of the egalitarian polis. Kurke re-creates a "language of metals" by analyzing the stories and practices associated with coinage in texts ranging from Herodotus and archaic poetry to Aristotle and Attic inscriptions. She shows that a wide variety of imagery and terms fall into two opposing symbolic domains: the city, representing egalitarian order, and the elite symposium, a kind of anti-city. Exploring the tensions between these domains, Kurke excavates a neglected portion of the Greek cultural "imaginary" in all its specificity and strangeness.

Mintage: 21,335

I generally don’t buy this date unless I see a specific coin that is outstanding; this coin is, in a word, outstanding. It is semi-prooflike with splendid rich natural straw-gold color. A few light scuffs in the fields remove this coin from an MS63 grade but it is far nicer than usual for the grade and pretty comparable to some of the 1888-O eagles that I have seen in 63 holders.

As a date, the 1888-O is only moderately scarce in MS62.

Two weeks ago I bought something with a $5 bill from a vending machine and got two Andrew Jackson dollars back. I didn't know they were gold-ish. It reminded me of 2000, when I went to Origins, a big gaming convention. A friend of mine had a great idea to bring a bag full of the gold Sacagewea coins to spend as Gold Pieces. I thought that was so great I bought half his coins from him so I could take part. Being a dork is pretty fun.