Lydian electrum coinage
The kingdom of Lydia, in modern-day western Turkey, minted the first standardized coins under King Alyattes and his son Croesus. The coins were lumps of electrum, a natural gold-silver alloy from the Pactolus River, stamped with a lion's head or paw. Weight and purity were guaranteed by the royal seal. Trade no longer required weighing metal at every transaction. Greek city-states copied the technique within decades, and by 550 BC Croesus had issued the first pure-gold and pure-silver coin pair.
Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, credits the Lydians with inventing coinage and retail shopping at roughly the same time. The two inventions plausibly depended on each other.
02 · Coined Metal
Money became portable, durable, and unforgeable (in theory) when sovereigns started stamping their seal onto standardized metal. Lydia minted the first coins in the 7th century BC. Within two hundred years, coinage had spread from the Aegean to India to the Yellow River. Trust moved from the object to the ruler who minted it.
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