ABSTRACT
When it had become a well-established custom to settle commercial bargains by the transfer of metals by weight, and more particularly to make up the metals in ingots of unit weight, one further step was necessary to produce a piece of metal that could be called a coin. The ingots had to be marked to indicate the weight or purity of the metal, or both. The custom of authorizing transactions by affixing a seal is of very great age. Private seals and signet rings bearing devices for signing contracts were in use in Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt ages before the Lydian and Ionian bankers applied them to the marking of ingots of the currency metals. In Crete a number of seal stones have been found dating from prehistoric times. It is surprising to find, therefore, that the new use for the private seal was not discovered until the early part of the 7th century B.c., for it is to that period that the first coins are ascribed. There is, however, some evidence that sporadic experiments were made in this direction at very much earlier dates.
