page_title: Electrum
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Electrum / History
caption_attribution_description: KINGS of Lydia. Uncertain King. Early 6th century BC. EL Third Stater - Trite (4.71 gm). Head of roaring lion right, sun with multiple rays on forehead / Double incuse punch. Weidauer 86; BMC Lydia pg. 2, 6; SNG Kayhan 1013.
context_page_description: Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. The ancient Greeks called it 'gold' or 'white gold', as opposed to 'refined gold'. Its colour ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has also been produced artificially, and is often known as green gold.
  The gold content of naturally occurring electrum in modern Western Anatolia ranges from 70% to 90%, in contrast to the 45–55% of gold in electrum used in ancient Lydian coinage of the same geographical area. This suggests that one reason for the invention of coinage in that area was to increase the profits from seigniorage by issuing currency with a lower gold content than the commonly circulating metal.
  Electrum was used as early as the third millennium BC in Old Kingdom of Egypt, sometimes as an exterior coating to the pyramidions atop ancient Egyptian pyramids and obelisks. It was also used in the making of ancient drinking vessels. The first metal coins ever made were of electrum and date back to the end of the 7th century or the beginning of the 6th century BC.
context_section_description: Electrum is mentioned in an account of an expedition sent by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. It is also discussed by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia. Electrum is also mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, whose prophet Ezekiel is said to have had a vision of Jehovah on a celestial chariot (Ezekiel 1:4).
caption: Lydian electrum coin (one-third stater), one of the oldest known coins, early 6th century BC.
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