The power of money, the money of power

Back in 93-97 BC, the public treasury didn't hire companies to chase up customers who were behind on their payments. They had a much simpler and effective method: a money collector armed with a wooden cudgel. On a tetradrachm struck in Macedonia at the time, the tools of the quaestors trade - the club and money chest - are seen on one side, with a portrait of Alexander the Great on the other. The coin is among the fascinating exhibits in "Money: Tangible Symbols in Ancient Greece," currently on display at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.

This fascinating exhibition has been put together by Professor Nicholas Stampolidis, the museum's director, Dr Dimitra Tsangari, curator of Alpha Bank's Numismatic Collection, and the museum's archaeologist, Giorgos Tasoulas. It illustrates how most of the ancient Greek world's hundreds of city-states had their own coinage systems, which...