In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

viii Preface speaking about the invention of coinage at conferences since 1994. Since then, I have occasionally heard and even read some of my own ideas presented by people who apparently thought they were their own, and perhaps they were (if, after all, my ideas are correct, there is no reason why somebody else should not have realized them as well), although on occasion, it became clear that the people involved had actually heard the ideas from me. Since my hopes for eternal life do not base themselves on this book, I see no need for arguments over precedence. Suffice it to say that I have tried to be exceedingly scrupulous not to peddle anyone else’s work or ideas as my own. For the footnotes, I have preferred a shortened citation form that utilizes short titles where necessary (e.g., “Finley, Ancient Economy”), although the author-date form (e.g., “Finley 1985”) is today more commonly used in the humanities. Perhaps better scholars than I remember without a moment’s reflection the publication date of every book they have ever seen and so know at a glance what book is being referred to by a surname and a year. In case, however, there are those who remember titles better than year of publication, I have given a short title when referring to an author for whom more than one work appears in the bibliography. I apologize, lest anyone suspect me of the opposite, for the fact that, although I have tried to be certain that I am not misrepresenting anyone’s opinions, I cannot claim to have read every word of every item mentioned in the bibliography.7 Where historical reasons did not dictate otherwise, I have done my best to maintain gender-neutral language. This has introducd a number of stylistic infelicities, but I would rather be awkward than offensive. I think, however , that this problem has not found its ideal solution, and I apologize to the reader for those places where my effort to be courteous has merely made me obscure. I owe thanks to the Israel Science Foundation founded by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, who four times gave me research grants; to the American Council of Learned Societies, whose fellowship in 1984–85 got me into the research on prices past the point of no return; to the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University, where I was a Summer Scholar in 1994 and whose directors, Kurt Raaflaub and Deborah Boedeker, along with all of the staff, continued generously to put the scholarly resources of the center at my disposal whenever I was able to use them; to Bar7 . Well after the typescript had left my hands, there appeared an important new book by Georges Le Rider, La naissance de la monnaie: Pratiques monétaires de l’Orient ancien. Le Rider’s vantage point, as his subtitle shows, is very different from mine; nevertheless, I would surely have made considerable use of his work had it reached me in time. Preface ix Ilan University, for internal grants that have continued to help nudge the project along; to the Lechter Institute for Literary Research, by whose grant the book includes illustrations; and to the staffs of the libraries of Bar-Ilan University and Tel-Aviv University, who continue to provide the base for many first-rate research projects. I will add the library of the Institute of Classical Studies at the University of London and the Van Pelt Library at the University of Pennsylvania, whose excellent resources, generously provided, have afforded a more solid foundation for many originally unsupported assertions. Henry Kim of the Ashmolean Museum offered helpful advice about illustrations. At the China Numismatic Museum in Beijing, the hospitality and scholarly generosity of Professors Dai Zhiqiang, Zhou Weirong, and Wang Dan (director, head of the Department of Scientific Research, and curator, respectively) gave me the confidence to write on a subject that is only poorly documented in Western libraries. Although, in the end, I used only one of her illustrations, Cecilia Meir of the Kadman Numismatics Pavilion, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, was so generous with her help and her time that I must express my thanks. Professor Miriam Balmuth has offered interest and even a public forum in the spirit of true scholarship, despite the fact that my own opinions differ sharply from those she has expressed (and from which, as the reader can see, I have profited considerably ). Similar things may...

Share