10 Dollars - Elizabeth II Ancient Coins of Lydia

Lydia's claim to coinage priority is well-established but worth stating precisely: the electrum staters struck under the Mermnad dynasty in western Anatolia during the late 7th century BC are the earliest coins produced by a state authority rather than by weight-commodity convention alone. The transition from unmarked electrum dumps to struck, guaranteed pieces is the foundational event in monetary history, and Croesus — the last Lydian king before Cyrus the Great absorbed the kingdom into the Achaemenid Empire in 547 BC — refined the system further by separating the electrum alloy into distinct pure gold and pure silver denominations.

Cook Islands issued extensively in this commemorative bullion format throughout the 2000s and 2010s, with the Ancient Coins series among the more historically coherent of those programs.