The Lydians supposedly made the first coins made out of Eletrum, a naturally occuring compound of silver, gold, copper and other metals.
Making the "first Electrum coin" is not the same as making the "first coin".
Still, there's a school of thought that wants to argue that Lydian gold buttons actually constitute the world's first coins ~ and they also argue that the small cast copper bulls or ceramic bulls invented in Sumer about 7,000 years ago (even before the first writing) were not really "money" ~ just a way of making accounts ~ even though you could swap a small cast copper or ceramic bull with the tax collector to meet your obligations to the government.
I know, it sounds like coins, and the way we use them, but for some people those items were more like federal reserve notes!
I'd like to propose aneven earlier version of "coinage". This was made simply by tieing down 5 inch logs in the bed of a stream where gold was known to appear. You'd leave them there several years and come back when the logs had become fully waterlogged and were beginning to disintegrate into pulp.
While you were away the logs would have been banging against any dirt drifting downstream and knocking the heavier gold particles loose.
They'd be piled up in the bottom of the stream under the log.
You would simply shovel the pulp and near bottom out, lay it out to dry on a riverbank, and then roll it up and cart it away to be cut into chunks you could "spend" later. That early paper would be full of gold flakes. To get the gold you'd just light up the chunk. Instant value AND hence the expression "burn money".
First, you have to know what a coin is. The numismatic definition, as stated in Webster’s is, “A small piece of metal, usually flat and circular, authorized by a government for use as money.” Another attribute not in Webster’s but usually associated with coins is that they have a standardized value. (and weight when most coins were of precious metal and worth that weight in metal as minted) That distinguishes a coin from medals and other bits of metal or other materials valued strictly by weight or other intrinsic characteristics.
The first coins imprinted with identifying marks by a government to be used as a standard medium of exchange were from Lydia in the 8th Century BC. All other “money” or medium of exchange before that was privately made and the design on it, if any, carried no significance.
That said, there was nothing issued by governments and therefore images glorifying the head of state or other officials would have been completely meaningless and pointless.