Common coinage from Antiquity until today

The digital exhibition developed and presented on the Internet under the conventional title Presveis constitutes the final product of a three-years collaboration (1996-1998), between the Numismatic Museum (Athens) and the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum (London). The project was financed jointly by the Greek Ministry of Culture and the European Union (10th General Directorate), as part of the European program RAPHAEL. The ultimate purpose of the scientific collaboration of two big European museums was the organisation of a presentation, where the public, by using the possibilities offered by the Internet, could learn about the uses of coinages widely accepted and distributed from ancient to modern times. Review in Bryn Mawr Electronic Resources Review (May 2000).

During the long history of Numismatics from antiquity to modern times, many attempts have been made by various cities and states to form confederations or leagues –usually of regional nature and limited influence- with common objectives, (as the case may be) common institutions, common political practices and common coinage. In a similar context, other coins dominated in various ways (trade activity, foundation of colonies, conquests etc.) and became widely accepted in the Ancient and Medieval worlds. Thus, they played a decisive role as controlling factors in the economy of many peoples expressing a different kind of common will for numismatic uniformity.

The digital exhibition Presveis: One Currency for Europe. Common Currency from Antiquity to the Modern Age attempts to disclose to the public that the idea of using a common, widely accepted coin has been in reality a very old one. In addition, it informs, concisely and methodically, on a series of related historical and numismatic issues. Thus, the current important ascertainment that today the dollar and the euro reflect to a large degree the various past attempts in achieving an economic-political union becomes obvious. These attempts functioned as landmarks in the long-lasting course of human transactions: a chain of analogous historical-numismatic phenomena, from Athens to Alexander the Great, from Rome to Byzantium, from the Hanseatic League to the Latin Monetary Union.