Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/309

 CHAPTER XI.

"The Lydians," says Herodotus, "were the first of all nations we know who struck gold and silver coin ," a tradition also attested by Xenophanes of Colophon, according to Julius Pollux. These statements of the ancient writers are confirmed by an examination of the earliest essays made in Asia in the art of coining; from which the best numismatists have been led to ascribe it to the seventh century and probably to the reign of Gyges, who from being a shepherd, by means of the "virtuous ring" became the founder of the great dynasty of the Mermnadae, and of the new Lydian empire as distinguished from the Lydia of a more remote antiquity. The first issues of the Lydian mint were rudely executed coins of electrum, being staters and smaller coins of the standards usually known as the Babylonian and Phoenician, of which the earliest staters weigh about 167 and 220 grs. respectively. It is most likely that the Babylonian standard was intended for commerce with the interior of Asia Minor, and the Phoenician for transactions with the cities of the western seaboard, to coincide with the silver standards in use in these respective regions. The proportion of gold and silver in electrum is ex-*]