Anglo-Saxons turned base metal into gold

[Duncan Head]

Well, not quite.

But the suggestion is that some of the Staffordshire Hoard pieces were made of a cheaper silver-gold mixture treated to give a pure gold apperarance on the surface.

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/oct/17/staffordshire-hoard-anglo-saxon-gold-secret-technique-treasure

[Mark G]

A thousand years later, and wargamers have perfected turning gold into base metal figures of Anglo Saxons .

[Patrick Waterson]

Nice one, Mark!  If we were running a Comment of the Year that would be a very strong contender.

[Imperial Dave]

Indeed, but would that be life imitating art or art imitating life? 

[Mark G]

Depends on how good the paint job is

[Tim]

I thought only Games Workshop were able to turn base metal into Gold...

[Imperial Dave]

ahhhh, but all that glisters is not gold....... 

[Patrick Waterson]

The Vicús culture of South America also 'stretched' their gold by creative admixture of copper and other metals.  It looks as if they were by no means the only ones to do so.

[Sharur]

Although both the cases referred to here - Anglo-Saxons and Vicús culture - seem to have deliberately created their respective gold alloys, it's worth remembering that some such alloys occurred more or less accidentally anciently. Most early gold objects are actually electrum - mix of silver and gold - rather than pure gold, for example (ancient Sumer's a place for various key examples of this). There's a handy, if by modern standards very basic, webpage on the history of metals which mentions this amongst other topics here.

[Andreas Johansson]

Most early gold objects are actually electrum - mix of silver and gold - rather than pure gold, for example (ancient Sumer's a place for various key examples of this).

Perhaps the most famous example are the early electrum coins of Lydia.

[aligern]

Weren't the Lydian coins used to pay the ferryman? A case of mourning becoming electrum?
Roy

[Patrick Waterson]

My impression was that they were used to pay Lydia's widening collection of mercenaries.  Alyattes' coins typically featured a lion (nesha), which seems to have been a Lydian royal motif connected with the Mermnad dynasty.

Others have a different emphasis.  This site suggests that:

"It appears that many early Lydian coins were minted by merchants as tokens to be used in trade transactions. The Lydian state also minted coins, most of the coins mentioning king Alyattes of Lydia."

On this site we are told:

"Many historians and archaeologists speculate that increased trade was a spark for invention of the coins. Coins might had facilitated a move from cumbersome barter system of trade to simple system based on the money. Others speculate that they were stuck as offerings to the Gods in their religious ceremonies. Lydian coins found in Ionian mainland temple of Greek goddess Artemis (Romans called her Diana) during archeological excavation in 1951 gives credence to such speculation. Logically, both ideas make sense but we may never know."

Regarding origins, we get (from the same site):

"Herodotus mentions in his writing about crude Lydian coins in the year 687 BC. First coins of Lydia were lumps of electrum (naturally occurring amalgam of silver & gold). Electurm lumps were found in mountain streams of Lydia. They were heated to soften,  placed on a plate  and struck with a punch and hammer. This formed an incuse on one side and marked them as coins. These coins were produced at a mint constructed by Lydian king Ardys (652-615 BC)  in the capital city of Sardis. They were not true coins by present day definition because they were not of any  standard weight & purity of metal or size."

The site also informs us that around the same time the Chinese were inventing pu.  To clarify, pu were pieces of metal shaped like this.  It is believed they represented coinage although it was around 400 BC before the sharp edges came off and inscriptions denoting value went on and they became true coins (albeit shaped like a flattened tortoise).

Returning to Lydian coinage, the Wikipedia article on Lydia has this (reference notes omitted):

"The dating of these first stamped coins is one of the most frequently debated topics of ancient numismatics, with dates ranging from 700 BC to 550 BC, but the most common opinion is that they were minted at or near the beginning of the reign of King Alyattes (sometimes referred to incorrectly as Alyattes II), who ruled Lydia c. 610-550 BC. The first coins were made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver that occurs naturally but that was further debased by the Lydians with added silver and copper."

None of this involves turning actual base metal into gold, an art subsumed under alchemy, which was officially banned by Diocletian around AD 300 and not as far as I know seen outside Rosicrucian circles since.

[Duncan Head]

Weren't the Lydian coins used to pay the ferryman? A case of mourning becoming electrum?

This is possibly my favourite pun of 2014.

[Patrick Waterson]

It is rather good, and I should have acknowledged it as such.