Lydia Coin

Lydia Coin

This coin found off the coast of the ancient Greek Apollonia Pontic, later Sozopoleos, in the Black Sea, is probably the oldest coin ever discovered in Bulgaria – and one of the oldest in the world! It was cut from the ancient Greek kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor in 7the century BC It was found by diver Dimitar Kutsev, in depth one meter. The coin is made of amber (an alloy of gold and silver). “Lydia minted the first coins of human civilization. Until then, people used metal rods, arrows, bells, scythes, etc. as abstract symbols of goods,” says the National Historical Museum of Sofia. The 2,650-year-old coin weighs 0.63 grams and is 1/24 of a statist. The discovery of the Lydia coin in the Black Sea town of Sozopol does not seem surprising given that Apollonia was an ancient Greek colony founded by settlers by ancient Greek Miletus, which lay on the shores of the Aegean of Anatolia, in 620-611 BC.