History of gold coins
Gold coins at all times were considered something akin to God. People fought for the wealth and possession of countless gold coins in their treasury. Gold is the most precious metal, and gold coins are the most precious in human life.
In general, gold marked the beginning of the monetary system, as we now know about it. After all, before gold was used only as a material for the manufacture of any jewelry, when there was still a natural exchange. Then he went to the minting of coins.
The first real gold coins went from Lydia, it was 2,600 years ago. But even then there were no pure gold coins, a special alloy was used. Gold and silver. On this coin we could see a bull and a lion – on one side, and the seal of the mint, on the other. But, oddly enough, after the reign of King Croesus (thanks to whom these coins were created), the kingdom of Lydia stopped using the alloy as a material for coins. Began to divide the coins into silver and gold.
Gold coins were extremely popular in Greece. At that time, in the territory of modern Greece there were a lot of city-states, where gold coins acquired the status of the main currency.
The next round of development gold coins received in the Roman Empire. They were used for monetary movement between various departments, payment for soldiers, etc. Then there were a lot of gold coins, they were minted in millions of copies. Therefore, in our time they can be found in all corners of the world. But when the Roman Empire fell, the active minting of gold coins ceased to be engaged. Barbara was not up to it.
Gold Coins and Dark Time
In the Middle Ages, gold coins were brought to Europe from Asia. When active trade began between Asians and Europeans, gold coins in the European economy became more and more. Thus, beginning in 1500, Europe began to actively mint its coins. Their number was already in tons. At that time, it was about 15 tons of gold coins.
The most important impetus in the minting of gold coins in Europe was the discovery of America. After all, from there the ships brought mountains of gold. The countries of discoverer received special status – England, Spain, Portugal. Their coins gradually filled Europe. In other countries, the coins of these countries began to be used in their own economy.
The winning march gold coins passed when they became the standard among many leading states. The so-called – “Gold Standard”. It was the apogee of gold coins, but, unfortunately, the last one. After the introduction of the gold standard, a lot of gold was melted into coins. Development proceeded in a stormy way up to the First World War. Then, many European states began to take gold coins out of circulation, chaos was happening in Europe. In 1933, in the United States, during the Great Depression, the government began to actively withdraw gold coins from circulation. And then, every year more and more paper banknotes and less and less gold coins.
The final death of gold as a standard came during the Bretton Woods agreement, when the dollar became the world standard.
For a coin collector, a gold coin is a good investment. First, if we take into account the old gold coins, then this is a great exhibit for the collection. If you look from the point of view of investing in the material, then gold every year becomes more and more expensive. Therefore, if you are engaged in collecting gold coins, it did not lose!
