Gold Stater, Sardis, 550-546 BCE
Type/Object Name: Ob:Front of roaring lion and front of bull facing each other. | Re: Two rough incuse punches.Â
Dates: 550-546 BCE
Medium: Gold, Stater
Dimensions: Diameter 16.5 x 12.9 mm, Weight 8.0506 g
Credit Line: Courtesy of John Nebel
Notes: The Beginnings of Coinage
Around 580 BCE the Lydian king Croesus began minting coins of refined gold and silver, rather than the alloy electrum, at his capital city of Sardis (in western Türkiye). The obverse of Croesus’ coins portrayed a lion and bull, a traditional ancient Near Eastern representation of kingship and power. When Croesus was conquered by the Persian king Cyrus in 546 BCE, the Persians continued to mint coins with this imagery at Sardis for several decades until it was updated with a new royal image that focused specifically on the Persian king.
Collection: Coin, John Nebel
Bibliography: Carradice, Ian. 1987. The 'Regal' Coinage of the Persian Empire. In Coinage and Administration in the Athenian and Persian Empires: The Ninth Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History, edited by Carradice, Ian. Page 74 and Page 94 #6. Plate X #6. Oxford: B.A.R. International series 343;Head, Barclay V. 1901. Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Lydia Page 6 #33. London: The Trustees of the British Museum; Brett, Agnes Baldwin. 1955. Museum of Fine Arts. Boston. Catalogue of Greek Coins. Page 263 #2073 and Plate 95 #2073. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts; Mildenberg, Leo and Silvia Hurter. 1985. The Arthur S. Dewing Collection of Greek Coins. Page 146 #2431 and Plate 119 #1431. New York: American Numismatic Society.