Coins Around The World

Along with Anatolia and China, India also played a major part in the development of coinage. The first Indian coins were minted around the 6th century BC by the Mahajanapadas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The coins of this period were punch marked coins called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. The Mahajanapadas that minted their own coins included Gandhara, Kuntala, Kuru, Panchala, Shakya, Surasena, and Surashtra.
The earliest coins made of pure gold and silver were made by King Croesus of Lydia, son of Alyattes. Shortly afterward in the same region gold "darics" and silver "sigloi" were issued by the Achaemenid Empire of the Persians.
The first European coins are regarded as having been minted ca. 550 BC in Aegina, an island in the Aegean Sea, with coins of Athens and Corinth soon following. The first Roman coins, which were crude, heavy cast bronzes, were issued ca. 289 BC. The first European coin to use Arabic numerals to date the year in which the coin was minted was the Swiss 1424 St. Gallen silver Plappart.