- Research -
Metal objects were introduced as money around 5,000 BC. By 700 BC the Lydian's became the first in the western world to make coins. The coin above is understood to be the first true coin, lions are considered the king of the jungle therefore the design is a good symbol for kingly authority. Other countries soon followed making their own coins with their own specific value.
I obtained this information from a website about the rare viking coins:
'Coinage had been known and used in northern Europe for centuries, but Scandinavia was slow to develop a monetary economy. Barter and exchange of goods of equal worth remained the commonest forms of trade; any coins which found their way to the north were used as bullion counters rather than as true coins. The earliest Viking coin issues were imitations of English and European coinage, although the silver used to create them was more often sourced from eastern Europe and the Caliphate.
With the successful overthrow of Viking power in western England by Alfred the Great, and his partial re-conquest of the country, Danish Vikings in England were drawn into the Anglo-Saxon economic orbit and quickly began issuing coins in imitation of Alfred’s own. Many Viking coins from the southern Danelaw carried Alfred’s name, rather than the name of the Danish jarl who issued them. In East Anglia, the Viking Guthrum, Alfred’s godson, issued coins copying the designs of Alfred’s coins, but bearing his own baptismal name of Athelstan.'
