The history of the rise of money is indeed a fascinating story of
which we can have only a very foggy view, however. But it should be
noted that by about 500 already Heraclitus of Ephesus based his
cosmology on the turnover of gold-(coins) in the exchange of goods:

"All things are an equal exchange for fire and fire for all things,
as goods are for gold and gold for goods"
(Fragment 90 in: Kirk, G. S., Heraclitus -- The Cosmic Fragments,
Cambridge University Press , 1954, p.345)

Heraclitus seems to presume that his contemporaries were  aware   that
an "eternal" stock of gold-(coins)  supports an ever vanishing and
re-appearing flow of goods in ever reoccurring exchange.
For an extended economic interpretation of this fragment see Shell,
M., The Economy of Literature
Johns Hopkins University Press,1993 in particular p.54: "Fragment 90
demands an interpretation of homo- and heterogeneity in which gold is
considered as commodity, as coin, and finally as money. ... Fragment
90 confuses students of Heraclitus who do not understand the
relationship of gold to goods..."
So, I think one cannot say that "nobody even
mentions coins exist in any text until about 460 BC." (see below).  At
least Heraclitus (around 500 BC) did mention that gold existed as
money and he seems to have assumed that his readers / listeners knew
quite a bit about the turnover of gold coins and goods. This in turn
presumes that among the ancient Greeks there must have been some
fairly extensive reflection and discussion about the phenomenon of
market turnover and means of transaction in the years before
Heraclitus  wrote the above.
Michael Ambrosi



2012/12/20 Rob Tye <[log in to unmask]>
>......
> The big puzzle here, it seems to me, is why has this very obvious story line
> been so frequently and thoroughly suppressed?  The story of this suppression
> is itself ancient.  Coins use seem to appear in Lydia around 610BC, and
> spread like wildfire, arriving in Athens about 550BC, and apparently
> transforming Athenian society.  Yet, as Kurke points out nobody even
> mentions coins exist in any text until about 460 BC.  The principle players
> in the rise of coin issue were apparently the early tyrants, the
> intellectuals associated with their early use the sophists – yet both
> "tyranny" and "sophistry" had gained pejorative overtones even in the
> ancient period.

--
Prof. em. Dr. Dr.h.c. G.M. Ambrosi
Jean Monnet Professor "ad personam"
University of Trier,  FB IV VWL
D-54286 Trier
Fax: +49-651-201-3934
mobil: +49-178-286 2703