The earliest accredited coins were made in the 7th century BC in Lydia (congruent with Turkey's modern provinces of Izmir and Manisa). These were small blobs of electrum, (a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver), and were decorated on one side only with the forepart of a bull, a lion or both; later a secondary design was added to the reverse. These images were impressed on the alloy by using a simple punch hit with a hammer.