Monetary Program of Ancient Greek Olympic Games (History and British Historiography of the XIX – Early ХХ Centuries)

Commemorative coins are one of the attributes of the modern Olympic movement, relating to the category of Games Product . Monetary program “Sochi 2014”, realized since 2011 is one of the most extensive and design diversified. The tradition to stamp out coins in the host city of the Olympic Games was established in Ancient Greece. They served not only as a means of exchange or as a store of value, ancient Greeks managed to make them works of art. Ancient authors’ data, concerning coinage site, time and type don’t give an accurate account of the coins we can reasonably call the “Olympic” ones. This problem has been solved by numismatologists from late XVIII century through the present. Their views of ancient “monetary program” differ. This article is focused on the special character of these discrepancies both in historical records and historiography