The Lydian Stater, the worlds first true gold coin. An NFT digital artifact by Coins On the Chain. #1 to #10 Available. No more, no forgeries.

The Lydian Stater was the official coin of the Lydian Empire, introduced before the kingdom fell to the Persian Empire. According to a consensus of numismatic historians, the Lydian stater was the first coin officially issued by a government in world history and was the model for virtually all subsequent coinage.

Croesus (pronounced 'KREE-sus') was the King of Lydia, a country in western Asia Minor (corresponding to modern-day Turkey) from 560-547 BCE and was so wealthy that the old expression "as rich as Croesus" originates in reference to him. His wealth, it is said, came from the sands of the River Pactolus in which the legendary King Midas washed his hands to rid himself of the 'Midas Touch' (which turned everything he laid hands on into gold) and in so doing, the legend says, made the sands of the river rich with gold. The Lydians, either during the reign of Croesus or just before, were cited as the first people to mint coins of gold and silver in Asia Minor and it was Croesus who funded construction of the great Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.