- by cam
Spartan coin was iron rods - ie rusty nails.
Old rusty nails via Husard's flickr photostream
Sparta was quite a backward state. At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War their monetary system was based on iron rods; not gold or other precious coins - basically they traded rusty nails as currency. Since the Greeks were always loose confederations of city-states that formed alliances largely based upon their political systems; Athenian democracy vs Spartan Oligarchy or Tyranny, statecraft was a valuable tool. Wealth entered into that and this area Athens had it all over Sparta. Paying for an extended war with rusty nails probably does not inspire confidence in oligarchic allies.
.
