Before coins were made lumps of metal were used for exchange. About 600 B.C. the Ionians or Lydians began to mark the lumps so that they didn't have to be weighed again.

The first coins were electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver. Then King Kroisos (Croesus) invented silver coins and gold coins during his reign (561-546 B.C.). Those coins of Lydia had a lion and a bull on one side, a dent on the other.
(These copper and silver lumps are not old. They were made for this exhibit.)

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