Hellenistic age coins in Diyarbakir and Mardin Museums

Coin, is a kind of metallic money that are minted with precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, bronze, brass and tin according to a certain measure, guaranteed by using the official stamp of the state and is used as more useful exchange tool rather than the other exchange methods in trade since primitive ages and invented by Lydians at Anatolia on 7th century BC. At the same time, coins have the characteristics of documents make the history talk and giving information about the communities who lived centuries ago. The coins in Diyarbakir and Mardin Museums and published official and private collections which are from the period starting Alexander the Great on 334 BC to the Battle of Actium on 30 BC and known as the Hellenistic Age are examined comprehensively and by using various literature review. The kings of Hellenistic Age minted coins in order to meet the needs of community and army at the cities that they had built, to keep the trade alive by building royal mints. Utilization of mercenaries with military movements and their demobilization played an important role in circulation of coins. It is reached this conclusion from obtained from the samples 113 coins from Diyarbakir and Mardin museums are examined in our thesis. The figures on the front and rear faces of the coins, inscriptions, metal used to mint the coin or the features of amalgamation, weight, the geometrical shape of the coin, the unit and scale of the coin varies according to their city where they are minted, minting year and the sovereignty period of the kings. The coins used in this thesis study are under a title of Code Number or Inventory Number and the inscriptions, figures and depictions on the front and the rear faces are described detailed.