ABSTRACT
With these words. a prominent ancient historian dismisses a whole host of speculative theories by scholars who believe that the invention and spread of coinage had profound effects (beyond the economic) in the ancient Greek world.? It is not my purpose here to propose yet another theory about the cultural and conceptual effects of coinage in archaic Greece; rather, I would like to consider the evidentiary preconditions for such a project, Wallace (and in this. I take him to be representative of many ancient historians) objects that "there is no evidence to support this speculation" and that "these notions...seem to me to be without basis." But here we are faced with a fundamental question: What would evidence for such a claim look like? Are we likely to fmd in the sands of Egypt a new fragment of Parmenides, affirming "it was coinage that inspired me to think the One"? On reflection, it is clear that even if we were to fmd new fragments of Parmenides (or any other archaic author), we are very unlikely to fmd such a statement.
