/ world today news/ 27 centuries ago, the Lydians carried out a financial revolution
“In 40 years of working together, I have seen our numismatist Dr. Vladimir Penchev smile only 3 times. Now he was beaming with joy and couldn’t believe it,” joked the director of NIM Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov. There are indeed grounds for violent joy. Because the gold Lydian coin discovered in Sozopol, at least 2650 years old, is the oldest not only in our country, but also in the world, experts believe. The specimen found will be exhibited in a showcase on black velvet in the numismatic hall of the NIM. There will also be a magnifying glass next to it to distinguish the lion depicted on it on one side and the swastika in a square on the other.
In Lydia – and not in Phoenicia, as is popular belief – the first coins in human civilization were minted. Until this era, people did not understand the abstract symbol of the commodity and made the coins in forms that could be practically used – metal ingots in the shape of a bull’s skin, arrow coins, a hoard of dozens of sickle coins was also found. There were also coin bells that were hung on the sheep. “Precisely in Sardis – the capital of Lydia, for the first time in its history, humanity cut a rolling pin that could not be used for anything other than exchanging it for goods,” explains Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov.
And until then, gold and silver were, of course, used as money, but because of the non-standard size of gold bars and rings, people had to weigh the money at each payment. The Old Testament testifies to this – when he bought land, the prophet Jeremiah wrote: “I weighed his money, seventeen shekels of silver.” (Jeremiah 32:9)
So it was in Lydia that they discovered the thing that caused a real revolution in the field of finance – the standard coin with a certain value. This simplified all kinds of payments – in trade, in the collection of taxes, in the payment of soldiers and free wage workers, etc. The first coins in Lydia, like the one found in Sozopol, were made of a natural mixture of gold and silver known as electron. King Croesus, famous for his riches, replaced these coins with others that were made almost entirely of one metal only, gold or silver. Or what we call today a bimetallic coin system. At the time of Croesus, 12 silver coins were equal to one gold coin, and 12 bronze coins to one silver coin. However, this system was threatened by counterfeit gold coins containing an admixture of cheaper metals. Merchants needed an easy way to check the purity of gold.
The Lydians soon discovered that a type of local black stone could solve their problem. When a coin was rubbed against its flat, slightly rough surface, it left a mark. When the color of the mark was compared to the color of the marks made by gold needles, it became clear what the gold content of the examined coin was. This discovery – the “Lydian stone” verification – not only put counterfeiters out of the game, but also saved the rulers from the temptation to mint inferior coins.
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