A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a government. Coins often have images, numerals, or text on them. The faces of coins or medals are sometimes called the obverse and the reverse, referring to the front and back sides, respectively. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it often depicts the head of a prominent person, and the reverse is known as tails.
The first metal coins – invented in the ancient Greek world and disseminated during the Hellenistic period – were precious metal–based, and were invented in order to simplify and regularize the task of measuring and weighing bullion (bulk metal) carried around for the purpose of transactions. They carried their value within the coins themselves, but the stampings also induced manipulations, such as the clipping of coins to remove some of the precious metal.Sancinito, Jane E. "Like a Bad Penny: Ancient Numismatics in the Ancient World." Expedition: The Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 60, no. 2. (2018): 12-23: "The first people to use coins were from modern Turkey, right around 600 BCE. Their coins were different from ours today, less regular and made from precious metal, a mix of gold and silver known as electrum, but their experience, as they went to market or paid their taxes, was similar to mine in the coffee shop. They looked at the lumps of metal in their hand and tried to figure out how much money they had left, and whether they had been cheated. Current research suggests that coins were invented to simplify and regularize this task. Amounts of metal were measured to specific levels of purity and then stamped with an official mark, thereby speeding up transactions and, for the first time in history, guaranteeing certain pieces of metal were trustworthy. The idea caught on quickly, spreading through Western Asia Minor before being adopted by the city-states of Archaic Greece."
Most modern coinage metals are base metal, and their value comes from their status as fiat money — the value of the coin is established by law. In the last hundred years, the face value of circulated coins has occasionally been lower than the value of the metal they contain, primarily due to inflation. If the difference becomes significant, the issuing authority may decide to withdraw these coins from circulation, possibly issuing new equivalents with a different composition, or the public may decide to melt the coins down or hoard them (see Gresham's law). Currently coins are used as money in everyday transactions, circulating alongside banknotes. Usually, the highest value coin in circulation (excluding bullion coins) is worth less than the lowest-value note. Coins are usually more efficient than banknotes because they last longer: banknotes last only about four years, compared with 30 years for a coin.U.S. Currency: Financial Benefit of Switching to a $1 Coin Is Unlikely, but Changing Coin Metal Content Could Result in Cost SavingsLawmakers (again) propose replacing $1 bills with coins
Exceptions to the rule of face value being higher than content value currently occur for bullion coins made of copper, silver, or gold (and rarely other metals, such as platinum or palladium), intended for collectors or investors in precious metals. Examples of modern gold collector/investor coins include the British sovereign minted by the United Kingdom, the American Gold Eagle minted by the United States, the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf minted by Canada, and the Krugerrand, minted by South Africa. While the Eagle and Sovereign coins have nominal (purely symbolic) face values, the Krugerrand does not. Commemorative coins usually serve as collector's items only, although some countries also issue commemorative coins for regular circulation, such as the 2€ commemorative coins and U.S. America the Beautiful quarters.
History Tongbei in Bronze Age China (c. 1100 BC) In the late Chinese Bronze Age, standardized cast tokens were made, such as those discovered in a tomb near Anyang. These were replicas in bronze of earlier Chinese currency, cowrie shells, so they were named "Bronze Shells".
China Henan coin factory (c. 640 – 550 BC) The world's oldest known coin factory has been excavated in the ancient city Guanzhuang in Henan province in China. The factory produced shovel-shaped bronze coins between 640 B.C. and 550 B.C., making it the oldest securely dated minting site.
Iron Age Lydian and Ionian electrum coins (c. 600 BC)
The earliest coins are mostly associated with Iron Age Anatolia of the late 7th century BC, and especially with the kingdom of LydiaM. Kroll, review of G. Le Rider's La naissance de la monnaie, Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 80 (2001), p. 526. D. Sear, Greek Coins and Their Values Vol. 2, Seaby, London, 1979, p. 317. perhaps during the reign of Gyges, more certainly as electrum coins minted for king Alyattes of Lydia (died ).A. Ramage, "Golden Sardis", King Croesus' Gold: Excavations at Sardis and the History of Gold Refining, edited by A. Ramage and P. Craddock, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2000, p. 18.
Early electrum coins (an alluvial alloy of gold and silver, varying wildly in proportion, and usually about 40–55% gold) were not standardized in weight, and in their earliest stage may have been ritual objects, such as badges or medals, issued by priests."The Types of Greek Coins" An Archaeological Essay (PDF) by Percy Gardner 1883 p.42 "Considering these and other facts it may be held to be probable, if not absolutely proved, that priests first issued stamped coin, and that the first mints were in Greek temples." The unpredictability of the composition of naturally occurring electrum implied that it had a variable value, which greatly hampered its development.
Most of the early Lydian coins include no writing ("legend" or "inscription"), only an image of a symbolic animal. Therefore, the dating of these coins relies primarily on archaeological evidence, with the most commonly cited evidence coming from excavations of the foundation deposit at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, also called the Ephesian Artemision (which would later evolve into one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). This was the site of the earliest known deposit of electrum coins inscribed as Phanes, dated to 625–600 BC from Ephesus in Ionia, with the legend ΦΑΕΝΟΣ ΕΜΙ ΣHΜΑ (or similar) ("I am the badge/sign/mark of Phanes/light") or just bearing the name ΦΑΝΕΟΣ ("of Phanes"). Anatolian Artemis was the Πότνια Θηρῶν (Potnia Thêrôn, "Mistress of Animals"), whose symbol was the stag. It took some time before ancient coins were used for commerce and trade. Even the smallest-denomination electrum coins, perhaps worth about a day's subsistence, would have been too valuable for buying a loaf of bread."Hoards, Small Change, and the Origin of Coinage", Journal of the Hellenistic Studies 84 (1964), p. 89 Maybe the first coins to be used for retailing on a large-scale basis were likely small silver fractions, hemiobol, Ancient Greek coinage minted by the Ionian Greeks in the late sixth century BC.M. Mitchiner, Ancient Trade and Early Coinage, Hawkins Publications, London, 2004, p. 214
In contrast Herodotus mentioned the innovation made by the Lydians:
And both Aristotle (fr. 611,37, ed. V. Rose) and Pollux (Onamastikon IX.83), mention that the first issuer of coinage was Hermodike/Demodike of Cyme. Cyme was a city in Aeolia, nearby Lydia.
Many early Lydian and Greek coins were minted under the authority of private individuals and are thus more akin to tokens or badges than to modern coins,G. Hanfmann, pp. 73, 77. R. Seaford, p. 128, points out, "The nearly total lack of … coins in the excavated commercial-industrial areas of Sardis suggests that they were concentrated in the hands of the king and possibly wealthy merchants." though due to their numbers it is evident that some were official state issues.
Bullion and unmarked metals (6th century BC)
Metal ingots, silver bullion or unmarked bars were probably in use for exchange among many of the civilizations that mastered metallurgy. The weight and purity of bullion would be the key determinant of value. In the Achaemenid Empire in the early 6th century BC, coinage was yet unknown. The barter system, as well as silver bullion were used instead for trade. The practice of using silver bars for currency also seems to have been current in Central Asia from the 6th century BC.Discovery of a hoard of currency with silver bars near Malayer, dated circa 600 BCE, with photographs in Coins were an evolution of "currency" systems of the Late Bronze Age, when various cultures used standard-sized ingots and tokens such as knife money to store and transfer value. Phoenician metal ingots had to be stamped with the name of a current ruler to guarantee their worth and value, which is probably how stamping busts and designs began, although political advertising – glorification of a state or of a ruler – may also play a role.
Croesus: Pure gold and silver coins (c. 560–546 BC)
The successor of Alyattes, king Croesus (r. c. 560–546 BC), became associated with great wealth in Greek historiography. He is credited with issuing the Croeseid, the first true gold coins with a standardized purity for general circulation. and the world's first bimetallic monetary system c. 550 BC.
Coins spread rapidly in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, leading to the development of Ancient Greek coinage and Achaemenid coinage, and further to Illyrian coinage.
Achaemenid coinage (546–330 BC)
When Cyrus the Great (550–530 BC) came to power, coinage was unfamiliar in his realm. Barter and to some extent silver bullion was used instead for trade. The practice of using silver bars for currency also seems to have been current in Central Asia from the 6th century.
Cyrus the Great introduced coins to the Persian Empire after 546 BC, following his conquest of Lydia and the defeat of its king Croesus, who had put in place the first coinage in history. With his conquest of Lydia, Cyrus acquired a region in which coinage was invented, developed through advanced metallurgy, and had already been in circulation for about 50 years, making the Lydian Kingdom one of the leading trade powers of the time. It seems Cyrus initially adopted the Lydian coinage as such, and continued to strike Lydia's lion-and-bull coinage.
Original coins of the Achaemenid Empire were issued from 520 BC – 450 BC to 330 BC. The Persian daric was the first truly Achaemenid gold coin which, along with a similar silver coin, the Siglos, represented the bimetallic monetary standard of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.Michael Alram, "DARIC", Encyclopaedia Iranica, December 15, 1994, last updated November 17, 2011
Coinage of Southern Asia under the Achaemenid Empire