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Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Its color ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has been produced artificially and is also known as "green gold".Emsley, John (2003) Nature's building blocks: an A–Z guide to the elements. Oxford University Press. p. 168. .
Electrum was used as early as the third millennium BC in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, sometimes as an exterior coating to the pyramidion atop and . It was also used in the making of ancient drinking vessels. The first known metal made were of electrum, dating back to the end of the 7th century or the beginning of the 6th century BC.
Electrum was much better for coinage than gold, mostly because it was harder and more durable, but also because techniques for refining gold were not widespread at the time. The gold content of naturally occurring electrum in modern western Anatolia ranges from 70% to 90%, in contrast to the 45–55% of gold in electrum used in ancient Lydian coinage of the same geographical area. This suggests that the Lydians had already solved the refining technology for silver and were adding refined silver to the local native electrum some decades before introducing pure silver coins.
In Lydia, electrum was minted into coins weighing , each valued at stater (meaning "standard"). Three of these coins—with a weight of about —totaled one stater, about one month's pay for a soldier. To complement the stater, fractions were made: the trite (third), the hekte (sixth), and so forth, including of a stater, and even down to and of a stater. The stater was about to . Larger denominations, such as a one stater coin, were minted as well.
Because of variation in the composition of electrum, it was difficult to determine the exact worth of each coin. Widespread trading was hampered by this problem, as the intrinsic value of each electrum coin could not be easily determined. (2025). 9780199372188, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199372188 This suggests that one reason for the invention of coinage in that area was to increase the profits from seigniorage by Debasement than the commonly circulating metal.
These difficulties were eliminated circa 570 BC when the , coins of pure gold and silver, were introduced. However, electrum currency remained common until approximately 350 BC. The simplest reason for this was that, because of the gold content, one 14.1 gram stater was worth as much as ten 14.1 gram silver pieces.
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