The first chunks of change you’d recognize as coins – round lumps of precious metals impressed with mages of gods and rulers – appeared around 700 B.C. in Lydia, in modern-day Turkey.
The first coins were made of electrum, an alloy of silver and gold. It appears that many early Lydian coins were minted by merchants as tokens to be used in trade transactions. The Lydian state also minted coins, most of the coins mentioning king Alyattes of Lydia.
In China, gold coins were first standardized during the Qin dynasty. After the fall of the Qin dynasty, the Han emperors added two other legal tenders: silver coins and “deerskin notes”, a predecessor of paper currency which was a Chinese invention.
Picture Credit : Google