“There is evidence that the Minoan Cretans and the Egyptians employed bars of gold of regular weight for [trading] in the area afterwards covered by Greek trade. But neither they nor any other of the peoples of the Near East developed the idea of stamping their metal to make coins; that was an invention of the Greeks. . . .

Ionian merchants [in Asia Minor] found a commodity which answered their purposes . . . in a more precious metal than bronze—electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver obtained from the beds of some rivers near at hand—and made this the basis of their standard of values. . . .

[A] novel feature soon appeared on the lumps of electrum which were passed for purposes of trade, in the form of distinctive stamps impressed upon them; at first these were little more than punch-marks on the surface, but gradually became a design, into which one side of the lump of metal was moulded.”

—J.G. Milne, Greek Coinage, Oxford University Press, 1931.