Usually a piece of metal which bears an impression conferring upon it a legal character by public or private agree- ment.

Coined money probably originated in Lydia in the eighth century before the Christian era. Herodotus states that the Lydians were the first people to strike coins of gold and silver ; this probably re- fers to the reform of the coinage by Croe- sus B.C. 561-546. Prior to that period electrum was probably used altogether.

The use of the word in English litera- ture can be traced to the fourteenth cen- tury, and Chaucer in the Clerk's Tale (1. 1112) writes, " though the coyn be fair at eye."