Coinage. The introduction of coinage represented a great advance of the Archaic Period (700-480 B.C.E.). Coins began to be minted in Lydia at the end of the seventh century. They came into use among the Greeks around twenty-five years after their invention, first in the Greek settlements along the Asiatic coast, and then in Old Greece. The introduction of coinage and its spread do not appear to have been due to the requirements of trade and commerce, that is to say, to facilitate the exchange of goods, and despite the usefulness of coinage as a commercial tool, most of the economic activities of the time were conducted without the use of money. Early coins occurred in large denominations; stamped of the costly electrum (an alloy of gold and silver), they were not useful in retail trade...