Coinage

coinage

Certification of a piece of metal or other material (such as leather or porcelain) by a mark or marks upon it as being of a specific intrinsic or exchange value. Croesus (r. c. 560–546 BC) is generally credited with issuing the first official government coinage of certified purity and weight. Counterfeiting was widespread in the Middle Ages. In the late 15th century, equipment capable of providing coins of reliable weight and size was developed in Italy. The Industrial Revolution saw further refinements in coinage techniques. Most of the basic motifs of modern coinage were introduced in antiquity. In the Greek world, relief imprinting gradually replaced the roughly impressed reverse punch of the Lydians. Alexander the Great introduced the coin-portrait; these initially depicted gods or heroes and later living monarchs. Until the end of the 19th century, Chinese coins were cast much like those of the early Greeks; the square-holed Chinese bronze coins were issued in essentially the same size and shape for almost 2,500 years.

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coinage

1. coins collectively

2. the act of striking coins

3. the currency of a country

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Coinage 

the manufacture, or minting, of coins. Initially coins were minted by private individuals (in Russia these people were known as livtsi and serebrianiki). Subsequently the manufacture of coins became a state monopoly and was carried out at state mints. In the USSR coins of small denominations are minted at the Mint of the Ministry of Finance of the USSR in Leningrad: nickel-silver coins in denominations of 1 ruble and 50, 20, 15, and 10 kopecks are minted there, as are brass coins in denominations of 5, 3, 2, and 1 kopeck.

In the ancient world coins were made of pure gold and silver (Greece) or their alloy (Lydia). Later copper alloys were added to the coin metal. An increase in the amount of alloy above the fixed standard led to the debasement of coins. When monometallism was practiced, full-value gold or silver coins were minted, whose face value equaled the value of their metal content. With the development of capitalism most countries reached a fixed standardization for assaying currency metals. In minting less than full value coins of small denominations, copper and silver were gradually replaced by nickel and bronze alloys.