Talk:History of mints

The peak of civilization?
Dear Nisbit, thank you for your contributions! I don't have access to the 1911 encyclopedia right away, but I think there are two elements in the current article which might reflect an influence from that source. First of all, the coins of Lydia are referred to as the oldest in the world. Modern scholars tend to date the Lydian coins to the late 7th century BC (not 8th century). They are certainly the oldest coins in the Western world, and other ancient Mediterranean coins are inspired directly or indirectly by the Lydian coins. However, the oldest types of Chinese spade and knife coins are about as old as the Lydian coins, and thus might actually have preceded them. The other thing I worried about was the Persian and Indian coinage traditions as having been instigated by the greeks. Depending on how exactly you define 'Persia' this might be true in the Persian case. Although coin production within the Persian Empire began already when the Lydian tradition was inherited by the Persians after they had annexed Lydia, and Greek coins were known by Persian merchants, the production of coins in 'Persia proper' began only after Alexander's conquest. The Greeks should not be credited for the introduction of coin production in India. By the time Alexander's armies reached the Indus, the Indians were already minting their own coins. (I'll just be a little nasty now: The peoples of Asia were more industrious than the Encyclopedia Britannica expected in 1911:-)). Alfons Åberg 20:21, 19 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not surprised that the 1911 Britannica is flawed. Please go ahead and edit the article so that it better reflects modern scholarship. Nesbit 03:04, 20 September 2007 (UTC)