There are many books that discuss the coins from specific periods of Egyptian history, but there are none that consider the coins from the whole of that history. This work aims to provide such an account, covering the currency from ancient times through the Ptolemaic, Roman, Byzantine, Arabic, and Ottoman periods to modern times. An important feature of the work is the illustration of a selection of about 150 coins and banknotes that represent the major types throughout that history. Adjunct to this selection of these illustrations is a “key” that provides further numismatic detail about each of the coins in it. A difficulty with Egyptian coinage is that it includes inscriptions in many languages. Some notes in the key to the coins and in the appendices are provided to give a little help in this. In addition to providing a chronological account of the currency, the coins and notes are related to aspects of the daily lives of the people of each period and also to some aspects of the development of the state, particularly its architecture.

In this volume, Erik Christiansen uses Alexandrian coin hoards to explore the use of money in Egypt from its conquest by Augustus in 30 BC to Diocletian's currency reform in AD 296. Although these finds, with their wide array of Graeco-Roman and Alexandrian reverses, have traditionally been classified as a part of Greek coinage, he demonstrates clearly that they belong to the Roman imperial coinage. The hoards also show that Roman Egypt enjoyed a widespread monetized economy, in addition to the credit system described in extant papyri. The relative abundance of such documents provides Christiansen with a good supplemental source of information for his conclusions. And since financial administration is known to have been quite uniform throughout the empire, this book provides a useful window on not only Rome's shifting economic fortunes but also monetary policy in other provinces, which did not leave behind the rich heritage of coins and documents that Egypt did.

Quantitative studies of the Alexandrian coinage of Nero, Trajan and Septimius Severus which aim to map the yearly fluctuations of the minting in as absolute figures as possible; and then to find the political and economic reasons that lay behind them. Far more data A from other regions A has been collected and awaits treatment in the same way, if the system adopted here finds acceptance.

This volume presents a die study of the provincial silver coinage of Judah in the late Persian, Macedonian, and early Hellenistic periods. It offers correct descriptions of the coins, their designs, and their inscriptions; enumerates the obverse and reverse dies identified for each of the 44 recorded types; and explains the probable sequence of the issues as deduced from iconographic associations and die links. The iconography of the coin types is examined in depth, with comparisons to motifs in Greek, Persian, and ancient Near Eastern art, including other local coinages and sources in Judahite material culture. The monograph also analyzes data relating to the metrology, metal content, and circulation of the coinage. Overall, the study attempts to place the Yehud coinage in its historical context and to define its role in the economy of the ancient province of Judah.