Do you know what is the worlds first coin? Lydian third stater,
or trite, minted sometime around 600 BC in Lydia, Asia Minor
(current-day Turkey), a country in close geographic and cultural
proximity to the Greek colonies in Asia Minor Is the world 1st
coin. It's made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver called
"white gold" in ancient times (50-60 percent gold with these
coins). One of the many fascinating aspects of this coin is the
mysterious sunburst above the lion's eye. The first metal coins
are regarded by some as having been invented in China. The
earliest known Chinese metal tokens were made ca. 900 BC,
discovered in a tomb near Anyang. These were replicas in bronze
of earlier Chinese money, cowrie shells, so they were named
Bronze Shell. Most numismatists, however, regard these as well
as later Chinese bronzes that were replicas of knives, spades,
and hoes as money but not as coins because they didn't at least
initially carry a mark or marks certifying them to be of a
definite exchange value. Coi