Trump’s meme coin is nothing new: it takes a page out of the ancient world’s playbook

By Gil Davis, Associate Professor and Director, Ancient Israel Program, Australian Catholic University

Nowadays, we probably never stop to think about why money was invented. If you are a cynical person, you won’t be surprised to learn the prime motivation was to make a profit for rulers.

About 2,600 years ago, the kings of Lydia in modern-day Turkey hit upon a clever scheme. They turned the silver and gold everyone had been using to buy and sell things into coins with their emblem on it, and forced everyone living in their territory to use it. But the face value of the coin was greater than…

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