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Some of the world's earliest coins were made in Lydia, a kingdom in western Anatolia, around 600 BC. They were small lumps of electrum, a natural mix of gold and silver, stamped with a lion's head, the royal emblem, to guarantee their weight and value.

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Before coins, people paid with goods or with pieces of metal that had to be weighed at every sale. The first Lydian coins probably date from the start of the reign of King Alyattes, who died around 560 BC, though experts' estimates range from 700 to 550 BC; key evidence comes from coins buried in the foundations of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The capital, Sardis, near today's Salihli in Manisa, was the busiest mint. Because natural electrum varied in its gold content, Alyattes's son Croesus (reigned c. 560–546 BC) issued coins of pure gold and pure silver, the world's first such system. Coins soon spread to the Greek cities and, after the Persian king Cyrus conquered Lydia in 546 BC, across the Persian Empire. China developed coins independently at about the same time. Croesus's wealth became a byword: English still says “as rich as Croesus”.

Türkçe oku
Dünyanın bilinen en eski sikkelerinden bazıları MÖ 600 dolaylarında Batı Anadolu'daki Lidya Krallığı'nda basıldı. Bunlar, altınla gümüşün doğada kendiliğinden oluşan, elektron denen karışımından yapılmış küçük parçalardı. Üzerlerine basılan aslan başı kralın simgesiydi ve sikkenin ağırlığını, değerini güvence altına alıyordu.

Sikkeden önce insanlar ya mal takas ediyor ya da her alışverişte tartılması gereken metal parçalarıyla ödeme yapıyordu. Lidya'nın ilk sikkeleri büyük olasılıkla MÖ 560 dolaylarında ölen Kral Alyattes'in saltanatının başlarında basıldı, ama uzmanların tahminleri MÖ 700 ile 550 arasında değişiyor. En önemli kanıtlar, Efes'teki Artemis Tapınağı'nın temellerine gömülmüş sikkelerden gelir. En çok sikke, bugünkü Manisa'nın Salihli ilçesi yakınlarındaki başkent Sardes'te basıldı. Doğal elektronun altın oranı değişken olduğu için Alyattes'in MÖ 560–546 dolaylarında hüküm süren oğlu Kroisos, saf altından ve saf gümüşten sikkeler bastırdı; altın ve gümüş sikkeleri bir arada kullanan ilk düzen buydu. Sikke kısa sürede Yunan kentlerine yayıldı; Pers kralı Kiros MÖ 546'da Lidya'yı ele geçirince de bütün Pers İmparatorluğu'nda kullanılmaya başlandı. Çin'de de aşağı yukarı aynı dönemde, Lidya'dan bağımsız olarak sikke basıldı. Kroisos'un serveti dillere destan oldu: İngilizcede çok zengin biri için hâlâ “Kroisos kadar zengin” denir; Türkiye'de ise adı halk arasında Karun'la özdeşleşmiştir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Lydia
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