ingot

Essentially, this translated to a Spanish crown’s near-monopoly on the transatlantic trade route that covered not only coins and ingots of silver and gold but also a wealth of other valuable items like emeralds and pearls.

Once impurities are removed from the molten metal, workers mold the aluminum into ingots, pieces of pure metal ready for the market.

These specimens were claimed to be aboriginal, but whether the marks were cast or stamped in the ingot is not stated.

The Lydians began coinage by stamping with a punch each ingot or nugget of gold or silver, or a mixture of them called “Electrum.”