Electrum coins6/13/2023 ![]() In the final section, questions of the "inventor" of coinage, the political or intellectual consequences of coins, and the introduction of silver coinages are briefly considered. Valuations must have been set by the issuers-at least in most cases states or rulers-and effected by the guarantee of redeemability. Step 1:Go to and download the latest version of the software, select Download and then click on Windows Installer Step 2: Once the download completes, open the file and follow. Thus it can be shown that coinage served to fix and to stabilize the value of electrum. By contrast, the carefully regularized weights of early coins imply that, regardless of metallic content, each electrum coin of similar size was to have had a particular value. Electrum alloys with a high iron content are likely natural, while those with high proportions of lead and copper are mostly man-made. ![]() ![]() Since the inconsistent and largely indeterminable gold content of electrum made its value uncertain, that metal must have been difficult to use as a means of exchange presumably its market value would also have fallen. The explanation put forth here proceeds from the variable alloy (and susceptibility to dilution) of natural electrum, and the difficulty of determining that alloy in any given case. States often debased their currency with less valuable metals. It also had the added benefit of being more durable that a straight gold coin. The Lydian unit of weight was the stater, and this coin, produced during his reign, has the. Few knew the refining techniques to separate gold from silver, which are often found mixed together. They were made in a naturally occurring material called electrum, a variable mix of gold and silver (with about 54 gold and 44 silver), and were in use in Lydia, its capital city Sardis and surrounding areas for about 80 years before Croesus' reign as King of Lydia. King Alyattes standardized the weight and design of coins. None of these explanations for the origin of coinage proves satisfactory, and current theories that coinage had some political or ideological purpose pertain only to the diffusion of coinage in Greece. Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy and was the earliest alloys used for coinage. Recently, it has also been proposed that early coins were bonus payments to employees at the end of service. The electrum from Mytilene in this period was comprised of around 43 gold and the alloy allowed the coins to withstand circulation better than pure gold. Explanations for the introduction of electrum coinage are of two main types: arguments of practical convenience, based on the premise that the standardized weights of coins eliminated the need for weighing bullion at each transaction and metallurgical arguments that the manufacture of coins only from electrum, with its variable gold content, was a means either for the state to deceive the public and make a profit, or for private issuers to guarantee the value they placed on particular coins.
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