The Ancient Greek Alphabet

The Greek alphabet changed over time and the letters sometimes took different appearances in the different regions of the Greek world.

There are many published tables of the known forms of ancient Greek letters. This table provides the letter forms linked to a ‘primary source’ — an inscription, or ‘legend’, on an ancient coin.

Name	Character	Common	Unusual
Alpha	Α A		(2) (3m)
Beta	Β B		(5) (?)
Gamma	Γ G		(2) (7)
Delta	Δ D
Epsilon	Ε E	(2)
Stigma	Ϛ	(2)
Digamma	F
Zeta	Ζ Z	(2)
Eta	Η H		(2)
Theta	Θ TH	(2) (3)	(7)
Iota	Ι I
Kappa	Κ K
Lambda	Λ L
Mu	Μ M
Nu	Ν N		(3)
Xi	Ξ X	(2)
Omicron	Ο O
Pi	Π P	(2) (3)
San	M		(2)
Koppa	Q
Rho	Ρ R		(6)
Sigma	Σ S	(9)	(5)
Tau	Τ T
Upsilon	Υ Y	(2)
Phi	Φ PH
Chi	Χ CH
Psi	Ψ PS	(2)
Omega	Ω O	(2)
Sampi	{Sampi} SS		(2) (4)

The numbers after the letters correspond to names in the Numismatica Archaic and Classical Greek font.

See also the Font tables from the Historia Numorum.

Coin images provided courtesy of the wildwinds.com database and are the property of the copyright holders. Coin image databases CoinArchives.com and Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum are also linked.

The following coin provided a Stigma which I was not able to find elsewhere. It was provided by parthia.com. It is a Parthian Tetradrachm of Vardanes I, AD 40-45, Sear GIC 5787.

(photo WCNC)

Note that the identification of the Gamma02 on the diobol of Arados is from Babelon, Perses Achimenides, p. 150 and might not be correct. Babelon might have read it wrong or I might have misunderstood what he was saying.