The First Coins and Greek Trade

How coins were invented in Lydia around 600 BCE, spread through Greek cities, and helped trade and markets flourish in places like Athens.

Before coins, people used metals weighed out on scales, which was slow and open to cheating. Around 600 BCE, the kingdom of Lydia, in today’s Turkey, produced some of the first coins: lumps of electrum, a gold-silver alloy, stamped with official marks.

Why coins were useful

Standard weight and value, guaranteed by a ruler’s stamp.
Easy to count, speeding up trade.
Durable and portable.

Spread to Greece

Coinage spread quickly to Greek cities. Athens minted silver drachmas stamped with an owl, the symbol of Athena.

Athens’ silver

Athens owned rich silver mines at Laurion. Silver funded its navy, which helped defeat Persia at Salamis in 480 BCE, and supported trade and public buildings.

Markets

The agora in Athens was a busy marketplace where citizens bought food, pottery and goods from across the Mediterranean.

Trade networks

Greek cities traded olive oil, wine and pottery for grain, timber and metals, founding colonies around the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Greek economic ideas

The philosopher Xenophon wrote Oeconomicus, on household management, the origin of the word economics (from oikos, household). Aristotle discussed money, exchange and the ethics of profit.

The Athenian owl

A merchant from Egypt sells grain in Athens and is paid in silver owls. Because the coins are trusted across the Mediterranean, he can use them to buy wine elsewhere without weighing silver.

Thinking money has always been coins

Coins appeared only around 600 BCE; earlier money used weighed metals, grain and other commodities.

Key takeaways

Lydia produced some of the first coins around 600 BCE.
Coins spread through Greek cities, including Athens' silver owls.
Laurion silver funded Athens' navy and trade.
The word economics comes from the Greek for household management.