Coin
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 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.
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. Currently coins are used as money in everyday transactions, circulating alongside banknotes. Usually, the highest value coin in circulation 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.
Exceptions to the rule of face value being higher than content value currently occur for bullion coins made of copper, silver, or gold, 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 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 Shell".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 Lydia perhaps during the reign of Gyges, more certainly as electrum coins minted for king Alyattes of Lydia.Early electrum coins were not standardized in weight, and in their earliest stage may have been ritual objects, such as badges or medals, issued by priests. 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, 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. 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 just bearing the name ΦΑΝΕΟΣ. Anatolian Artemis was the Πότνια Θηρῶν, 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. 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.
In contrast Herodotus mentioned the innovation made by the Lydians:
And both Aristotle and Pollux, 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, 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. 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, 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 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.
Coinage of Southern Asia under the Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire already reached the doors of India during the original expansion of Cyrus the Great, and the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley is dated to c. 515 BC under Darius I. An Achaemenid administration was established in the area. The Kabul hoard, also called the Chaman Hazouri hoard, is a coin hoard discovered in the vicinity of Kabul, Afghanistan, containing numerous Achaemenid coins as well as many Greek coins from the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The deposit of the hoard is dated to the Achaemenid period, in approximately 380 BC. The hoard also contained many locally produced silver coins, minted by local authorities under Achaemenid rule. Several of these issues follow the "western designs" of the facing bull heads, a stag, or Persian column capitals on the obverse, and incuse punch on the reverse.According to numismatist Joe Cribb, these finds suggest that the idea of coinage and the use of punch-marked techniques was introduced to India from the Achaemenid Empire during the 4th century BC. More Achaemenid coins were also found in Pushkalavati and in Bhir Mound.
Greek Archaic coinage (until about 480 BC)
According to Aristotle and Pollux, the first issuer of Greek coinage was Hermodike of Kyme.A small percentage of early Lydian/Greek coins have a legend. The most ancient inscribed coin known is from nearby Caria. This coin has a Greek legend reading phaenos emi sema interpreted variously as "I am the badge of Phanes", or "I am the sign of light". The Phanes coins are among the earliest of Greek coins; a hemihekte of the issue was found in the foundation deposit of the temple of Artemis at Ephesos. One assumption is that Phanes was a mercenary mentioned by Herodotus, another that this coin is associated with the primeval god Phanes or "Phanes" might have been an epithet of the local goddess identified with Artemis. Barclay V. Head found these suggestions unlikely and thought it more probably "the name of some prominent citizen of Ephesus".
Another candidate for the site of the earliest coins is Aegina, where Chelone coins were first minted c. 700 BC. Coins from Athens and Corinth appeared shortly thereafter, known to exist at least since the late 6th century BC.