The Earliest Coin Mint Has Been Unearthed, With First Standard Metal Currency
Image via Z. Qu & H. Zhao
Located south of the Yellow River, the ruins of Guanzhuang in Henan Province, China, have revealed a site where a bronze foundry used to operate. Upon further investigation, the team who discovered these remains believes that they have stumbled upon the site of the world’s oldest known coin mint.
An ancient bronze foundry, active around 770 BC, that was used to cast weapons, Guanzhuang’s remains include artifacts like ceramics, tools, clay molds, and unfinished works, among other findings. Systematic AMS radiocarbon dating showed that the mint began its operations between 640 and 550 BC, a century before the city was abandoned (around 450 BC).
Findings published in Antiquity state that both finished and fragmented spade coins were unearthed, alongside their cores, and the molds used to make them.
Some of the cores are miraculously intact, having waited centuries to be inserted into a composite coin mold. All were extremely similar, denoting mass production as well as a “high degree of standardization” at the mint, researchers said.
Image via H. Zhao
It’s speculated that the coins were produced on government orders, as the foundry operated long before the coins were made. Before the coins, artisans created products such as ritual vessels, musical instruments, and decorative chariot fittings.
However, sometime after 640 BC, the foundry began to produce coins that were “devoid of any religious association.” As time passed, the previously made artifacts were replaced by iron technology during the Late Eastern Zhou period.
The Guanzhuang coin mint is among the first to be dated with certainty. The coins themselves also hold their own title: they’re the earliest known standardized metal currency in the world.
🆕 #archaeology: The oldest securely-dated coin mint, beginning operation between 640-550 BC, has been found at Guanzhuang in 🇨🇳.
— 🅰ntiquity Journal (@AntiquityJ) August 6, 2021
Here's an #AntiquityThread on the research (🆓) https://t.co/mHtNM0AI1h 1/ 🧵
📷: The oldest metal coin found in 🇨🇳, discovered at the mint pic.twitter.com/ZC6qqUOlqA
[via ARTnews, images via Z. Qu & H. Zhao]
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