timelets

Metal was an inconvenient thing to accept, weigh, divide, assess as to quality in powder or chunks, although more convenient in this regard than cattle. Accordingly, from the earliest known times and more likely somewhat before, metal was made into coins of predetermined weight. This innovation is attributed by Herodotus to the kings of Lydia, presumably in the latter part of the eighth century BC.

Coinage after the Lydians developed greatly in the Greek cities and in their colonies in Sicily and Italy to become a major art form. p. 10.


Coinage was a notable convenience. It was also an invitation to major public and minor private fraud. For profligate or hard-pressed rulers, and these, over time, have been n clear majority of their class, it regularly appeared as a flash of revelation that they could reduce the amount of metal in their coins or run ill some cheaper brass and hope, in effect, that no one would notice, at least soon. . Thus a smaller lmount of silver or gold would buy as much as before, or the same pure weight that much more. p.11