Other new sources of revenue included debasing the coinage, which caused inflation so bad that the government would not accept its own Roman money in payment of Roman taxes.
It's worth remembering that in the pre-modern world, coinage was often the only mass-produced item in use, and it was therefore a hugely significant element in the visual culture of a society-money was a billboard for the boss.
" This collection of coins serves as a permanent reminder of the fascinating transition from Britain's longest reigning monarch to his majesty the king's first appearance on UK coinage."
So I guess that Croesus sent to his research teams and said: Your problem today lads is to discover how we can get the silver out of the gold so that we can then make a consistent coinage.
Checking a metal's purity was a tedious task-likely to hold up every business transaction, and even when the Lydians and their neighbours invented coinage, about a hundred years before Croesus, this problem still remained.