There’s something about coins that fascinates people everywhere; perhaps it is because each one carries a valuable piece of history with it, maybe it is the ancient and antique artwork that attracts some collectors, and let us not leave out the fact that part of the reason that many collect coins is because a coin collection can be a wise investment since they get more valuable with age. 

Whatever the reason, coin collecting has been a popular hobby for many for ages.  On this site you will learn about coins from all periods in time, from all over the globe, but let us first begin with a history of ancient coins – keep in mind that there are so many facets behind the history of coinage including minting, artwork and images, collecting, economics, etc., that we thought it best not to cover it all in detail in this article, but you can follow the links in this article and browse the site for more detail.

The Early History of Coins 

Coins originated out of the desire to make the bartering process easier, and from their earliest inception, coins were made of metals, and often silver and gold.  The amount of gold or silver in the coin determined how much it was worth – whereas today it is the face value, rather than the actual value of a coin that determines its worth.  One of the earliest written accounts of the use of gold and silver used as money is the Biblical account of Abraham using shekels of silver (bars) for a purchase in the cave of Machpelah.  A Shekel in the Bible was a unit of silver or gold. 

Thanks to a recent discovery, the earliest known coins date back to 2000 to 4000 B.C. Turkey at a Thracian site in Tekirda, where archeologists found over 477 ancient coins.

Coins date as far back as the 11^th century B.C. in the East, we know this because the first cast copper coins from the Shang Dynasty have been found in a Chinese tomb. 

Western cast coins date back to at least 643 to 630 B.C. in Lydia.  These pale yellow coins were made of a naturally occurring mixture of silver and gold called electrum   The Lydians would take a fixed amount of electrum of a certain purity level and make them into bean shaped balls and then stamp them with official symbols.  By 550 B.C., coins were being struck throughout the world.

By the first century, the Roman empire was producing coins with the images of emperors on them.  The Byzantine Empire produced coins including very thin gold coins that beared Byzantine emperors as well as the Christian cross. 

While the Romans portrayed Emporers and crosses on their coins, the Greeks portrayed their gods and goddesses.  These early Greek and Roman are quite popular today among collectors.

Many ancient coins also originated in Persia.  Under Cyrus the Great between 600 B.C. and 529 B.C., the Persian Empire became very powerful, and captured Sardis in Lydia in 546 B.C..  Persians then started making their own coins in Lydia (since they were already making coins – one of the earliest civilizations to make them).  In 521 Darius I became king and issued his own gold coins:  the famous “Darics” or “archers,” which portrayed a kneeling King Darius holding a bow and a spear.  Subsequent leaders Xerxes and Alaxerxes continued issueing Darics.  These days, many Darics are listed as ancient Greek coins.

In 1279 the Mongols developed a coinage system which was used until 1878, little is known about them since these medeival Islamic coins have not been studied much.  Perhaps because they did not have portraits like other coins?  Islamic/Arabic coins before the 20^th century had only inscriptions, often from the Koran, since the Koran prohibits graven images. 

In the far east, silver was most widely used for coinage.  Early Asian ingots were cast from silver and then marked with the purity of the piece of silver, the merchant, and the denomination.  Round coins did not appear in Japan until 1870 and did not surface in China until1889.

In the rest of the world, coins were struck by hand until around 1500, when the Italians started using mills to punch out uniformly round “planchets,” and then using screw presses to create images on them. 

By the time the Americas were discovered, most civilizations were issuing their own coinage.  While colonists did use British coinage (as well as other European money), they saw a need to create their own, too, and since silver was prevalent in colonial times, they began creating and using large silver pieces.   By 1792, an official U.S. mint was created, and the rest is numismatic history.

Related posts:

1. A History of Coin Collecting
2. The History of the Quarter
3. Collecting Antique Coins
4. Valuable Coins
5. The Nickel Coin

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