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History of Gold
Gold has always been an integral part of trade and business. Beginning from ancient civilizations to modern cities today, selling gold coins, locating the best place to sell gold coins, or learning how to sell gold coins, can probably be considered as common practices handed down from our ancestors and inherited by today’s generation.
Before considering how and where to sell gold coins, it would be wise and perhaps culturally healthy to first take a step back and take a glimpse of how those coins came about. Knowing some history and how you are becoming part of it can be quite enlightening.
It was somewhere between 643 and 630 B.C. when the Lydians started to produce the first coins. The coins were made of electrum, a pale yellow, natural combination of gold and silver. They were quite crude actually. They resembled the composition of alluvial deposits located in the silt of the river Pactolus which ran through Sardis, Lydian’s capital. The coins usually had the figure of a lion or bull on one side and a seal or just a punched mark on the other face. It weighed about 17.2g to 0.2g. Advancements in refining brought about the separate minting of silver and gold coins.
Greek city states by the Aegean Sea also integrated the coinage system into their way of living. It was predominantly silver until Philip II of Macedon (359-336 B.C.) conquered silver and gold mines in Bulgaria (historically known as Thrace). His son and successor, Alexander the Great, was able to acquire gold treasure amassed by the Persians from gold deposits in the Oxus River in northern Afghanistan. Philip II and Alexander both used gold coins to pay their armies and to subsidize military expenses. During the Greek empire, their coins were marked with the king’s head.
Similarly, the Romans also used gold coins to pay their armies and stamped their gold aureus coins with the emperor’s head. The aureus was usually 22 karats and 950 fine, and weighed 7.3g.
The Roman Empire unified much of Western Europe through coinage and public administration. When that empire collapsed, the solidus survived and became the main gold coin in the Mediterranean area, and was minted by the Byzantine emperors as the bezant or nomisma.
The bezant was the emblem of gold coinage from the end of the Roman Empire until Venice became known for its gold and silver ducats. And since there was a shortage in gold supplies, by 1081, gold content was down to only 6 karats or 250 fine.
Much of the available gold from Africa after 700 A.D. was used in dinars, produced by the rulers of the Islamic empire that covered the Middle East. These gold coins were embellished by Arabic script calligraphy, since Islam prohibited the portrayal of its people.
Gold supplies grew after 1300 through Hungarian mines. With increasing trade between Europe and the Islamic world, the rest of Europe started to make coins. In France, the king’s mints consumed nearly 10 tons of coin.
Much of that gold was used to produce Spanish crowns, which were then exported to England and to the rest of Europe. But again, due to limited gold supplies, silver coinage became more prevalent during the 16th and 17th centuries. Queen Elizabeth of Britain also produced new gold angels and crowns in 1558 to bring back the glory of gold coins.
Gold coinage restored its prestige only after gold was discovered in Brazil in the 1690s. The premium for gold coins was recorded in 1717, when Sir Isaac Newton, set the highest gold price of £4.35 which lasted for 200 years.
The last hurrah for gold coinage came after the gold rushes in 1848 in the United States and Australia as gold production increased immensely. Minting was widespread in France and in the U.S. during the 1850s and eventually, most nations changed their silver to gold coinage by the beginning of the 20th century.
During the 19th Century, all the mined gold was used to produce coins. The Roubles in Russia, Sovereigns in Britain and Australia, Marks in Germany, Napoleons in France, Eagles in the United States, Florins in Hungary, and the Crowns in Austria, all accounted for over 13,000 tons.
But during World War I in 1914, minting gold coins were called in and production stopped.
During the Great Depression in 1933, the United States recalled all gold from all their citizens. That marked the end of gold coinage for the rest of the world.
That, briefly, is the history of gold coins. Possessing those historical gold coins is undoubtedly valuable and selling them is one way to go. So, you have gold coins to sell. You’re probably asking yourself questions such as, “Can I sell gold coins? Where can I sell gold coins for cash? Can I sell bullion and silver coins too?”
Selling Gold Coins For Cash
Selling gold coins for cash is simple, easy, and can be done with just a few clicks of a button. With the increasing convenience and accessibility of the Internet today, to sell gold coins online is as simple as selling or purchasing any other item on the web. Going online is probably the best way to sell gold coins.
Availing the service of Cash4Gold is another way to sell gold coins. We’re an online buyer of precious metals, with a relentless commitment to customer service and educating our clients. If you’re interested in selling your gold coins, feel free to contact us for help through the process.
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