Ancient Coin Stories

Chalkis was one of the most ancient cities of (sort of) mainland Greece. It was near here that the Greek ships set out for the Trojan War, per Homer. Its colonists later founded a number of important cities, such as Naxos (which I’d thought was settled from the island of Naxos) and Rhegion.

Chalkis supposedly tcakes its name from Halkos, which is the Greek word for copper, though we haven’t found any evidence of copper mines there. Maybe they just liked the metal. On other accounts, they were named for the nymph Chalkis, who is depicted on this coin. She was a daughter of Asopos, who legend has founded the island of Euboia, on which Chalkis lies.

Much of its history is taken with its competition with its neighbor Eretria, with whom they fought a war and evidently defeated so well that Eretria didn’t mint coinage during the Hellenistic era.

The reverse of this coin depicts on eagle grabbing a serpent. This symbol has an interesting history since it’s migrated across many cultures. For example, today it’s on Mexico’s flag. Eagles depicted with snakes have been around at least since Babylonian times, so the Euboians were by far not the innovators here. Similar depictions have been found in ancient works from India and New Zealand, so it was likely invented separately by different cultures.

That being said, the Greek image seems to be the most similar to the modern representation, so it’s the most familiar.