Before the Second World War, the birth of coinage in Asia Minor was generally placed at the beginning or in the first half of the seventh century B.C. But in 1951, E.S.G. Robinson, by reconsidering the coins (together with dumps immediately preceding them) found at the Ephesian Artemisium in 1904-5, insisted that coinage can hardly have begun in Asia Minor much earlier than about 630 B.C. Since then many scholars have accepted his opinion. In 1959, however, N.G.L. Hammond criticized this 'recent opinion', and put the first appearance of coins in Asia Minor in c. 687-77 B.C. on the strength of several pieces of evidence. I. Archaeological evidence. A. The coins and dumps from the Artemisium at Ephesus must have been coeval with other finds from it (700-590 B.C.). B. Two vases from Khaniale Tekke in Crete contained gold and silver dumps along with other objects (c. 800-650 B.C.). C. At Perachora the supposed dedication of an iron drachma which was demonetized as the result of the introduction of coinage at Corinth is dated to a time before 650-40 B.C., being judged from the unearthed stone with the dedicatory inscription. II. Literary evidence. A. Hermodike, a wife of Midas, struck coins (Heraclides Ponticus 11, 3). B. The gold coins of Gyges were held in high repute (Pollux 3,87; 7, 98). C. The first coinage of the Greek mainland was struck at Aegina by Pheidon of Argos (Strabo 358, 376; Marmor Parium 30; Etymologicum Magnum 613), who is said to have been contemporary with Gyges. Upon these I remark as follows. I.A, II. A,B are easily refuted. In his more recent study of the vases of I.B, the excavator dates their contents to the seventh century B.C., not c. 800-650 B.C. The Perachora inscription of I.C. may belong to as late as the first half of the sixth century B.C. Moreover, concernig the exact character of the undiscovered 'drachma', nothing decisive can be said. The iron spits found at Argive Heraeum seem to confirm the tradition (Orionis Etymologicum 118), which reports the dedication of the obsolete spits to Hera of Argos by Pheidon. But those spits are not necessarily taken as the tradition goes. There is also some doubt about the credibility of informations on Pheidon's coinage of II. C. Accordingly, Hammond's contention is not strong enough to deny the appropriateness of Robinson's conclusion, which is based on precise numismatical and archaeological research.

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A convincing explanation of the origin of the mysteries of Mithras has posed a challenge that several writers since the days of Franz Cumont have attempted to successfully resolve. According to Cumont, Mithraism was the Romanized form of Mazdaism which was subsequently established in Asia Minor as a mystic cult.
In this article, I surveyed the history of various proposed scientific theories about the secret formation of Mithraism in the eastern Roman provinces. Moreover, I analyzed the structure of the cult of the Tyrian god Melqart, compared it with the cult of Mithras, and found some significant similarities in both the myths and rituals of the two sects.

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