![]() ![]() According to Greek mythology, the river acquired its electrum when King Midas of nearby Phrygia bathed in it to wash away his golden touch, which had turned even his food into gold, a telling parable about the destructiveness of wealth. The Pactolus River beside the slopes of Mount Tmolus in the kingdom of Lydia was one of the most important sources of electrum in the ancient world. Lydia does not have many marvelous things to write about in comparison with other countries, except for the gold dust that is carried down from Mount Tmolus. The earliest issues, thought to date from the reign of Alyattes (about 610 – 560 BC) or perhaps his predecessor Sadyattes – both of the Mermnad dynasty – feature the Lydian kings’ emblem of a roaring lion, almost always with a curious knob, often called a “nose wart,” on its forehead. The stater is a key exhibit in the Department of Coins and Medals of the British Museum, which houses one of the world’s finest numismatic collections, comprising about 1 million objects. ![]() The result was a coin with an image on one side and a punch mark on the other. A blank piece of metal was placed on top of the die, and a punch hammered onto the reverse. A die with a design (in this case a lion’s head) for the obverse (front) of the coin was placed on an anvil. It had a design on one side only, a result of the primitive method of manufacture. Made from electrum, a natural occuring alloy of gold and silver, the coin originated in the area of Lydia. The 1/6 stater, pictured below, is more than 2,700 years old, making it one of the very earliest coins. The oldest coin available today was discovered in Efesos, an ancient Hellenic city and prosperous trading center on the coast of Asia Minor. The heritage of ancient coins is a subject that intrigues and delights collectors and scholars the world over.
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