Humanity’s First Gold Coins
Gold coins have been around for about as long as humans have had money. The modern world is dominated by fiat currency, money that isn’t pegged to a precious metal. But for much of human history, gold and silver have underscored most of our currencies.
The history of gold coins may be fun to read about, but it can also teach investors important lessons about their favorite collectable assets. The first gold coins were used primarily as tradeable currency, much like the United States Dollar is employed today. As humanity began to realize the scarcity of gold, its high value made gold-backed currencies infeasible.
In more recent times, gold bullion coins have mostly served as investments. The skyrocketing of gold’s spot price in the 20th century helped to ease the U.S. off the gold standard, but that doesn’t mean that gold is worthless.
To the contrary, our ancestors who pioneered the first gold coins in human history could never have anticipated the beauty, value, and collectability of modern bullion coinage.
Gold Coins and the History of Money
The history of the world’s first gold coins is closely related to the history of money. The earliest gold coins on record were used to conduct business and fortify relations between different countries. As you’ll read later in this guide, some gold coins actually served the purpose of legitimizing and expanding the reputation of the rulers who had them minted.
But once gold coins were relatively standardized in countries like Great Britain, they became something different – regulated currency. Investigations, trials, and even wars have been fought over gold coins. Of particular note is the tale of Sir Isaac Newton, a physicist who went undercover to expose the many counterfeit gold coins operations in Britain at the time.
Let’s get into some of the first gold coins ever produced.
The Earliest Gold Coins Ever Produced
There are hundreds of early specimens that might resemble gold coins. Even among historians specializing in ancient commerce, an exact definition of “coins” is tough to pin down. Still, numismatists identify the first gold coins as originating in Lydia, a kingdom near modern-day Turkey.
Even before gold coins were standardized as a form of currency, gold was used extensively in commerce in several Ancient civilizations. In particular, Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians were known to conduct trade using gold ingots.
Before we get into the first true gold coins, let’s take a look at a common question new investors have: when did gold become an investment?
When Did Gold Become an Investment?
Back when gold coins were used as a primary currency, gold bullion wasn’t very investment-worthy. After all, something needs to have serious value to be considered an investment. Because gold was mainly used for trading in most of human history, its status as an investment is relatively new.
Gold’s reputation as a safe haven investment really ramped up during the 1900s, when the increasing value of gold decoupled it from the United States Dollar. After former President Roosevelt took the U.S. off the gold standard in 1933, gold’s price continued to climb.
Today, gold’s main role is as an investment. It’s often hard for investors to imagine a world where gold’s price closely matches the value of fiat currency. The first gold coins weren’t meant for investors, though – they were minted for trade.
The World’s Very First Gold Coins
As we mentioned earlier, the history of gold coins begins primarily with Lydia, a massive, ancient Near East civilization. Even before Lydia revolutionized the world of coinage and set the groundwork for the modern gold coins we love today, gold was a powerful means of buying and selling goods/services in much of the ancient world.
How We Made This List
Because the first gold coins were preceded by non-standard bullion ingots and other means of commerce, we chose to focus only on proper gold coins for this list.
Like we mentioned earlier, even the world’s best numismatists are hard-pressed to come up with a consistent definition for ancient coinage. As a general rule, we’re looking for circular gold bullion products minted consistently for the purposes of commerce.
Since we aren’t expert historians, we may miss a few of the first gold coins in human history. For the most part, our list includes some of the earliest of man’s attempts to use gold as a method of exchanging goods and services.
Lydia – Producer of the First Gold Coins
The earliest gold coins in human history didn’t actually come from Great Britain – and they certainly weren’t distributed by the U.S. Mint. Instead, the first gold coins originated in Anatolia, a geographical location near modern-day Turkey.
Historians don’t always agree on what we should call the “first gold coins” ever made. However, the consensus is that the invention should be credited to Croesus, the King of Lydia. Lydia was an iron-age Anatolian kingdom. Under Croesus’ decree, metalworkers labored to create what we now know as the first gold coins ever distributed.
Croesus isn’t the only contender for the title of the inventor of gold coins. One Ancient Greek historian notes that Pheidon, a Greek ruler, created the first gold coins much earlier than Croesus’ time.
But for most modern historians, it was Croesus who had the first idea to make gold into a standardized, circular form of currency. It’s unclear how successful his project was, but one important event jump started thousands of years of gold as currency.
This event was the capture of King Croesus by Persians. The Persians took the coin back to their territory and, eventually, used it to create their own currency. The Persians were likely the first major civilization to adopt gold as the primary precious metal for all of their circulating coinage.
The Lydian Electrum Gold Coin
One of the first gold coins ever produced in human history was the Lydian Electrum Gold Coin. For such an ancient coin, this piece features brilliant artwork. On the Lydian Electrum, you’ll find a lion fighting against a bull. Capitalizing on popular imagery and cultural connotations from their own time period, the metalworker behind this coin brought a sense of artistry to the currency piece.
Today, just one of these ancient coins can be worth over $100,000 USD. This makes it one of the most expensive gold coins on the market, and it’s not hard to understand why. In a sense, the Lydian Electrum Gold Coin is the very first example of ancient civilizations recognizing gold’s potential as a currency.
While Croesus of Lydia revolutionized coinage and set the groundwork for thousands of years of gold as a form of currency, he wasn’t able to standardize his first gold coins like the Persians eventually would.
But there was another culture who would bring gold coins to a new level of sophistication and standardization.
Rome: Pioneers of Humanity’s First Gold Coins
In Ancient Rome, currency coins were made of a variety of metals, including bronze, silver, copper, and gold.
Interestingly enough, Roman gold coins weren’t pegged to the value of Roman currency. This isn’t uncommon, especially in the modern era. Coins like the American Gold Eagle are worth thousands of dollars more than their face values.
What makes Roman coinage interesting is that these coins were actually worth more than their spot price value in pure gold. In other words, Romans who melted their coins down for their gold content would actually receive less money than the face value of the coin!
Using the sophisticated bureaucratic arm of the Roman government, Emperors were able to standardize gold coinage to an extent that no other civilization that preceded them had been capable of.
When we discuss the history of bullion, Rome’s innovations are usually followed by another major world government. We’re talking, of course, about England.
The British Penny: Bringing Gold Coinage to England
King Henry III helped to bring gold coinage closer to what we recognize today. He introduced the British Gold Penny to provide citizens with higher value coinage, which was desperately needed to revitalize a struggling British economy.
Following in a long tradition of British coinage, the piece bore the likeness of King Henry III himself on the obverse. On the reverse, we note a cross, along with flowers in each corner of the coin.
While the coins were recalled and then erased from the collective public memory, these rare specimens are now considered some of the rarest (and most valuable) old gold coins in human history.
One metal detector in England found a British Gold Penny, which fetched a mouth-watering 540,000 pounds at auction in 2022.
Modern Gold Bullion Coins: A History
Modern gold coinage is a far cry from humanity’s first gold coins. Nowadays, gold coins aren’t considered currency in any major government. Coins usually come with a nominal face value, and they could technically be used to buy services. But in all reality, no trader is ever going to exchange their $2,000 American Gold Eagle for its measly $50 face value.
But how did gold coins become an investment vehicle? For the answer, investors don’t need to turn to Rome or to England – but to South Africa.
South African Gold Krugerrand: The First Gold Coins of the Modern Era
The first standard gold bullion coin was the South African Gold Krugerrand. Minted with .9167 fine gold bullion by the South African Mint, this coin was an enormous success from its very first mintage run.
For a period of time, the Krugerrand even made up an astonishing 90% of gold coin sales globally. When major world governments banned the import of Krugerrands in the 1980s to protest South African Apartheid, mints around the world saw an opportunity.
Capitalizing on the popularity of the Gold Krugerrand, mints in the United States, Great Britain, Austria, and Canada began releasing their own gold bullion coins for investors. In many ways, it was the Gold Krugerrand that began the modern tradition of collecting and investing in gold bullion coinage.
While the Krugerrand certainly wasn’t one of the first gold coins, most numismatists consider it the first gold coin of the true modern era of bullion coinage.
Modern Times – New Gold Coins
We have the Krugerrand to thank for coins like the Gold Eagle, Maple, Britannia, and Philharmonic. But coins in the 21st century scarcely resemble the rough, antique gold coins that were used for trade in Ancient Lydia, Rome, and England.
Gold coins today are considered investments. Collectors buy gold coins because they appreciate the beauty, value appreciation, and history of their favorite bullion pieces.
There remains a small but vocal population of coin collectors who advocate a return to the gold standard. Projects like the Goldback attempt to revitalize the concept of gold in currency. To fans of these projects, gold provides a kind of tangible, consistent value that modern fiat currency just cannot offer investors and traders.
Are Gold Coins Still Legal Tender?
Gold coins are rarely, if ever, used as legal tender in any country. The United States began to leave the gold standard in 1933, and Nixon cut the final thread between the USD and gold bullion in 1971.
Modern bullion coins from the U.S. Mint still include a face value, meaning that they technically have value attributed to them by the United States government. This may be misleading, though. A 1 oz American Gold Eagle has a face value of $50, but its actual melt value is currently over $2,000 USD.
For all intents and purposes, gold coins are no longer legal tender in the U.S. – or anywhere else.
Final Thoughts: The First Coins in History
The first coins in history were quite a bit different from the beautiful modern gold coins that Hero Bullion sells. When gold coins were first invented by King Croesus of Lydia, they were meant to be a basic means of trading goods and services.
For centuries, gold coins served this function in empires and republics all around the Ancient and pre-modern world.
But today, gold coins are mainly used as an investment. By investing in gold coins, you’re participating in the modern iteration of one of humanity’s oldest traditions.
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About The Author
Michael Roets
Michael Roets is a writer and journalist for Hero Bullion. His work explores precious metals news, guides, and commentary.