Step 5 of 6

Squaring the circle?

Related Images

  • Fig. 1. Electrum coin, the earliest sign of coinage surviving. (Reverse) Incuse square. - British Museum [1866,1201.3671](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1866-1201-3671).
  • Fig. 2. Silver stater of Aegina, Greece (550-525 BCE). (Reverse) Incuse square with a Union Jack pattern. - CNG [CNG 76, Lot: 504](https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=108179).
  • Fig. 3. Silver tetradrachm of Athens, Greece (454-404 BCE). (Reverse) Incuse square with depiction of an owl and inscription. - CNG [401901](https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=288422).

You may wonder what this square surrounding the letters and the image is. Maybe you have encountered it, if you have seen ancient coins before.

This shape, named the incuse square (or in Latin quadratum incusum), was a usual feature of ancient Greek and Persian coinage. As these coins were struck, originally this square was just the impression of the tip of the rod holding the blank metal, so that a hammer could strike the image on the coin (Fig.1).Klose, D. “Quadratum Incusum” in Brill’s New Pauly Ed. Hubert Cancik and et al. Brill Reference Online.

After a while, it was only imprinted on coins for decorative purposes and took many shapes; elsewhere we find a circle, a triangle or even a swastika (fig.2). Soon, images began filling the interior and gradually overtook the back face of the coins (reverse), leading to the disappearance of the incuse square before Alexander the Great (mid-4th century BCE).