IT IS THOUGHT that the first coins were issued in Lydia (modern Turkey) in around 650-600 вс. One of the kings of Lydia, Croesus (reigned about 560—547 вс), was renowned for his wealth. The expression ‘as rich as Croesus’ is still used today to mean fabulously rich. His capital Sardis (in modern Turkey) was on the River Pactolus and the river may in part have been responsible for his legendary wealth. Electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, occurs naturally in the sands of the river bed and was extracted from the river in antiquity. This was the metal from which the earliest coins were made.

BANKNOTES FOR HUGE sums of money sound like a dream come true, but in reality they are often a symptom of economic nightmare. After World War I (1914-18), Germany faced crippling demands for reparation payments, and suffered severe economic depression. The early 1920s saw disastrous inflation, with ever-increasing issues of banknotes for denominations of up to a hundred billion marks. Soaring price rises meant that these apparently vast sums of money could buy less and less.

A CITOLE is the medieval equivalent of a guitar. This example is both a unique survival of its type and an outstanding example of medieval secular art. It was highly prized in its day and continued to be highly regarded throughout its history.

A game is an is a set of instruments that traditionally accompany puppet shows, dance dramas, feasts and ceremonies in Indonesia. During shadow puppet plays, the orchestra highlights the moments of drama and provides the music that fits the personality of characters on stage. There are various kinds of gamelan, the main differences being the number and type of instruments that make up each orchestra and the tonal system used. An orchestra may contain a few instruments or more than thirty.

In THE ANCIENT world dolls were usually made of rags, wood, bone or fired clay. Relatively few have survived because of the perishable nature of their materials. This doll survived as a result of the very dry conditions in parts of Egypt.

THIS IS о n e of the oldest surviving board games in the world. The game is one of several with a similar layout found by Leonard Woolley in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. The wood had decayed but the inlay of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli survived in position so that the original shape could be restored.

THIS WATERCOLOUR PORTRAIT is one of the first images of a native North American to be made by a northern European artist. It was made by John White, who in 1585 accompanied the English expedition to colonize Roanoke, Virginia. He was employed as draughtsman-surveyor and his duties included making visual records of anything unknown in England, including plants, animals, birds and the native Americans, especially their costumes, weapons and ceremonies.

THIS bark sHIeld is a poignant object that was witness to the first meeting between native Australians and Captain Cook and his crew at Botany Bay, near what is today the city of Sydney in Australia.

Throughout the PAGES of this book are images of just 250 ofover six million objects, drawings and prints that are looked after by the British Museum. Our selection includes objects that are extremely well known to visitors, such as the Rosetta Stone, mummy cases from Egypt and the Sutton Hoo helmet, possibly the most iconic object from Britain’s early history. Yet our selection has also deliberately included a wide range of other objects, some huge, others very small, which show the wide range of the collection and reveal aspects of the Museum that may surprise even regular visitors.

THIS MARBLE STATUE depicts a youth standing in the conventional pose of a kouros. Kouri are stone male figures dating from the Archaic period of Greek art (about 600-480 вс). The characteristic pose is based on symmetry: the left and right sides mirror each other, and the legs are positioned so as to divide the bodyweight equally between front and back.