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Early coinage made from metal came into use during the Axial Age in the Greek world, in northern India, and in China, as coins became a widespread embodiment of money. [2] Bronze, gold, silver and electrum (a naturally occurring pale yellow mixture of gold and silver that was further alloyed with silver and copper) were used.
Coins were first made of scraps of metal by hitting a hammer positioned over an anvil. The Chinese produced primarily cast coinage, and this spread to South-East Asia and Japan. Although few non-Chinese cast coins were produced by governments, it was a common practice amongst counterfeiters. Electrum coin from Ephesus, 650-625 BC.
In the beginning, hammered coinage or cast coinage were the chief means of coin minting, with resulting production runs numbering as little as the hundreds or thousands. In modern mints, coin dies are manufactured in large numbers and planchets are made into milled coins by the billions.
Striking a coin refers to pressing an image into the blank metal disc, or planchet, and is a term descended from the days when the dies were struck with hammers to deform the metal into the image of the dies. Modern dies made out of hardened steel are capable of producing many hundreds of thousands of coins before they are retired and defaced.
Nearly all the coin hoards of this period are of lead coins found in towns, e.g. the Guangfu Road, Guangzhou hoard of 2,000 coins. It is clear that most of these coins were made unofficially by the merchants or the people. Recently, many inventions, purporting to belong to this series, have appeared on the market. [1]: 122
Silver coins: Silver coins are typically produced as either 90% silver – in the case of pre-1965 US minted coins (which were circulated in many countries), or sterling silver (92.5%) coins for pre-1920 British Commonwealth and other silver coinage, with copper making up the remaining weight in each case. Old European coins were commonly ...
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The stones are made of light-colored crystalline rock consisting of calcium carbonate. Stones with brown or white streaks were particularly prized. [10] Weathered stones are dull gray. [12] Earlier reports incorrectly state that the material is aragonite, the most common mineral in coral and sea shells and in rocks derived thereof.