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What Is Money?
Money existed for centuries before the invention of coins. Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization, and ancient China developed sophisticated economies without coinage. Egyptian workers who built the pyramids were paid in loaves of bread, jars of beer, and other commodities.
Economists define "money" in terms of three functions:
- A store of value: You can save it
- A medium of exchange: You can trade it for other things
- A unit of account: You can use it to compare what different things are worth
Cows, cowrie shells, bronze tripods, bolts of cloth, and many other things served as cash in various ancient societies. Ancient Aztecs prized chocolate (cacao beans) as money. But cattle on the hoof and perishable foods were not very practical "stores of value." The earliest cash transaction in Western literature is recorded in the book of Genesis (23:16), wherein patriarch Abraham needs to buy a cave to bury his wife, Sarah, an event traditionally dated around 1850 BCE:
"[A]nd Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, [...] four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant."
Israel's modern currency is still called the shekel, but the shekels Abraham carefully weighed out on a pan balance were not coins, but bits of broken ingots. Archaeologists use the German word hacksilber to describe these chunks. There were various weight standards in the ancient Near East, but Abraham probably used the Babylonian shekel, which is about 11.5 grams. Abraham's 400 shekels of silver represented 148 troy ounces (US$10,784 as of this writing) and the buying power of silver mined with hand labor was vastly greater in the ancient world than it is in the present day. Exodus 21:32 set the value of an enslaved male at 30 shekels.
What Is A Coin?
The U.S. Mint's Coin Term Glossary offers this definition:
"A coin is a flat piece of metal issued by the government as money."
A widely accepted numismatic definition is: A coin is a piece of money that bears a stamp and conforms to a standard.
We expect coins to be metallic, but coins have been made from other materials, including porcelain, cardboard, leather and, most recently, plastic.
Click image to enlarge.
Ancient Coins
Ancient coins are similar in terms of compositions like Olympic medals and are generally made from gold, silver, and bronze. Actually, the earliest coins in the Western world, around 650 BCE, were made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver in varying proportions. These coins were minted in Lydia, a kingdom in the southwest corner of Anatolia. These coins are neither round nor flat but crudely produced with a deep punch mark on one side. The other side exhibits rough striations on the other and they were weighed with great precision. The standard unit of weight was the stater, which weighed about 14 grams. Since the metal was so valuable, fractions were issued in 1/2, 1/3, 1/6, 1/12, and the smallest pinhead-sized denomination known as the 1/96 stater.
Lydian king Croesus, whose wealth was legendary, ruled between 565 and 546 BCE. He introduced pure gold and pure silver coins in various denominations. Standardized coinage proved to be so convenient in trade that they soon caught the attention of Lydia's neighbors: the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Persians. Coins began carrying designs, mainly of animals, and inscriptions. The earliest known coin inscription, "I am the badge of Phanes" in Greek letters, appears on an electrum stater from the city of Ephesus, dated about 600 BCE. We don't know who Phanes was, though perhaps they were an official or a merchant.
Athens
Athens controlled one of the richest ancient silver deposits known as the Mines of Laurion about 37 miles southeast of the city. Wealth extracted by enslaved workers made Athens a mighty cultural, economic, military, and political power. On its coinage, the city stamped its patron goddess, Athena, and her companion, an owl, is on the reverse. Millions of owl tetradrachms containing about 17.2 grams of nearly pure silver were struck between 485 and 404 BCE. These coins circulated widely and have been found in hoards across the ancient world. One tetradrachm would have been several days' pay for a laborer.
Rome
Rome adopted the idea of coinage from its Greek neighbors. Lacking local sources of silver, the Roman Republic cast massive bronze coins during the 3rd century BCE, which are called aes grave ("heavy bronze") by numismatists. A typical example displayed the head of the god Janus, with one face looking backward to the past, the other forward to the future. The reverse shows the prow of a warship, below a bold Roman numeral "I" indicating the denomination, and these coins weighed up to 276 grams. These coins proved to be impractical and were gradually reduced to a more convenient size that were struck and not cast.
The most famous ancient coin, by far, is the "Eid Mar" denarius issued to pay the army of Brutus, Julius Caesar's assassin. Struck in 43 or 42 BCE in Greece, the coin bears a stern, bearded portrait of Brutus on the obverse, and two daggers, flanking a felt cap on the reverse. The cap is a pileus, given to enslaved Romans when they were freed. The inscription, "EID MAR," abbreviates a Latin phrase Eidibus Martiis ("on the Ides of March") referring to Caesar's murder on March 15, 44 BCE. Brutus is saying, in effect, "with daggers we gained our freedom from a dictator." About 100 genuine examples of this coin are known in silver and three that were struck in gold.
A radical transformation of Roman coinage came in 312 CE when the emperor Constantine at the time introduced the solidus, which weighed 4.5 grams. The coin was almost pure gold and struck to a standard of 72 coins to a 12-ounce Roman pound. On some solidi, Constantine appears to be gazing upward and this pose is described as "eyes to God." Constantine ended the official persecution of Christianity but waited to be baptized when he was on his deathbed in 337 CE. Pagan imagery, such as the winged goddess of Victory, remained on the coinage for generations.
Iconoclasm
During the 8th and 9th centuries, conflicts over religious images troubled the city Constantinople. Believing that veneration of icons was idolatry forbidden by the First Commandment, a series of "Iconoclast" emperors tried to suppress the practice. On imperial coinage, a plain cross replaced portraits of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, angels, and saints. Emperor Theofilos (or "Theophilus") who had ruled from 829 to 842 was the last Iconoclast. The reverse of his gold solidus coin bears a double-barred "Patriarchal" cross on three steps, surrounded by a Greek inscription: "Lord, Help Thy Servant." After about a year, Theofilos added a portrait of his son, future emperor Michael III, beside him on the obverse. This "sole reign" solidus is therefore scarce. When he came to the throne, Michael III ended Iconoclasm, restoring the image of Christ to the solidus denomination.
Medieval Coins
A good candidate for the title of the "last medieval coin" is during the starvation of Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI. He died fighting the Turkish assault that captured Constantinople, and this coin was struck during the siege of the city. Out of desperation improvisational methods were used, and crudely engraved dies on metal from church altar vessels produced coins to pay mercenaries defending the city walls. These coins were unknown until a small hoard turned up in Istanbul around 1974. The obverse bears a stick-figure image of Christ, the reverse carrying an equally crude bust of the emperor with a nearly illegible inscription: "Despot Constantine Palaeologos, by the Grace of God Emperor of the Romans." ("Despot" to Byzantines simply meant "sole ruler" without implying tyranny.)
The first question most collectors ask when encountering medieval coins is, "Why are they so crude?" As the Roman Empire disintegrated, the skill of rendering a realistic human figure on a coin die was lost and did not re-emerge until the Renaissance period. Medieval coins were often struck by for-profit contractors using temporary unskilled labor. Inscriptions were cut with simple punches by engravers who may have been illiterate. Frankish king Karl "the Great," better known by his French name, Charlemagne, lived from 748 to 814. He reformed coinage, issuing a standardized 1.6-gram silver denier or "penny" from mints across his empire. For centuries, his successors continued to strike coins bearing the monogram of his name, KARLVS.
Venice created one of history's great commercial and maritime empires. Venetians wrecked the Byzantine Empire, fought Ottoman sultans to a standstill, and defied popes and German emperors. They adorned their city with masterpieces of art and architecture that leaves tourists amazed in wonder to the present day. The quality and integrity of Venice's medieval coining operation was a big factor in the city's success. Introduced in 1284, the gold ducat of Venice became the most important international trade coinage of the Middle Ages. The obverse shows the Doge or "Duke" kneeling to receive a banner from the city's patron, Saint Mark. The reverse bears a standing image of Jesus surrounded by an abbreviated Latin inscription: "Sit Tibi Christe Datus Quem Tu Regis Iste Ducatus" (May it be Thine, O, Christ, this Duchy which You rule). The design, weight, and purity of the coin remained unchanged until the end of the Republic in 1797.
Click image to enlarge.
Click image to enlarge.
Modern Coins
The defining difference between medieval and modern coinage is the use of machines to replace hand-hammering. This was a slow process, often bitterly resisted by mint workers. In 1506, Italian architect Donato Bramante (1444-1514) created the first muscle-powered screw press for coins. Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks contain a design for a "blanking press" which was a machine to punch perfectly round coin blanks from sheet metal. Unfortunately, it was never built.
In 1512, a vast silver deposit was discovered at Joachimsthal in Bohemia, which is the modern day town of Jáchymov, Czech Republic. Minting of one of history's most influential coins soon began, the one-ounce silver "Joachimsthaler," shortened to thaler, taler, daler, and eventually the dollar. Widely imitated, the coin was struck in 800-fine silver. The obverse bears the image of Saint Joachim, who is the father of the Virgin Mary, and the arms of a local noble, the Count of Schlick. The reverse bears Bohemia's crowned rampant lion and the name of Ludwig I, king of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia (1506-1526). Spain's thaler-sized eight real coin, known as the "Spanish milled dollar," inspired the first U.S. dollar in the 1790s.
In 1696, mathematician-scientist Sir Isaac Newton became warden of the Royal Mint as Britain's coinage was in a sorry state. Coins were badly worn, damaged, and heavily clipped, meaning people cut away portions of the metal. Newton supervised a Great Recoinage securing the currency by introducing high-quality, milled coins, such as the shilling of William III. The "reeded edge" discouraged clipping while the raised rim helped to protect against wear.
The Industrial Revolution came to minting in 1797 with Great Britain's "Cartwheel" penny. Containing an ounce of copper, Boulton's penny was struck in a "collar" that pressed lettering into the edge. This large-diameter coin was struck at the Soho Mint, which was established by industrialist Matthew Boulton (1728-1809). He partnered with James Watt, who was the inventor of the steam engine. Boulton perfected a steam-powered coining press that could crank out 70 to 80 coins per minute. At one time, the Soho Mint shipped over 20 million copper blanks to the Philadelphia Mint to be struck into U.S. cents and half-cents.
The Future Of Coins
Another characteristic of modern coinage is the disappearance of precious metals from circulation. Copper-nickel alloys, brass-plated steel, zinc, and other "base metals" replaced gold and silver. Minting of the United States one cent coin ended in 2025 as production costs rose to 3.69 cents to manufacture each cent. Many countries abandoned their smallest denomination as inflation rendered their value negligible and costs to produce these coins became prohibitive. Across the world, electronic fund transfers at points of sale increasingly make cash seem obsolete. However, investor demand for precious-metal bullion coins remains strong, and some small nations profit from the sales of novelty "non-circulating legal tender" coins to collectors. All this points to the conclusion that the end of the age of coins is not yet upon us.