Coins Around The World

Another possible candidate for first metal coins come from China. The earliest known Chinese metal tokens were made ca. 900 BC, discovered in a tomb near Anyang. These were replicas in bronze of earlier Chinese money, cowry shells, so they were named Bronze Shell.
Most numismatists, however, regard these as well as later Chinese bronzes that were replicas of knives, spades, and hoes as money but not as coins because they did not at least initially carry a mark or marks certifying them to be of a definite exchange value.
Along with Anatolia and China, India also played a major part in the development of coinage. The first Indian coins were minted around the 6th century BC by the Mahajanapadas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The coins of this period were punch marked coins called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. The Mahajanapadas that minted their own coins included Gandhara, Kuntala, Kuru, Panchala, Shakya, Surasena, and Surashtra.
The earliest coins made of pure gold and silver were made by King Croesus of Lydia, son of Alyattes. Shortly afterward in the same region gold "darics" and silver "sigloi" were issued by the Achaemenid Empire of the Persians.