History of coins

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The history of coins extends from ancient times to the present. Coins are still widely used for monetary and other purposes. Any history of coins is going to be very incomplete, money being a central theme in human history since its invention. One could approach the history of minting technologies, the history shown by the images on coins, the history of economics, the history of coin collecting or collectors, or many other topics.

A recently published history of the greatest treasures and hoards ever found is fascinating reading. Many histories have been published of the politics around the creation of a single coin, notably the crime of 1873 and its connection to silver coinage of the United States. The history of mining, and various gold and silver rushes and their associated pioneer coining efforts are also extremely interesting reading. Even something as lowly as the history of counterfeiting leads one in a thousand interesting directions. Numismatics is, by its very nature, the study of history. Coins have often been referred to as "History in Your Hands."

In a tomb of Shang Dynasty dating back to 11th century BC shows what may be the first cast copper money.

All western histories of coins begin with their invention at some time slightly before or after 600 BC in Lydia. Since that time, coins have been the most universal embodiment of money. These first coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow mixture of gold and silver that was further alloyed with silver and copper.

Also the Persian coins were very famous in the Persian and Sassanids era. There are lots of coins that have been found in Susa and in Ctesiphon

The most famous and widely collected coins of antiquity are Roman coins and Greek coins.

The Byzantine Empire minted many coins, including very thin gold coins bearing the image of the Christian cross and various Byzantine emperors.

Many coins are circular but some were rectangular.

[edit] Minting Technologies

Ancient coins were produced through a process of hitting a hammer positioned over an anvil. The Chinese produced primarily cast coinage. Relatively few non Chinese cast coins were produced by governments, however it was a common practice amongst counterfeiters. Since the early 1700s, presses have been used, beginning with screw presses and progressing in the 1800s towards steam driven presses. Recently modern minting techniques involving electric and hydraulic presses have been more commonly employed.

[edit] See also

• Coinage Metals
• Counterfeit
• Currency
• Numismatics

[edit] External links

• World Coin Gallery - Self-proclaimed largest coin site in the world, with over 10,000 coins
• World's First Coin The Lydian Lion
• 中国古銭譜("Chinese old coins directory", site in Japanese with texts and photos of many Chinese, Japanese, Korean&Vietnamese old coins)
• 中国造币--钱币鉴赏("Chinese made coins-seeing coins", site in Simplified Chinese about Chinese coins)
• Ancient Greek Coins: Free Coin Organizer
• Museum of Bank notes and Coins(in Japanese)