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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Severus Alexander, post: 2920841, member: 84744&quot;]This will be a useful thread for [USER=83845]@Curtisimo[/USER] and me, as we&#039;re planning to start a &quot;Time Machine&quot; thread starting with the earliest coins and moving forward through history.&nbsp; We need to figure out where to start! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; (One tricky thing will be to decide what counts as a coin...)</p><p><br /></p><p>My oldest western coin is a heavier coin (hekte, 2.53g 9mm) from the same series as David&#039;s above, minted in northern Ionia (struck on the Phokaic standard), 625-600 BC:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]707142[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>My oldest Chinese coins(?) are probably these imitation cowries in clay, bone, and bronze.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]707154[/ATTACH]</p><p>My (limited) understanding: actual cowries were in use in Southern China as some sort of money as early as 2000 BC, and these imitations are found more in the North where cowries were much harder to come by.&nbsp; They may be grave goods rather than money, although it&#039;s thought the bronze versions probably were actually money.&nbsp; The earliest securely dated bronze versions I&#039;m aware of were found in a tomb from 900 BC.&nbsp; One would think that some of the bone examples have been carbon dated... [USER=78244]@TypeCoin971793[/USER]? In any case, they&#039;re almost certainly older than the earliest western coins.&nbsp; ([USER=51347]@Alegandron[/USER]&#039;s ant nose money is based on the cowrie, mostly found within the borders of the Chu state, and I believe they&#039;re generally dated to the Warring States period... so not as old as Gandalf says, more like 5th c. BC.&nbsp; But maybe he knows that particular type has an earlier date?)</p><p><br /></p><p>There are also some very early knives and spades that were certainly used as money.&nbsp; Hopefully TypeCoin will post some of the neat stuff he has.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, a couple of Janapada coins from India.&nbsp; Gandhara janapada coins, like this 1/4 shatamana, are hard to date (I think) as some were minted before the Persian conquest (as early as 650 or 600 BC) and some were minted after:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]707157[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Vatsa janapada, as early as 500 BC:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]707158[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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