Monthly Archives: May 2021

The ancient city of Athens holds a unique place in our hearts and minds. It was the foundation of western civilization. Even today the Parthenon stands high upon the rocky Acropolis as testament to Ancient Greece. Today, we can easily answer why the Athenian owl coin was made, because it was one of the foundations of this new western civilization.

An example of the world's earliest coin was the drachma. It helped to develop a new concept of currency. Drachmas were the silver coins of ancient Greece. They dated from the mid-6th century BC and were the monetary unit of ancient Greece. Importantly, the most influential of ancient Greek coins came from the ancient City of Athens. It was the Classical Owl Tetradrachm

Some 600 years before Christ was born mankind started using electrum as a form of payment. This was in exchange for good and services. Ancient man found electrum in riverbeds. They were in nugget form, but it wasn't long before the very first coins were produced. This is how and when electrum was first used as coinage.

These earliest coins known in the ancient world were created from this naturally occurring alloy called electrum, as a result of a mixture of gold and silver. It also often found containing other trace elements like platinum, copper and other metals. These alloys give off a shiny property that easily catches the rays of the sun. A variety of colors could be found to range from pale yellows to bright greens. Occasionally, even a brassy-color due to higher copper

Occasionally customers call and ask us, "Can I buy gold ingots?" Many of them are especially interested in gold ingots from the SS Central American Shipwreck. What's interesting is where these gold ingots came from—The California Gold rush. It was a very fascinating time in American History.

This is when massive fortunes were made and lost. Most importantly, gold remained a testament to this exciting time period. Prospectors were frantic to discover it. They took gold nuggets in rocks to gold dust in rivers. This raw gold was turned into gold coins and bars—called ingots.

The gold was first mined in the California Hills and then taken to private refiners or assayers. They would weigh the gold and estimate its purity. Furthermore, it paid the miners for their hard work. The gold was amassed by the refiners, so the assayers could melt and refine