Roy Hassel, age 10, of Willodale, Ont., Canada,for his question:

Who made the first coins?

In early history, trade was carried on by barter. You might perhaps swap a basket of eggs from your chickens for a basket of wool from your neighbor's sheep. The idea of using money for buying and selling grew gradually. Rare metals, jewels and sometimes corn were used as a basis for trading. Then rare metals were made into coins and trading became easier.

So far as we know, the first coins were used by the Greeks or by the traders of Lydia. They were made of a natural mixture of silver and gold. The earliest coin found was made about 700 B.C.  The value of its metal is very slight, but the small disk has an immense historical value.