On the back of the coin, two squares were hammered into the gold staters and one into the silver ones. Soon after Croesus invented modern coinage, the idea was adopted throughout the ancient world.

This extremely rare gold stater of Athens ... The cities of ancient Greece generally used silver for their coins. Gold, with its high value, was unsuitable for small transactions and gold coins ...

i inherited the coin on my father's death and it still holds a fascination for me,not just because of it's age but what it was doing in a tiny hamlet in Derbyshire ...

Where it is from: The kingdom of Lydia (modern western Turkey) When it was made: Circa 560 to 547 B.C. Related: Ancient Egyptian ... world's first gold coin. Known as a stater or Croeseid ...