Ancient Coins: Lydian Gold Considered First Coins in the World (2024)

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What is the first coin in the world? ›

The Oldest Coin in the World

According to different scholars, the Lydian stater is considered the world's oldest coin still around. Made of a mix of gold and silver called electrum, these early coins were minted around 600 BCE in the kingdom of Lydia in the modern country of Turkey.

The Ying yuan is an early gold coin minted in ancient China. The oldest ones known are from about the 5th or 6th century BC. Larger units such as the various talent measures (26 to up to 60 kg) were used for high value exchanges (similar to today's 400-troy-ounce (12.4 kg) "good delivery" gold bullion bar).

According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to use gold and silver coins and the first to establish retail shops in permanent locations. It is not known, however, whether Herodotus meant that the Lydians were the first to use coins of pure gold and pure silver or the first precious metal coins in general.

True coinage began soon after 650 bc. The 6th-century Greek poet Xenophanes, quoted by the historian Herodotus, ascribed its invention to the Lydians, “the first to strike and use coins of gold and silver.” King Croesus of Lydia (reigned c.

The current price of Lydia Finance is $0.000659 per LYD.

The Lydian stater was composed of electrum, a naturally-occurring gold-silver alloy; though the coins are often reported to be struck from this naturally-occurring alloy, they were actually made from a specific and rather consistent mix of approximately 55% gold, 45% silver, and a small balance of copper.

The Oldest Coin in the World. Created over 2,700 years ago, but now located in the British Museum, is the Lydian Lion, the oldest coin in the world. It is a one-sided design featuring a roaring lion, the emblem of the Lydian Kings who created it around 610-600 BC.

The aureus ( pl. aurei, 'golden', used as a noun) was a gold coin of ancient Rome originally valued at 25 pure silver denarii (sin. denarius). The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the solidus.

American coinage (1792 - c.

The first coin minted under the act, and therefore the first official coin of the United States, was the half disme. According to legend these first half disme coins were minted from Martha Washington's silverware.

The Lydians were said to be the originators of gold and silver coins. During their brief hegemony over Asia Minor from the middle of the 7th to the middle of the 6th century bc, the Lydians profoundly influenced the Ionian Greeks to their west.

What was the first metal coin? ›

The world's first coins appeared around 600 B.C., jingling around in the pockets of the Lydians, a kingdom tied to ancient Greece and located in modern-day Turkey. They featured the stylized head of a lion and were made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver.

World's Earliest Coins

True coins, made of electrum--a mineral combining gold and at least 20 percent silver--were first minted in the ancient kingdoms of Lydia and Ionia. Around 560-546 BC, the Lydians learned to separate the gold from the silver in electrum and began to mint gold coins.

The first gold coins of this time period were issued by the State of Chu during the Warring States period. These coins are called Ying Yuan and the earliest examples date back to around 600 or 500 BCE.

The oldest coin still in circulation is the 10-centimes coin, produced by Federal Mint Swissmint (Switzerland) since 1879. The 10 centimes coins minted from 1879 onwards have had the same composition, size, design and are still legal tender and found in circulation.

It has featured the profile of Queen Elizabeth II since the original coin's introduction on 21 April 1983.

Their coinage began with the kings Sadyattes and Alyattes. This particular coin is of the earliest variety of Lydian coins, most commonly dated to 630-620 BCE during the reign of Sadyattes. It is dramatically rarer than the subsequent issues, minted during only a short period and with few dies.

However, there are some 400 series of early electrum coins: many of them can be roughly classified and dated, yet we do not know who had them minted, not to mention the particular occasion and historical circ*mstances.

The Fugio cent, also known as the Franklin cent, is the first official circulation coin of the United States. Consisting of 0.36 oz (10 g) of copper and minted dated 1787, by some accounts it was designed by Benjamin Franklin.

Numismatic historians agree that the Lydian stater was the very first coin officially issued by a government and it served as the model for virtually all subsequent coinage everywhere. Unlike other tokens, or items used in barter, coins are issued by a central authority or government.

Lydia, or modern-day Turkey, is where the concept of coinage originated. The most famous of all Lydian coinage was the lion and bull coinage of King Croesus, who is known to have created the first bimetallic currency using gold and silver coinage nearly 2,600 years ago.

Where are the Lydian people from? ›

The Lydians (known as Sparda to the Achaemenids, Old Persian cuneiform 𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭) were Anatolian people living in Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spoke the distinctive Lydian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian group.

1. The 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar.

The 1849 Double Eagle is currently the rarest and most valuable coin in the world, with an estimated worth of nearly $20 million.

Ancient coins are typically very rare, and they often possess an intrinsic historical or artistic value that makes them unique and highly sought-after. Due to these factors, ancient coins can appreciate in value very quickly, making them potentially rewarding investments.

The fineness or purity of the metal used for gold and silver coinages was also closely monitored. Throughout Greek and Roman times, gold coins were consistently of very high purity, usually more than 95 per cent pure gold.

The downside is that these older coins, often called numismatic coins, cost more than just their gold value. Because of their collectible nature, old gold coins often fetch more per ounce than bullion coins.

The US mint produced millions of gold coins each year, with editions like the $20 St. Gaudens (1907-1933) and the $20 Liberty Gold Double Eagle (1849 – 1907), and around a dozen others.

Buying Pre-1933 U.S. gold coins

Although called "common dates," these coins are actually quite scarce. Of the many millions originally minted, almost all were heavily used in circulation during the 1800s and early 1900s, and many were melted down during the federal gold recall in the 1930s.

The first coins struck in the North American Colonies were silver shillings, sixpences, and threepences, made by silversmiths John Hull and Robert Sanderson at a mint in Boston from 1652 to 1682, by order of the general court of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Who made the first gold coins? ›

The Lydians were an iron age kingdom located in Anatolia or Asia Minor and are credited with the first use of gold coinage as currency. Ancient mythology states that the Lydians received their gold from the river that King Midas used to wash away his ability to turn things into gold.

The Lydians were the first people to develop coins, starting in about the 7th Century B.C. They used a metal called electrum to create metal discs that were used for payments during trade. Electrum is a mixture of the elements silver and gold that can be found in nature.

Coinage probably developed in Lydia because it was a trading centre and possessed large gold supplies. Before coins, payments were made with metal bullion or by barter. To establish its value metal was checked for purity and weighed. The Lydians minted coins of consistent weight and purity to speed up transactions.

Copper was first used by man over 10,000 years ago. A copper pendant discovered in what is now northern Iraq has been dated about 8700 B.C. For nearly five millennia copper was the only metal known to man, and thus had all the metal applications.

Ionian hemiobol coins

The prosperous Ionian city of Cyme, which neighboured Lydia, began to mint coins in around 600-500 BC, and its horse head-stamped hemiobol coins are widely regarded as history's second oldest coins.

Kadphises II was the Kushana emperor to first introduce gold coinage, in addition to the existing copper and silver coinage. Most of the gold seems to have been obtained through trade with the Roman Empire.

The British pound is the world's oldest currency still in use at around 1,200 years old. Dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, the pound has gone through many changes before evolving into the currency we recognise today. The British pound is both the oldest and one of the most traded currencies​ in the world.

Dollar coins were first minted in the United States in 1794. While true gold dollars are no longer minted, the Sacagawea, Presidential, and American Innovation dollars are sometimes referred to as golden dollars because of their color.

The pound coin (£1) was introduced in 1983 to replace the Bank of England £1 banknote which was discontinued in 1984 (although the Scottish banks continued producing them for some time afterwards; the last of them, the Royal Bank of Scotland £1 note, is still issued in a small volume as of 2021).

The oldest coin still in circulation is the 10-centimes coin, produced by Federal Mint Swissmint (Switzerland) since 1879. The 10 centimes coins minted from 1879 onwards have had the same composition, size, design and are still legal tender and found in circulation.

What is the oldest U.S. gold coin? ›

The first American gold coin, the 1787 Brasher Doubloon.

In 1831, the first gold dollar was minted, at the private mint of Christopher Bechtler in North Carolina.

The Mint delivered the nation's first circulating coins on March 1, 1793: 11,178 copper cents. These new cents caused a bit of a public outcry.

According to the blog ChangeChecker, the rarest one pound coin currently in circulation is the Edinburgh £1. The coin was part of a series depicting the four capital cities of the UK and is the only £1 coin with a mintage below one million.

Electrum Staters

The first coins of the world, minted in electrum, were staters and their fractional parts. The most common size of the earliest coins was the 1/6th stater – called a “Hekte.” These small coins were about 10 mm in diameter and were not the smallest denomination.

The old £1 coin launched in 1983, replacing the old £1 banknote, and went out of circulation in October 2017. It has been replaced by a thinner, lighter 12-sided coin. The old round coins are no longer legal tender, and shops, restaurants and other retailers aren't accepting them.