Bbc Podcasts: Episode 25: Gold Coin of Croesus 19 Feb 2010

One of the world's earliest coins, minted in ancient Turkey about 2,500 years ago. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at how a powerful new state found a dramatic way to help run its increasingly complex economy and trading networks. How did money, in the form of coins, first come about? And why do we still talk of the wealth of Croesus, a king of Lydia, in what is now western Turkey? (Duration: 14 mins)