The birth of minted money

The emergence of coins

History of Coinage

The emergence of coins

Lydian and Ionian origins of coins
Geographical distribution and regional adaptations

We have now arrived at the central topic: the appearance of coins. The term 'coin' is stressed because previous sections established that monetary systems existed in civilizations preceding the Lydians, Greeks, and Persians. This section, therefore, is dedicated to the emergence of coins proper.

Lydian and Ionian origins of coins

To begin, consider this excerpt from Glyn Davies' book, A History of Money: From Ancient Times to the Present Day:

From its birthplace in Lydia and Ionia the knowledge and use of coins spread rapidly east into the Persian empire and west through the rest of the Ionian and Aegean islands to mainland Greece, and then to its western colonies, especially Sicily. It also spread northward to Macedonia, Thrace and the Black Sea, but it was only partially, reluctantly and belatedly accepted in Egypt.

It is notable that in Egypt, coins continued to be weighed long after the advent of minted coinage. The quote continues:

Similarly, mainland Italy also was at first rather slow in accepting the Greek financial innovations, in contrast to the speed with which they were adopted by Sicily.

Apart from these two limited exceptions (continental Italy and Lower Egypt), the use of coinage spread rapidly around the countries bordering the central and eastern Mediterranean, as well as across the vast and growing Persian Empire, from Mesopotamia to India. It remains unclear whether India had already independently developed an embryonic monetary system by this time, independently of Chinese or Lydian developments. Regardless of whether India had independently developed its own currency, the increasing contacts between India and the Near East led to Indian coinage being a direct adaptation of Lydian and Greek invention, first through the Persian Empire and then the Macedonian Empire (with the conquests of Alexander the Great and his father).

For these reasons, the direct influence of any indigenous Indian invention of money was minor, compared to the overwhelming importance of the clearly independent monetary inventions of China to the east, and even more so of Lydian and Greek developments to the west

Geographical distribution and regional adaptations

To illustrate this period, the image above shows a coin from the Bactrian region, located near the western edge of the Indian peninsula and modern-day Afghanistan. Coins from this area were likely inspired by Greek prototypes and feature local royal figures.