see post 5
Also see here.
Cheers!
If you are prepared to deny the old testament, then what you say about the Lydians is true...(now these coins that these”scholars” found may well be fakes).
There was some type of coinage or silver/gold pieces being used at the time of Josph because the story of Joseph mentions money. It also mentions the people of Egypt having exhausted their..”money”, sold themselves to Pharoah and their lands into bondage so that they might live. Joseph established the “flat tax” that 1/5th of all agricultural production would be ceded to Pharoah while the population could keep 4/5ths for themselves. You can bet the “money’ wasn’t just simple lumps of metal but shaped and imprinted.