The Greek islands of Cyprus and Crete during the 16th - 10th centuries BC were international trading ports where Assyrians, Mesopotamians and Egyptians met to trade their goods. As each territory had its own currency (Egypt traded in gold; Greece in silver and copper), it became necessary to find a monetary common denominator on which to base trade.

Numerous Greek colonies were established in southern Italy in the centuries preceding the introduction of coinage, the earliest foundations dating from the 8th century BC.

The first Greek colony planted on Sicilian soil was Naxos, founded by Chalkidians from Euboia circa 734 BC. The coinage commences in the later part of the 6th century BC, emanating from mints such as Naxos, Zankle, Himera, Selinus and Akragas.

This area comprised fourteen districts arranged in the following approximate geographical sequence: Illyria; Epeiros; Corcyra; Thessaley; Akarnania; Aitolia; Lokris; Phokis; Boeotia; Euboia; Attica; Megaris; Aigina; Corinthia.

After the Persian defeat and withdrawal in 479 BC, Athens was mistress of the Aegean World and became a great cultural and political centre. The long Peloponnesian War, 431-404 BC, drained Athens of her wealth and ended with the capture of the city by the Spartans. Although prosperous again in the 4th century, Athens never fully regained her importance.

Corinth was occupied by Ptolemy I of Egypt from 308-306 BC, and her silver coinage ceased soon after. She joined the Achaean League in the 3rd century, but later opposed Rome and was utterly destroyed by the consul L. Mummius in 146 BC.

Lucania, an ancient district of southern Italy, extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia; to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium. It thus comprised almost all the modern province of the Basilicata, with the greater part of the province of Salerno and a portion of that of Cosenza. The precise limits were the river Silarus on the north-west, which separated it from Campania, and the Bradanus, which flows into the Gulf of Tarentum, on the north-east; while the two little rivers Laus and Crathis, flowing from the ridge of the Apennines to the sea on the west and east, marked the limits of the district on the side of the Bruttii.

Olbia is very ancient and was possibly founded by the Greeks, according to a local legend. It contains ruins dating from prehistoric times (Phoenician settlement) to the Roman Era, when it was an important port. During the Middle Ages it was the capital of the Giudicato of Gallura, one of the four independent states of Sardinia. Olbia was situated close to the mouths of the Hypanis and Borysthenes rivers, in an ideal trading position - hence its prosperity in Hellenistic times.

After 148 BC, following the defeat of Andriscus and the organization of Macedonia into a Roman province, output of the great silver mines was sent to the Thracian mints of Maroneia and Thasos for conversion to coinage.