Possibly world's "most ancient gold coin" found in lake in Kyrgyzstan

[MiddenMonster]

I love ancient finds like this. And this is a heavy coin, too! Unfortunately, no pics. If I find any I'll post the links to the images. For those who follow archaeology, this find dates (at least for the Middle East) to the end of Iron Age I (early Iron Age). Bronze smelting had been mastered, and iron was being smelted into crude "pigs", which were then heated red hot and beaten into the desired form. Gold was smelted before bronze, but it's cool that it was being used as currency 3000 years ago.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20060830/53329092.html
Ancient gold coins found in Kyrgyz mountain lake

BISHKEK, August 30 (RIA Novosti) - Possibly the world's most ancient gold coin has been discovered in a high mountain lake in Kyrgyzstan, the chief of an archeological expedition said Wednesday.

Academic Vladimir Ploskikh said an expedition from the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University found a 70-gram octagonal gold artifact on the northern side of Lake Issuk-Kul.

"This is probably the earliest form of metal money found in Central Asia, and may have served as an archetype for later gold coins," he said. "If this [hypothesis] is confirmed, the find will have a unique worldwide historical and cultural significance as a prototype for gold money."

The archeologists also recovered from the lake bronze daggers, sickles and hatchets, as well as household implements and jewelry dating back to approximately 1,000 BC.

Ploskikh said the finds could mark a "new page in history."

[Baldingboy]

That's awesome.