How to read ancient coins? 2500-OG-EN-HRAC

First inscribed coins with the legend “Phaneos eimi sema” in Greek lettering one can find already among the very early electrum coins minted before 600 BC. Also, apparently, personal names, read VALVEL and KALIL in Lydian characters, appear in this period. Coins minted in the 6th-4th century BC bear mainly short Greek inscriptions, but there are also attested some coins with names in Lician or Phoenician characters. Many coin legends of the hellenistic period provide us with information regarding kings titulatures, minting magistrate’s or tibe 's names and date (especially in Greek, but also in Hebrew, Iberian, Kharosthi or Phoenician), while inscriptions of the Roman republican coinage of the 2nd and 1st century BC allow us not only to identify such officials as tres viri monetales, aediles and imperators, but also to several important personalities and events of the Roman history. Most Roman imperial coins bear long legends with the entire titulature of emperors and show which imperial virtues and ideas of the greatest importance, whereas, Roman provincial coins (in connection with inscriptions) show in which provinces and cities dominant language was Latin, in which Greek. The aim of the course is to provide students with knowledge about ancient alphabets, geography of the ancient world and history of ancient coinage, especially from a linguistic and epigraphic perspective.