Techniques of coinage and its importance

Techniques of coinage and its importance Travel photography Family-friendly: true
A coin is a small piece of metal used as a means of payment in trade and in daily shopping. The weight and the amount of the precious metal in it are guaranteed by the state through the picture and the inscription on it.
The first concept of money was horn in the Neolitic age with the settlement of the cavemen, who had led a life of hunting and collecting. Later, they began producing and so, their needs changed and diversified. As a result of this, goods were exchanged and this produced the first concept of money. Also, different metal tools and ornaments were used as the means of exchange, metal rods of certain weight or nuggets were stamped and became the primary means of acquisition before the minting of coins.
The first coining machine came into use only four hundred years ago, in the 17th century. Until this date, the minting of coins had been done by hand. In this method, first, the coin stamp, which was cut from the metal rod, was heated and put on the mould of the obverse which was placed in the hole on the anvil. On it the engraved mould of the reverse was stamped. In this way, the picture, the sign and the inscription appeared on the pressed stamp-coin between the two moulds. Often a small mark, later stamped on the coin called "Countermark" is observable. These countermarks provided the coin with validity in another place, other than its minting place. It was stamped on the coin also to show that the coin had gone out of circulation or put into circulation or that its value had changed.
In the Antique Age, the metals used for the minting of coins were mainly gold, silver and copper/bronze. Written sources say that iron coins was used as well. However, we don't have any examples of iron coins today. Among the findings from antique cities, there are a lot of coins. The coins found in scientific excavations are evaluated by the numismatists according to their type, weight, size, mould side, period and the place where they were found. After this evaluation, the resultant information mostly provides significant and definite information to establish the history of the building or the context. For example, an Archaic coin found in the foundations of a building provides us with the opportunity to date the history of that construction to the Archaic period.
Since there was no bank in the Antique Age, money and valuable objects were kept in houses, placed in the hollows of rocks and under walls, buried for security by their owners. These valuable objects and money in coin, which were kept to be recovered later are called a "treasure" or a hoard; when they are great in value, they are called a "fortune".
The famous historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC, informs us that a coin, for the first time, was minted by the Lydians in Anatolia in the second half of the 7th century (640-630 BC). After that, the minting of coins spread, first in Ionia and rapidly later to all the western parts of Asia Minor.