Hi Finance and coin lovers,
After a brief intro this post describes the first gold coins (electrum.)
In nowadays Turkey once was located the State Lydia not to be confused by Lycia which is a bit more south in the same region. Homerus mentioned Lydia first in 8th century BC. That is 500 years befroe Alexander the Great came there with his army.
This week I read in that in August 2020 Turks are selling houses and cars and try to exchange their "Lira" proceeds into gold. This because the Turkish Lira is at the brink of full collapse (in their and my opinion) . Due to all kind of reasons the Turkish economy collapsed including tourism and building the main sources of income. The Turkish central bank supported the Lira but more than half of the countries' reserves are gone doing so. They cannot continue doing this and are not allowed by economist President Erdogan to increase the interest rates.
In Istanbul in the covered market (Bazar) there are hundreds of gold handlers often seen in a group determining price or trading. I saw this as a tourist but could not understand what they said ofcourse. Go there if you can! So nice.
Back to Lydia
The lydians found a metal electrum in their hills which is a natural alloy (mix) of gold and silve r with gold range 70-80%. The Greek called this electrum or white gold and we do the same still with jewelry. The Lydians made all kind of objects with electrum but also coins.
An electrum trite:
As the electrum sometimes was melted down in later years to arrive at pure gold it could well be that later coins like Solidus from Byzantium (capital Constantinopel now Istanbul) are made of previous electrum coinage.
Gold is used over and over again as you know and worth it's weight in gold (haha).
Lesson:
Gold is of all ages and in times of trouble - US says SHTF Shit Hits the Fan - people turn to gold and silver like the Turks are doing today.
Enjoy your gold and silver stack
Golsrooster