Coin made of electrum
- Audio guide stop: 521
- Gallery: Room 68
- Culture: Greek
- Made in: Lydia (historic)
- Object type: coin
- Materials: electrum
- Museum number: 1866,1201.3671
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
This is an ancient Greek electrum coin, one of the earliest known coins in the world. You’re looking at a small, circular piece of metal with a distinctive pale yellow color—this is electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver. The Greeks used these coins as currency, marking the beginning of a new era in trade and commerce.
This coin was minted in Lydia, an ancient region in what is now modern-day Turkey. At the time, Lydia was a powerful kingdom known for pioneering the use of coinage. The weight of the coin is about 4.7 grams, making it surprisingly light for such a historic artifact.
It entered the collection in 1866 through a bequest by James Woodhouse. These early coins were not only money, but also symbols of power and innovation in the ancient world. Take a moment to appreciate how this small object changed the way people traded goods forever.
See it in person
Coin made of electrum is on display in Room 68 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 521, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
New, in beta. British Museum support has just launched and is still improving: over 1,000 objects so far, with more added all the time.
