Lydia, Croesus and the first coins

Lydia in western Anatolia lives off the gold-bearing river Pactolus and trade with the Greek cities of the coast. Here, in the seventh century BCE, coin is struck for the first time: pieces of electrum of equal weight bearing the king's stamp, behind which stands the warrant of the treasury. The invention spreads quickly around the Mediterranean and changes trade: a price can now be named, not weighed out in silver each time anew. King Croesus, whose name became a byword, marches against Cyrus, receives an ambiguous prophecy from the oracle, and loses his kingdom: in 546 BCE the Persians take Sardis.