When were the first coins made?
The history of coins extends from ancient times to the present. Coins are still widely used for monetary and other purposes. Any history of coins is going to be very incomplete, money being a central theme in human history since its invention. One could approach the history of minting technologies, the history shown by the images on coins, the history of economics, the history of coin collecting or collectors, or many other topics. A recently published history of the greatest treasures and hoards ever found is fascinating reading. Many histories have been published of the politics around the creation of a single coin, notably the crime of 1873 and its connection to silver coinage of the United States. The history of mining, and various gold and silver rushes and their associated pioneer coining efforts are also extremely interesting reading. Even something as lowly as the history of counterfeiting leads one in a thousand interesting directions. Numismatics is, by its very nature, the s
A coin is a piece of metal of a given weight and alloy with the mark or stamp of those who issued it. The first coins were made in the seventh century B.C. by the Lydians. They were a wealthy and Powerful people living in Asia Minor. These primitive coins were made of “electrum” which is a natural composition of 75 per cent gold and 25 per cent silver. They were about the size and shape of a bean and were known as “staters” or “standards”. The Greeks saw these coins and appreciated the usefulness of standard metal money, so they began to make coins, too. About 100 years later, many cities on the mainland of Greece and Asia Minor, on the islands of the Aegean Sea and Sicily, and in southern Italy had coinages of their own. Gold coins were the most valuable. Next came silver and finally copper. Greek coinage lasted for about 500 years. The Romans adopted the idea and carried it on for about another 500 years. Then the art of coinage declined. From the year 500 to about 1400, coins were t
