Editing Coin (section)

===Bullion and unmarked metals===
[[File:Minoan copper ingot from Zakros, Crete.jpg|thumb|An [[oxhide ingot]] from [[Crete]]. [[Late Bronze Age]] metal ingots were given standard shapes, such as the shape of an "ox-hide", suggesting that they represented standardized values.]]
Metal [[ingot]]s, silver bullion or unmarked bars were probably{{original research inline|date=April 2023}} in use for exchange among many{{quantify|date=April 2023}} of the civilizations that mastered metallurgy. The weight and purity of bullion would be the key determinant of value. In the [[Achaemenid Empire]] in the early 6th century BC, coinage was yet unknown. The [[barter]] system, as well as silver [[bullion]] were used instead for trade.<ref name="WM">{{cite book |last1= Metcalf |first1= William E. |title= The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage |date= 2016 |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199372188 |pages=61–65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=trkUDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |language=en}}</ref> The practice of using silver bars for currency also seems to have been current in [[Central Asia]] from the 6th century BC.<ref name = bivar>Discovery of a hoard of currency with silver bars near [[Malayer]], dated circa 600 BCE, with photographs in {{cite book |last1=Bivar |first1=Adrian David Hugh |title=Hoard of Ingot-Currency of the Median Period from Nūsh-i Jān, near Malayir (1971) |pages=[https://archive.org/details/AHoardOfIngot-currencyOfTheMedianPeriodFromNush-iJan1971/page/n1 97]–111 |url=https://archive.org/details/AHoardOfIngot-currencyOfTheMedianPeriodFromNush-iJan1971 |language=en}}</ref> Coins were an evolution of "currency" systems of the [[Late Bronze Age]], when various cultures used standard-sized [[ingot]]s and tokens such as [[knife money]] to store and transfer value. Phoenician metal ingots had to be stamped with the name of a current ruler to guarantee their worth and value, which is probably how stamping busts and designs began,{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} although political advertising – glorification of a state or of a ruler – may also play a role.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Dundua
 |first1               = Tʻedo
 |last2                = Čʻikʻobava
 |first2               = Akaki
 |last3                = Avdaliani
 |first3               = Emil
 |year                 = 2020
 |title                = Coin as a means of propaganda according to Georgian numismatics
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=q0d6zgEACAAJ
 |publisher            = Gamomcʻemloba "Meridiani"
 |isbn                 = 9789941259746
 |access-date          = 18 April 2023
}} 
</ref>