Ancient Electrum Coins from the 7th and 6th Centuries BC

Lets go to the very beginnings of coinage, and look at some of the first coins ever!

If you like this video, please leave a like and consider subscribing for more ancient coinage content! :)

-----------
Want to help this channel grow? Here are affiliate links to some of my recommended books on ancient coins. By purchasing from this link, a small percentage of each purchase is directed to us. Thank you!

Recommended Literature:

[ClassicalNumismatics]

Would you like to support the channel and my work?

Consider buying some channel Merch! You get a cool T-Shirt or Mug and you help me make more Ancient Numismatics content. Thank you!

[FourFistsdown]

Silver siglos is my oldest coin, but I plan on saving for my first electrum coin hopefully within the year

[financeexplainedgraphics]

I have a Lydian hemioble in my collection on display - people always marvel at how old and how detailed something so small was from so long ago. A beautiful piece of history with so much meaning. Looking for a gold lion to add to the collection.

[fingerlingv]

Thanks for the video, I’ve just purchased the last one you display. Description did say uncertain mint but what fascinated me was the date. 625-600bc possibly. Oldest I’ve seen so far and I just had to own it. To think I’m holding something that someone made and used 2 and a half thousand years ago is unbelievable.

[kitrichardson]

How fascinating to hold the first coin ever minted!

Every other coin came from it—that’s the granddaddy of firsts. Hundreds of countries and probably tens of thousands of different types of coins and you held the first one in your hand.

Also interesting to hear that these nuggets were naturally found in that area, so it’s not as huge of a leap from taking gold or gold ore and extracting the mineral and then creating a plant.

Nature pointed them in the right direction.

[RavenARPG]

Super interesting. I am just getting started with Numismatics, that was really interesting to watch and learned a lot! Thank you!

[wollin]

Superb video !
To answer your last question, yes, I have electrum coins, 5 hektes from Mytilene and 1 from Phokaia, 1 myshemihecte (1 fourth of an hekte) from Kyzikos and one tenth of a stater from Carthage, all from the Vth and IVth centuries BC. The last ones are really tiny. But I can tell by their colour that they are of very different gold content. Just like what non destructive studies of hektes show, between 41 and 53 % of gold. These studies also show since the beginning of this coinage important traces of lead, which can only be explained by an artificial alloy (not the natural occurring electrum), made of a controlled quantity of refined gold obtained by cupellation and silver obtained from silver/lead ores. This way the precised quantity of the two precious metals inside was known by the issuing authority. But it is also probable that, even if the weights of the coins were extremely precise, some manipulation of gold content did occur.

[Caligulashorse]

I have some electrum Japanese coins from the 1800s in my collection the oldest is from 1830s. There actually the only gold type coins in my collection.

For Anyone interested in Japanese coinage history.
Japan unlike most cultures and societies didn’t start truly having there own governmental functioning monetary system outside of Kyoto until the 1600s. before that they were using Chinese coins and the few coins they did make were either inflationary in context or couldn’t compete with Chinese coins. Basically they were using Chinese coins up until the 7th century when they tried to make there own coins. but they’re monetary system had massive issues and the Chinese coins Just kept flooding in to Japan so they stopped in the 10th century. Some local shoguns In the 1400s and 1500s tried to create there monetary system without much success. It wasn’t until the 1620s that the new Japanese government United under Tokugawa Ieyasu created a functioning currency after Japan had isolated itself from the rest of the world for over two centuries.

[brooksrownd]

ive been looking for one with good eye appeal. they are expensive little things, so its gotta have nice artwork.

[AlexJohnson-ebmu]

I believe they enhanced the deep gold hue of surface of some of these electrum coins (as well a jewelry) by adding a small amount of copper.

[nathanielscreativecollecti]

It's one I would love to purchase given the right chance.

[isabelcrb]

Amazing coins and narrator!! I always learn a lot in your videos. Keep doing this amazing job!

[briank]

Another great video. I keep looking for one of these but prices seem to be strong right now.

[mkbalefire]

This video plus another you made recently finally got me to bit the bullet. Just bought a 1/12 silver Kroisos stater 561-546BC for $173 off Vcoins. Its in a little rough shape and a little worn, but still clearly discernable with the lion and the bull. One day Id like to buy a gold one, but I dont have that kind of money now. This is my 4th coin and my 3rd "ancient" coin.

[benoone]

Thanks again for such an enjoyalble video! No ancient Greek gold coins at all, but several very nice little obol coins, or fractions of, in silver. Much cheaper and easier to find, still just wonderfully made in tiniest details.

[jsharrad]

I have a silver Lydian stater with the lion and the bull facing off on it, but no electrum.

[jadenephrite]

Thank you for your video. Regarding 7:00, since Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of Gold & Silver, the gold and silver content in Electrum varied considerably. Eventually the Gold Parting Process was invented which could separate Gold and Silver from Electrum. This metallurgy enabled Silver coins and Gold coins to be minted separately. The Electrum separation process is known as Salt Cementation whereby Electrum was combined with salt, urine and brick dust (or pulverized pottery shards), sealed in a crucible and heated. Then purified Gold would remain in the crucible along with Silver Chloride which would later be purified into Silver. To convert Silver Chloride, it is dissolved in an aqueous solution, then mix into solution some Lye and then some Sugar. Thereafter recover the precipitated Silver powder and melt it into a bullion ingot bar. Form the bar into a billet and cut out planchets which would be stamped into Silver coins.

[numiscanal]

Esas monedas son verdaderas joyas, que estan dentro de las inaccesibles para muchas colecciones debo admitir. Pero quien sabe, y eso no les quita nada de lo fascinantes que son ! Video impecable, como siempre ! 😊

[Golden.Silver.Conquistador]

The only thing that I love more than gold is silver, and the only thing that I love more than silver is electrum!

[MichaelMatthys-pm]

Thank you for this. Another beautiful video and a chance for us to see some lovely coins.
I would very much like to own an electrum coin of this period but cannot afford one. I have some silver coins from a little later though, and must be content with those.