Coins

A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender.

Coins are usually metal or a metallic material and sometimes made of synthetic materials, usually in the shape of a disc, and most often issued by a government. Coins are used as a form of money in transactions of various kinds, from the everyday circulation coins to the storage of large numbers of bullion coins. In the present day, coins and banknotes make up currency, the cash forms of all modern money systems. Coins made for paying bills and general monetized use are usually used for lower-valued units, and banknotes for the higher values; also, in many money systems, the highest value coin made for circulation is worth less than the lowest-value note. In the last hundred years, the face value of circulation coins has usually been higher than the gross value of the metal used in making them; exceptions occurring when inflation causes the metal value to surpass the face value, causing the minting authority to change the composition and the old coins to begin to disappear from circulation (see Gresham's Law.) However, this has generally not been the case throughout the rest of history for circulation coins made of precious metals.

Exceptions to the rule of coin face-value being higher than content value, also occur for some bullion coins made of 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 American Gold Eagle minted by the United States, the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf minted by Canada, and the Krugerrand, minted by South Africa. The American Gold Eagle has a face value of US$50, and the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coins also have nominal (purely symbolic) face values (e.g., C$50 for 1 oz.); but the Krugerrand does not.

Historically, a great number of coinage metals (including alloys) and other materials (e.g. Porcelain) have been used practically, artistically, and experimentally in the production of coins for circulation, collection, and metal investment, where bullion coins often serve as more convenient stores of assured metal quantity and purity than other bullion.

Coins have long been linked to the concept of money, as reflected by the fact that in some other languages the words "coin" and "currency" are synonymous. Fictional currencies may also bear the name coin (as such, an item may be said to be worth 123 coin or 123 coins).

First coins:

Herodotus states (I, 94) that the Lydians 'were the first to coin in gold and silver'. Aristotle states that the first coins were struck by Demodike of Kyme, of Ancient Greece, who had married Midas, king of Pessinus, and had by him a son named Agamemnon.
Greek drachma of Aegina. Obverse: Land Chelone / Reverse: ΑΙΓ(INA) and dolphin. The oldest Aegina Chelone coins depicted sea turtles and were minted ca. 700-550 BC.

Some archaeological and literary evidences suggest that the Indians invented coinage, somewhere between the 6th to 5th century BC. However, some numismatists consider coins to have originated ca. 600-550 BC in Anatolia, which corresponds to modern-day Turkey, in particular in the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia. Opponents of the Lydia scenario point to the fact that coins of that era have been totally absent from archeological finds in Sardis, capital of Lydia. A coin, by definition, is an object used to facilitate commerce and exchanges. The proponents of the Lydian Greek coins scenario admit the fact that they were likely not used in commerce or industry. Electrum coins were not standardized in weight and are considered by opponents as badges, medals or ceremonial objects issued by priests, rather than coins (actually the oldest of them have been discovered not in Lydia, but in an ancient Greek temple of Ephesos, a city colony built by the ancient Greeks in what is now Turkey).

The oldest coins are considered by other numismatists to be the Aegina Chelone coins which were minted ca. 700-550 BC, either by the local Aegina people or by Pheidon king of Argos (who first set the standards of weights and measures). In the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, there is a unique electrum stater of Aegina. The date of this coin can hardly be much later than about B.C. 700.

The Ancient Greeks spread the Anatolia practice (or vice versa) and extended it to commerce and trade. Coinage followed Greek colonization and influence first around the Mediterranean and soon after to North Africa (including Egypt), Syria, Persia, and the Balkans.

The first Lydian coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of silver and gold that was further alloyed with added silver and copper. Many early Lydian and Greek coins were undoubtedly minted under the authority of private individuals and are thus more akin to tokens or badges than true coins, though because of their numbers it's evident that some were official state issues, with King Alyattes of Lydia being a frequently mentioned originator of coinage.

Most of the early Lydian coins include no writing, called a "legend" or "inscription", only an image of a symbolic animal. Therefore the dating of these coins relies primarily on archeological evidence, with the most commonly cited evidence coming from excavations 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). The fact that the oldest lion head coins were discovered in that temple, and the fact that they were not used in commerce, strengthens the scenario that these coins found there may have actually been badges or medals that were issued by the priests of the temple of Artemis, and the name of the person who received the badge or medal was inscribed on it. Artemis in Anatolia was named Potnia Theron, which is translated as "mistress of the animals", and her symbol was the lion and the tiger.

A small percentage of early Lydian Greek coins have a legend.Set of three roman aurei depicting the rulers of the Flavian dynasty. Top to bottom: Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. 69-96 AD.

A famous early electrum coin, the most ancient inscribed coin at present known, is from nearby Caria, Asia Minor. This coin has a Greek legend reading "Phaenos emi sema"  which can be translated either as "I am the badge of Phanes" or as "I am the sign of light"  or maybe "I am the tomb of light" or "I am the tomb of Phanes". The celebrated coins of Phanes are known to be amongst the earliest of Greek coins, a hemihekte of the issue was found in the famous foundation deposit of the temple of Artemis at Ephesos (this deposit is considered the oldest deposit of electrum coins discovered). One assumption is that Phanes was a wealthy merchant, another that this coin is associated with Apollo-Phanes and, due to the Deer, with Artemis (twin sister of the god of light Apollo-Phaneos). Although only seven Phanes type coins were discovered, it is also notable that 20% of all early electrum coins also have the Lion (symbol of Artemis-Potnia Theron) and the sun burst (symbol of Apollo-Phaneos). Alternatively it is stated  that the inscribed Phanes maybe was the Halicarnassian mercenary of Amasis, mentioned by Herodotus, who escaped to the court of Cambyses, and became his guide in the invasion of Egypt in the year B.C. 527 or 525. According to Herodotus, this Phanes was buried alive by a sandstorm, together with 50000 Persian soldiers, while trying to conquer the temple of Amun–Zeus in Egypt. The fact that the Greek word "Phanes" also means light (or lamp), and the word "sema" also means tomb,makes this coin a famous and controversial one.

Another possible candidate for first metal coins come from China. The earliest known Chinese metal tokens were made ca. 900 BC, discovered in a tomb near Anyang.These were replicas in bronze of earlier Chinese money, cowry shells, so they were named Bronze Shell.

Most numismatists, however, regard these as well as later Chinese bronzes that were replicas of knives, spades, and hoes as money but not as coins because they did not at least initially carry a mark or marks certifying them to be of a definite exchange value.

Along with Anatolia and China, India also played a major part in the development of coinage. The first Indian coins were minted around the 6th century BC by the Mahajanapadas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The coins of this period were punch marked coins called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. The Mahajanapadas that minted their own coins included Gandhara,Kuntala, Kuru, Panchala, Shakya,Surasena, and Surashtra.

The earliest coins made of pure gold and silver were made by King Croesus of Lydia, son of Alyattes. Shortly afterward in the same region gold "darics" and silver "sigloi" were issued by the Achaemenid Empire of the Persians.

The first European coins are regarded as having been minted ca. 550 BC in Aegina, an island in the Aegean Sea, with coins of Athens and Corinth soon following. The first Roman coins, which were crude, heavy cast bronzes, were issued ca. 289 BC. The first European coin to use Arabic numerals to date the year in which the coin was minted was the Swiss 1424 St. Gallen silver Plappart.