Stater

Among the earliest coins ever struck, the electrum staters of Ephesos predate the standardization of coinage as a concept. The alloy itself — a naturally occurring gold-silver mix sourced from the Pactolus River in Lydia — was not chosen for consistency; early examples vary significantly in gold content, which ancient merchants would have had no reliable way to assay. Trust in these pieces depended on the issuing authority, not the metal.

Ephesos sat at the terminus of major Anatolian trade routes, which explains both why coinage emerged here so early and why the weight standard held — commerce demanded it.