THE FIRST COINS
Image courtesy Stack's Rare Coins
The first coins were struck in the Kingdom of Lydia in what is now Turkey in the 7th Century B.C.E. The coins were crude pieces, made from a natural alloy of gold and silver called electrum. As you can see, small lumps of this metal were stamped with a design on one side and a punch on the other. This coin shows a lion which represents Lydia -- in other versions a lion and a bull (Persia) fighting with each other were pictured if the constant wars between the two kingdoms were active.
King Croesus of Lydia was credited with inventing the bimetallic coinage system, where coins of gold and silver circulated side by side. This allowed a stable coinage of fixed value.
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