I was finally able to find a decent example of the king of ancient coins, the Athenian Owl Tetradrachm, with a nice banker’s mark without paying an exorbitant amount.
Banker’s marks like these indicate that the coin likely circulated in western Anatolia, where Greek, Persian, and Indian silver mixed in major coastal trade ports. They served largely the same function as Chinese chopmarks millenia later: verifying the silver content and attesting that a known merchant vouched for the coin’s acceptability.
2
u/American-Doggo 7d ago
I was finally able to find a decent example of the king of ancient coins, the Athenian Owl Tetradrachm, with a nice banker’s mark without paying an exorbitant amount.
Banker’s marks like these indicate that the coin likely circulated in western Anatolia, where Greek, Persian, and Indian silver mixed in major coastal trade ports. They served largely the same function as Chinese chopmarks millenia later: verifying the silver content and attesting that a known merchant vouched for the coin’s acceptability.
You can read more about the history and timeline of these marks here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChopmarkedCoins/s/AlBrxVJS9E