Five Books about Books

In the Library of Congress catalog system, books about books are under Z: Bibliography, Library Science, and General Information Resources. That large umbrella covers the history of books and therefore typesetting and the craft of making the media of writing and reading.

Notes from a Public Typewriter edited by Michael Gustafson and Oliver Uberti. Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group), 2018. (UT Library Z 49 N68 2018 MAIN)

Michael and Hilary Gustafson own the Literati bookstore in Ann Arbor. Shortly after they opened in 2013, they provided their customers with a mechanical typewriter for leaving thoughts or often only words, alone or in a string. 

Google Maps view.
124 East Washington Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

At first, the machine was only a display. The impetus for active use came from the first customer who asked for paper. Makes and models changed. I found the logos for Rheinmetall, Royal, and Olympia; they probably had others. One note asked, “Where is the power button?” 

Whimsical or deep, fleeting or deserving of stone, the random writings of these literati provided Laurel and me occasional minutes away from work, sitting on the living room couch. For myself, given the social context of a typewriter in a bookstore on the main street of a university town, the marriage proposals (and rejections) gave me the most to consider.

500 Years of Printing  by Frederick G. Melcher, et al. American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1940; 31 pages (6-³/₁₆ x 9-⅛). (UT Library Z 127 C5 P9 LIB SCH)

Towns across America and around the world celebrated the 500th anniversary of Gutenberg’s press. This book acknowledged the war that America was not yet formally engaged in: 

“It will often be said, especially in this year of international turmoil, that printing, like all inventions, has great power for evil as well as for good, that false ideas can be as successfully disseminated as sound ones, that disrupting propaganda can be readily put in print as constructive programs, that oppressors can as easily use the press as liberators. This has been true in all of the five centuries since printing began, yet the gains have far outweighed the harm and will continue to do so. Literacy has been extended, libraries established for the free use of books, book ownership has been made more universal and the machinery of book distribution has been bettered.” 

The eight essays deliver richly detailed history about publishing in our America. However, the first three set a foundation with the fifteenth century and Gutenberg before revealing the surviving works of the printing press in Mexico 1539. In the British colonies of North America, newspapers were preferred. After independence many more books were produced; as a consequence of both, machines evolved rapidly.

Books & Readers in Ancient Greece & Rome by Frederick G. Kenyon. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1932. (Z 112 K38 1932 MAIN). Kenyon was the Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum. This book draws on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (from c. BCE 100 to CE 200), and other finds discovered only the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One trove came from a home in Herculaneum (79 CE). Much here is from inferences for which the earlier empirical evidence quickly becomes scanty. We know more from allusions to books in books than to actual copies. A nice touch here (and admittedly a problem) is that the quotations in Latin and Greek are not translated. 

In our common culture, proclamations on scrolls are read 

from top to bottom. In fact, a typical papyrus scroll was held 

horizontally fed from the right and unrolled to the left, two 

columns on a page (reading left to right), two pages to a sheet, 

each line about 20 characters. 

This book was intended for an American audience. All high schools taught Latin and many offered Greek. For myself, it was possible to glean a lot from cognates in Latin, though fewer popped up in Greek. I was surprised at how well I could sound out the Greek miniscules. I seem to have learned my letters over the years.

Heidi Kasa reading from
The Beginners at 
Anna's Antiques.

I had to pause at Kenyon’s prejudices. We each have our own. About the library room unearthed at a home in Herculaneum, Kenyon gives reasons for suspecting that the owner was Philodemus, an Epicurean philosopher. “It is only to be regretted that the owner was not a collector of works of poetry or history, instead of a philosopher.” 

Kenyon also dislikes public performances. Authors recited in public spaces and they also rented private homes for the purpose. “It was not a healthy phase for literature, since it encouraged compositions which lent themselves to rhetorical declamation; and one may doubt whether it did any service to the circulation of books.” 

As the curator of an endowed institution, Kenyon had no feel for the paths by which words find paper and together they find readers. 

Hungarian Pioneers of Printing Arts: Mechanization of Setting by Dr. Peter Szöke. Hungarian Central Technical Library and Documentation Center, 1972. (UT Library Z 134 H9 V351 LIB SCH). Although culturally an island, Hungary benefited from the industrial revolution and independent inventors patented their solutions to the problems of typesetting. The machines here are similar to others that are known.

Literary Machines by Theodor Holm Nelson.Project Xanadu. 1980 - 1987.  (UT Library Z 52.4 N46 1987B C.2 MAIN). Ted Nelson was an early advocate and promoter of small computers. Literary Machines continued and extended the ideas presented in his oversize coffee table essay Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974) which advocated for the popularization and democratization of computers via microcomputers (and terminals to mainframes). The extensively unstructured delivery of Literary Machines focused (for lack of a better word) on hypertext. Nelson called it that back in 1965. Today, we expect to be able to link information: data and metadata; Github and Get Info. 

• Computer Lib/Dream Machine is available on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/computer-lib-dream-machines and 
• Literary Machines is readable here: https://archive.org/details/lm-81/LM81
• The full Ted Nelson Archive is also open for access https://archive.org/details/tednelsonarchive

Previously on Necessary Facts

Goudy by Bernard Lewis and Goudy in His Own Words. 

Frederic W. Goudy by Peter Beilenson 

Hermann Zapf on Alphabets 

Start the Presses 

For the Glory of Old Lincoln High 

Where are the Augurs?

Originally, the Romans were seven hilltop villages under Etruscan domination. The nominally Roman deities Minerva, Mercury, and Vulcan were Etruscan. The Romans eventually ascended, absorbing their Tuscan, Latin, Samnite, and Greek neighbors.

The words in red come from Latin. This is based on a poster
in a classroom at Lincoln High School in Cleveland where
Nida Glick taught Latin for many years before my time.
(During WWII, she was a cryptologist. See her biography at
 https://www.military.com/coast-guard/lt-cmdr-nida-glick-uscgr.html )

The Roman Senate was only the topmost assembly. While the Roman Senate was culturally conservative, it also could be fickle when making and repealing laws. As the republic matured over decades, lifetimes, and centuries, young men ascended through increasingly responsible (and therefore powerful) appointments in public service. Being the moneyer for two years let you get your name out there for people to see, typically by honoring the public service of an ancestor.

 

Jean-Antoine Houdon's George Washington (left)
and Horatio Greensnborough's George Washington (right).
Washington was called "The Father of His Country" by
people who had been educated to read Latin.

When political conservatives insist that we are a republic and not a democracy, they are glossing over some contextual facts. It is true that in the Athenian assembly citizens voted directly—and they could change their collective minds. If a law remained in force, it was transcribed from painted words on wood to being carved in stone. It is also true, though, that the assembly voted to install officials in charge of the harbor, the mint, etc. On the other hand, Rome had a different tradition. 

 

Imperial Rome continued the fiction of being a republic and not a kingdom. The emperor (imperator: military commander-in-chief) was the “first citizen” and one of two consuls, and often granted the title “father of his country. ” Around the head on the obverses of many denarius coins of the empire the abbreviation PP stands for Pater Patriae: father of his country. But it refers to a deeper tradition of privilege (privis + legis = private law), when the senior elder of a family held life-and-death ownership over everyone on the farm. 

The coins of Roman emperors also give their years of consulship: COS III, for example, meaning that the Senate had re-elected them to their third term of office. Silver coins generally came from the private holdings of the imperator. The Senate issued the official copper coins of the government. The abbreviation SC meant Senatus Consulto. 

Copper sestertius of Marcus Aurelius.
Minerva with Owl and S C.

Some political conservatives claim to be Constitution originalists who insist that today we should return the intentions of 1789. At that time, political parties were private associations, not public institutions. Even when parties first erupted, conservative Anglophile Federalists versus liberal Francophile Republicans, the Vice President and President were elected separately and could be from different parties. 

This one-ounce silver commemorative issued by the
U.S. Mint would have spoken well to ancient Romans
with both the personification Libertas and the eagle of Jupiter  
carrying olive branches and its mottoes and legends: 
Liberty, United States,
E Pluribus Unum.
The numerals would be foreign to them
but they could sound out the letters.

Today, the VP is still the President of the Senate but seldom sits there, giving over the daily work to a president pro tempore, chosen by the Senate. You have to wonder what life would be like with President Donald Trump and President of the Senate Kamala Harris. President Harris (her proper title under the original Constitution) would vote as a senator in case of tie balloting. 

 

Previously on Necessary Facts

Etruscans and Americans 

The Cure for a Failing Empire 

Tycoon Dough is Democratic 

The Mercury Dime 

Long ago Miletus was great.

In five generations from 650 BCE  to 500 BCE --a span from your grandparents to your grandchildren--civilization was transformed by the confluential inventions of democracy, mercantilism, coinage, and philosophy. Thales of Miletos exemplified the times, He is credited with predicting an eclipse, taking out futures contracts on olive presses and leasing them when the harvest came in, and developing the first formal proof in geometry. What we call the Socratic Method was the Milesian Way brought to Athens by Aspasia of Miletos.

Traditionally, cities had been ruled by kings. That story is in The Iliad and The Odyssey. Something changed. It probably happened in one lifetime. Tyrants replaced kings. We do not like tyrants and the word has a negative connotation but tyrants of the archaic world were self-made men on the rise who took over the affairs of their towns. And they could be overthrown, exiled or killed. That took planning and the conspirators became an oligarchy. Widen the ruling junto and you have a democracy. 

At this time, philosophy, argument by reason and evidence, was replacing religion as the informative narrative in the culture.

The citizens voted to go to wars in which they were the soldiers. That was not the traditional way. Rather than expendable masses of untrained farmboys, Greek mercenary armies were made up of bronze-clad hoplites. Your shield protected the man on your left whose right arm was raised with his spear. Social cohesian was critical to success. In return for victory, these armies were paid with the first coins. 

With armies outside their walls, sometimes citizens under the cover of darkness took their money and fled in their ships to found new towns. Thus, the coins of Abdera in Thrace mimicked the coins of their hometown, Teos in Ionia. Small silvers worth a day's wages from the anonymous towns of the Cheronesos peninsula in Thrace c 350 BCE copied the archaic designs of Miletos.

Miletos c. 550 BCE electrum sixth stater 2.37 grams (ex: Singer).

Recumbent lion / incuse punches.

SNG Von Aulock 1796

About 25 years ago, Dr. Gordon Andreas ("Andy") Singer 

was set up at the MSNS Thanksgiving show. 

His table displayed medieval coins.

I gave them some attention and started to walk past 

and he asked me what I was looking for and I said, "Archaic silver." 

And he replied, "Gold can be as cheap as silver." 

I read the tag and told him that 

the coin was misattributed to Phocaea when it was clearly Miletos. 

He said that it wasn't his specialty 

and the coin was mine at that price if I wanted it.

The failure of the Ionian Revolt was a lesson for the American revolutionaries of 1776. The Ionian Revolt started in 499 BCE in Miletos. The 12 cities were Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedos, Teos, Clazomenae, Phocaea, Erythrae, Samos and Chios. As much as they shared in common culture, and even though they declared a central temple to Poseidon in Priene they never formed a political league and were re-conquered one at a time, in a string of defeats. It was over by 493. 

Unity did not come easily to the Americans. Proposed by Congress on 15 November 1777, the Articles of Confederation were not ratified until 1 March 1781. Contrast that with the fact that the Marine Corps was created on 10 November 1775 after the Battle of Bunker Hill 17 June 1775 and the Battle of Lexington and Concord 19 April 1775. 

I learned in high school that the "American revolution" was not the War for Independence. The revolution happened in the minds of the colonial leaders following the French-Indian War 1757-1763 when they realized that they were mostly on their own and their opportunities for full rights under English law--such as the Bill of Rights of 1689--were weak. The Albany Plan of Union (10 July 1754) was one of several compacts between and among the American colonies. Some attempts at unity were forceful, as when Massachusetts occupied New Hampshire (which it had to give back) and Maine (which it kept). Wars between New York and New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and Delaware were brief. 

Miletos electrum stater from the Rosen collection.

Golden ages come and go. Greek civilization was a complex. Common language and a plethora of independent city-states allowed the exchange of ideas. People interested in ideas gathered in Athens, then were induced to Alexandria. Syracuse was always available, as was Rhodes. And when Alexandria could no longer afford her librarians, the philosophers found homes in other cities, spreading the knowledge rather than hoarding it, though the great library did continue.  

When the first coins were struck, wealth was land and cows. Land was inherited. Coinage changed the form of wealth. More importantly, it allowed the creation of wealth by new means. Aristotle was not alone in opposing it. While livestock breeds naturally, to make money from money is unnatural. Many people today still believe that. 

British North America had no native gold or silver. Spain went bankrupt by looting the native Aztecs and Incas of their gold and silver. However, the British colonies created paper money and from that came roads, canals, railroads, airlines, telegraphs, telephones, and computers. 

Just as tyrants have a bad name today, so, too, do we denigrate sophistry. The ancient sophists were mercenary scholars who charged money for their lesssons. Plato did not like them, though he gave a fair hearing to Protagoras in one of the books of The Republic. 

Diogenes of Sinope was traveling when his ship was stopped and all aboard were taken to a slave market and sold. In those days, once apart from your city, you had no protection.

Obverse and reverse of a drachmon of
Sinope that could have been struck under
the authority of Diogenes who was later
accused of adulterating the coinage.

The ancient Greeks had a word for the person with no interest in politics: idiot. Concerned only with himself, he did not take part in civic life or at least did not come to the Assembly to argue and vote and take the responsibility of holding annual offices. When they attended the assembly, they paid themselves the same wages as a soldier in the field or a rower on a ship: one drachmon per day. The Spartans thought that this was evidence of the corruption of democracy, that the citizens voted themselves payments from the public treasury. In America, we do acknowledge civic engagement. However, our contribution to civilization is honoring the individual who minds their own business.

"Mind Your Business" Continental currency 1776 and Fugio cent 1787.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Bringing Philosophy to Athens: Aspasia of Miletos 

Hypatia of Alexandria 

Is Philosophy a Science? 

Numismatics: History as Market 

Numismatics: The Standard of Proof in Economics 

My Numismatic Bibliography (Partial List)

Much can be learned from examinating, comparing, contrasting. sorting, and arranging. It is said that Mendeleev established the periodic table of elements by playing solitaire with cards displaying the empirical data of the elements. (See the Library of the University of California at San Diego here and also Nature here.) So, you have start with the material evidence. From that, putting the facts into the right order reveals many new truths.

The Numismatist

“A New Look at the Origins of Coinage,” The Numismatist, Vol 108, No. 8, (August 1995) (George Heath Literary Award, First Place, 1996).

“A Penny Earned: the Wages of Work,” The Numismatist, Vol. 109, no 11 (November 1996), p. 1320-1321, ill.

“In Praise of Walking Liberty,” The Numismatist, Vol 109, no 1, (January 1997)

“The Buffalo Nickel: America's Handsomest Coin,” The Numismatist, Vol. 110, no. 5 (May 1997), p.502-504; 539, ill.

“The Affordable Yet Beautiful Peace Dollar,” The Numismatist, Vol. 111, no. 6 (June 1998)

“Lost Opportunity: the Double Dime,” The Numismatist, Volume 111, no. 9 (September 1999), p. 1024-1029; 1069, ill.

“A Passion for Bust Halves, “ The Numismatist, Vol. 113, no. 12 (December 2000), p. 1407-1411; 1489, ill. 

“The Bicentennial Coinage of 1976,” The Numismatist, Vol 114, no. 5 (May 2001), p. 501-503;541-542, ill.

“Sir Isaac Newton: Warden and Master of the Mint,” The Numismatist, Vol. 114, no. 11 (November 2001), p. 1302-1308, 1363 : ill., port. (George Heath Literary Award, Second Place, 2002)

“How to Assemble a Dime Type Set,” The Numismatist, Vol. 115 no 5 (May 2002), p. 495-501, ill.

“Short Snorters: Keeping the Memories Alive,” The Numismatist, Vol 115, no 11 (November 2002), p.1302-1305, ill.

“Mr. Longacre's Indian Head cent,” The Numismatist, Vol. 116, no. 10 (October 2003), p. 33-36 : ill.
“The Many Faces of Coronet Cents,”  The Numismatist, Vol 117, no 4 (April 2004)

“Proof Double Eagles: Rarity and Perfection,” The Numismatist, Vol 118, no 8 (August 2005), p.36-40, ill.

“The Riddle of Riddell (From Texas to the Moon with John Leonard Riddell),” The Numismatist, Vol. 127, No. 4 (April 2014)

“Pursuing Paper Artifacts: A Checklist for Syngraphists,” The Numismatist, Vol. 128 No. 4 (April 2015)
“Internet Connections” Monthly feature column, The Numismatist, January 2004 to December 2010.

The Celator 

“Champagne: The Athens of the Middle Ages, The Celator, Vol. 25. No. 11, November 2009.

“Harlan Berk’s 100 Greatest Ancient Coins: A Glimpse Behind the Book,” The Celator, Vol 22. no. 11, (November 2008), p. 28-29;37.

“Copper Owls : The Emergency Coinage of Athens 406 BC,” The Celator, Vol. 19, no. 10 (October 2005), p. 6-16: ill., map. 

“Electrum,” The Celator, Vol. 17, no. 8 (August 2003), p. 25-31: ill.

“Book Review - Sargent, Thomas J. and Françoise R. Velde. The Big Problem of Small Change. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2002.” The Celator 17.3 (March 2003), pp. 34.

“Authenticators Offer Range of Services,” The Celator, Vol. 16, no. 12 (December 2002), p. 37. 

“Portraits and Representations of Alexander the Great,” (co-author Ann M. Zakelj), The Celator, Vol 16., no. 7, (July 2002), p. 6-20 ill.

“Foiled by Fourrees?: Are these Plated Coins Official Issues or are all Plated Coins False? The Celator, Vol. 15, no. 12 (December 2001), p. 20-27.

“The Crime of Diogenes,” The Celator, Vol. 13, no. 5, May 1999

“Ancient Coins Show They Knew It Was Round,” The Celator. Vol. 12, no. 2, (February, 1998), p. 18-20 : ill

“The Origin of Coinage: Evolution of a Theory,” The Celator Vol. 11, No. 10, (October, 1997), p. 32-34.

“Kolophon: A Quiet Place to Raise a Family,” The Celator, Vol 11, no 8, (August 1997).

“Dyrrachium: Rome's Gateway to Greece,” The Celator, Vol 11 no 4, (April 1997).

“The Voice of Classical Greek,” The Celator, Vol. 10, no 1, (January 1996).

“Lycian League Issued Interesting Series of Coinage,” The Celator, Vol. 9, no 11, (November 1995).

“Book Review - Before Writing: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens,” The Celator, Vol. 9, no 1, (January 1995).

“Computer Software for the Collector,” The Celator, Vol 8, no. 8, (August 1994).

“The Purse of Eratosthenes: the Coinage and Commerce of Cyrene,” The Celator, Vol. 8, no 1, (January 1994), p 18-20., ill

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Aaron Feldman: Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin

Not Conned by Sehgal's "Coined"

Gresham's Conjecture

Electrum Sixths and the Treaty of Mytilene

A Socratic Mob

Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob. -- The Federalist No. 55

Another general remark to be made is, that the ratio between the representatives and the people ought not to be the same where the latter are very numerous as where they are very few. Were the representatives in Virginia to be regulated by the standard in Rhode Island, they would, at this time, amount to between four and five hundred; and twenty or thirty years hence, to a thousand. On the other hand, the ratio of Pennsylvania, if applied to the State of Delaware, would reduce the representative assembly of the latter to seven or eight members. Nothing can be more fallacious than to found our political calculations on arithmetical principles. Sixty or seventy men may be more properly trusted with a given degree of power than six or seven. But it does not follow that six or seven hundred would be proportionably a better depositary. And if we carry on the supposition to six or seven thousand, the whole reasoning ought to be reversed. The truth is, that in all cases a certain number at least seems to be necessary to secure the benefits of free consultation and discussion, and to guard against too easy a combination for improper purposes; as, on the other hand, the number ought at most to be kept within a certain limit, in order to avoid the confusion and intemperance of a multitude. In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

FEDERALIST No. 55

"The Total Number of the House of Representatives"

From the New York Packet. 

Friday, February 15, 1788. 

Alexander Hamilton or James Madison

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Why Democracy is Difficult 

Politics and the Inverse Square Law

I Quit Meetup

Michael Shermer's Moral Arc

The Science of Liberty

Ann M. Zakelj (1947-2019)

We met in Cleveland, Ohio, 1996, when I was a contractor with the U. S. Department of Defense Financial Accounting Service (DFAS). When she handed me her card, I read her name as “Za-kelly.” She corrected me. “Zay-kell,” she said. “The j is silent.” In my cubie, I had a picture of the Greek goddess Eirene carrying the infant Ploutos. Most people assumed that it was the Virgin Mary and Christ Child, but she identified it correctly. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

We attended the ANA conventions in Cleveland (1997), Cincinnati (1998), New York (2002), and Pittsburgh (2004).  Ann came to numismatics late in life bringing a special passion supported by many years of world travel, a facility for languages, broad reading, keen insight, and deep reflection. 

Ann was very active in her church, St. Vitas, and for them, and others, she crafted proscenia, and other decorations. So, when Ann began collecting ancient coins, her aesthetic judgment always brought her the best examples for the price. Her primary interest was for classical Greek, but she also worked hard on the Severan dynasty, especially the women. Eye-appeal was more important than completeness; and she was an eclectic gatherer, rather than a focused hunter. 

In a casual conversation, we agreed that the coins of Alexander the Great probably portrayed Alexander, and we set out to prove it. We spent over 18 months assembling research, meeting in restaurants, and exchanging information in emails. We published “Portraits and Representations of Alexander the Great,” in The Celator, Vol 16., no. 7, (July 2002).

Ann loved to travel and had been to every continent but preferred Europe, especially the Balkans where she had many cousins. Her easy skill with languages served her well. On Rhodes, they thought she was Turkish. In Istanbul, her accent sounded Greek. But it was never a problem because she had a winning personality. She was a natural extrovert and probably got the Sphinx to talk. Ann was born in Austria on March 10, 1947, and passed away peacefully among family, on February 13, 2019.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

The First Dagny

Reflections on the Passing of a Comrade

Reflections on the Passing of Comrades

Irene Louise Babos Marotta Joseph

ELECTRUM SIXTHS AND THE TREATY OF MYTILENE

For about 200 years, from about 520 to 320 BCE, the Greek towns of Phokaia and Mytilene, both along the Ionian coast of what is today western Turkey, issued a remarkable series of coins. Each town took turns–regulated by treaty—issuing small coins of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, widely used in commerce across the Helliadic cultural complex.

(An earlier version of this article first appeared in The Classical Numismatic Review, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Vol. 20 No. 2, Summer 1995. Other facts here first appeared in “Electrum,” The Celator, Vol. 17, no. 8, August 2003, p. 25-31: ill.)

From Wildwinds.com Ancient Coins auction database.
Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung,
Auction 253 5 March 2018, Lots 207, 208, and 209.

Numismatists firmly believe that the first coins were made of electrum, a naturally-occurring alloy mostly of gold and silver, with traces of other metals. Despite the suggestion of Demokritos of Abdera that matter is composed of the tiniest uncuttable particles, the ancients lacked an atomic theory of matter. Electrum was found naturally; and it could also be made by mixing gold and silver. It was a separate metal in its own right. Over one or two generations from about 600 to 550 BCE, the first coins evolved from nuggets of electrum, panned from the Pactolus river (Sart Çayı in modern Turkish).

Those first coins were eclipsed by coins of gold and coins of silver first issued by Kroisos (Croesus) of Lydia. Silver became the metal of everyday commerce. Gold usually served state purposes. However, electrum still circulated, easily for another 300 years, perhaps for 1000, and maybe even into our own time.

Numismatists identify the electrum coins of Phokaia and Mytilene as one-sixth staters, or hektai in Greek. The one-sixth staters of Phokaia and Mytilene weigh about 2.5 grams, about the same as a U.S. dime, though they are of smaller diameter and greater thickness.

In America of the 1800s, you could exchange a silver dollar coin for a gold dollar coin. In ancient Athens, no such exchange was possible because there was no abstract unit of account. Also, the relative values of gold, electrum, and silver fluctuated over time and across geographies. An electrum one-sixth stater from Phokaia and Mytilene was worth about 10 Athenian drachma. When the Persians were first defeated in 480, in Athens a silver drachmon was a day’s wages for a citizen at assembly, a soldier in the field, or a rower in a galley. By 400, that was two drachma. So, a sixth-stater from Phokaia and Mytilene represented about a week’s wages for a common laborer.

We know from the treaty that the magistrate’s job changed every year and moved between the two cities. The German Archaeological Institute at Istabul has identified 25 Phokaian die engravers by their styles. This series of Phokaian hektai begins at 535 BC. From 509 to 491, the “Master of the Natural Lion” (Der natüralistischer Löwen-Meister) was also cutting dies for Mytilene. From 535 to 327, at least eight die engravers worked for both cities. Also, study of the minting techniques and artistic styles indicates that at Mytilene at about 450 and again about 430, at least two different engravers were working at the same time. These facts underscore the assertion that one motivation for the joint coinage was to pool the resources of production.

The treaty was discovered in 1852 by Charles T. Newton, while serving as vice consul in Mytilene. Newton found the treaty in a home on the site of the ancient Mytilene acropolis. He published his transcription of the stone in the Transactions of the Royal Literary Society, VIII in 1866. The stone was left at a school and then was lost until it was rediscovered in 1939. Authorities such as Friedrich Bodenstedt place the date of the treaty at BCE 400 and perhaps at 394, following the naval encounter off Knidos. It is possible, however, that this treaty merely formalized a tradition of co-equal coinages going back all the way to the fall of the tyrant Polykrates of Samos in 521. Considered in this light, the coinage is unparalleled, running from 521 until 326, a feat not attained again until Roman times and rare in the modern world. That the treaty allows for additions and erasures supports numismatic evidence that Phokaia and Mytilene had long before agreed at least ad hoc on a common coinage.

 

From “Electrum Sixths and the Treaty of Mytilene”
The Classical Numismatic Review, Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
Vol. 20 No. 2, Summer 1995.

One reason for the consistency of composition is that the treaty provided death as the penalty for anyone who debased the metal of the coins. However, the exact nuance here is important. John Wickersham and Gerald Verbrugghe give this translation for the opening lines:

“... whatever both cities ... write on the stele or erase, it shall be valid. Anyone who debases the gold shall be subject to prosecution in both cities.” However, a closer consideration indicates that the prohibition against “debasement” occurs later in the treaty and not in the place indicated by that translation.

I believe that the word kernan means only “to make” or “to mix” and not “to dilute” or “to debase.”  First of all, the root word kern* appears twice more in the stone. The second time, it refers to the make-up of the juries. The third time, it refers to “making the gold diluted.” We might believe that gold would be debased by silver, but we cannot expect that the courts of Mytilene would be debased by the presence of native jurors.

The third occurrence is the phrase “chrysion kernan hydaresteron.” Mixing the gold to “hydration” or “dilution” brings the death penalty.

Note that the treaty allows for the changing of office. Suit could be brought for up to six months, because the job changed each year. However, to avoid the obvious temptation to pin the blame on the other fellow, each city tried its own moneyer. It is most likely that any wrong-doing on the part of the moneyer would be discovered indirectly: if he and the gold disappeared, for instance; or, if he gave evidence of new wealth, perhaps. Until Archimedes watched the bath overflow about 250 BC, there was no scientific method for assaying an alloy. If assaying were possible, the hektai would have been made to even closer tolerances.

Just what purpose did these sixth-staters serve? We can accept that they were payment for mercenaries, the most common use for high-denomination coinages, though we have no epigraphic evidence to support that. We can only let the coins speak for themselves.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Joy Hakim's "Aristotle Leads the Way" 

Hypatia of Alexandria 

The Problem of Cultural Patrimony 

Electrum and the Invention of Coinage