Metal Coinage
Minted electrum, gold, silver, or base-metal coins with regular weights and state or civic authority marks, enabling portable monetary exchange.
Core metadata
- ID: metal_coinage
- Era: Classical
- First known date: -650 (century)
- Region: Lydia / western Anatolia and wider Asia Minor coinage networks
- Review status: source_checked
- Maturity: established
Prerequisites
- Gold and Silver Working (gold_and_silver_working)
- Mining (mining)
- Standardized Weights and Measures (standardized_weights_and_measures)
Dependents
- Banking (Early Forms) (banking_early_forms)
- Coin Mint Assay Offices (coin_mint_assay_offices)
- Guilds (guilds)
- Mercantilism Economic Theory (mercantilism_economic_theory)
- Trade Fairs (trade_fairs)
- Trade Leagues (trade_leagues)
Fields
Field lanes
- Finance & Markets: Money & Accounting
Node sources
- Lydia & the First Coins (American Numismatic Association Money Museum, 2026, museum) • Supports: node, maturity
Prerequisite edge evidence
Edge/source evidence summary:
- Prerequisite edges: 3
- Average edge confidence: 79%
- Prerequisite sources: 3
- expert_inference: 1
- textbook: 2
| Prerequisite | Type | Confidence | Evidence level | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold and Silver Working (gold_and_silver_working) | required | 82% | textbook | Early coins used electrum, a naturally occurring gold-silver alloy, so precious-metal working was a direct material capability. |
|
| Mining (mining) | commercial_or_scaling_dependency | 72% | expert_inference | Coinage at scale required reliable metal supply, although individual early coins could use alluvial electrum. |
|
| Standardized Weights and Measures (standardized_weights_and_measures) | required | 82% | textbook | The museum source identifies regular weights as a defining feature of the earliest coins. |
|
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