نبذة مختصرة : 5 — actual gods whom they held to be the founders, saviours, preservers, and patrons of their cities and the inspirers of their best works, as shown by the coins of Thasos. It is generally believed that the earliest coins were struck within the sacred precints of the temple, and this view is in harmony with Tetradrachm of Thasos, with the inscription : HPAKAEOYI IHTHPOl 0AIIQN (Herakles Saviour or Preserver of the Thasians). the early representative character of money, and also the fact that in early and insecure times the temples were the safe and inviolate places for the rich treasures stored therein. When the transition came Tetradrachm of Lysimachus, king of Thrace. (Coin with portrait of Alexander the Great.) to convert the bars and wedges of electrum, gold and silver into coins it was natural that the mint should have been established in the same place, under the direction of the priests and representatives of the state and the supervision of the gods, whose images the coins bore, as a guarantee for their genuine character. In fact, the very word money is derived from the temple of Juno Moneta, in Rome, for within its precincts the public mint was established, and it is but natural to suppose that the Romans adopted this idea also from the Greeks.
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