Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics COINAGE AS ‘CODE’ IN PTOLEMAIC EGYPT Version 1.3 December 2006 JG Manning Stanford University Abstract: In this paper I survey the use of money in Ptolemaic Egypt with a particular focus on the introduction of coinage by the Ptolemies. I draw connections between monetization of the economy with other institutional reforms, especially as they concern the legal reforms of Ptolemy II. The paper will appear as Chapter Five in a volume on money edited by William Harris for OUP. © JG Manning.
[email protected] 1. Introduction In this paper I discuss the use of money in Ptolemaic Egypt in relationship to the development of the state. My aim here is to summarize some recent work and to set the process of monetization into a broader context of state development. The topic of money and coinage in the ancient world is enormously complex and work is ongoing on several fronts.1 Much of what Moses Finley believed about money has been disputed in recent years.2 Among the most important scholarly shifts has been work on banks and banking, and the closer examination of regions and historical periods ignored by Finley, Ptolemaic Egypt being an important case in point. The last decade has witnessed an explosion in both technical studies of coinage and more general economic treatments.3 Despite this, however, the issues involved in the study of Ptolemaic monetary history are complex, and the data scattered over technical publications in Greek and demotic Egyptian Papyrology, and Numismatics as well as in Archaeological site reports.