Greek coins - 1/12 Stater Electrum gold and silver, the oldest coins! (JUN2491)

KINGS OF LYDIA. Alyattes to Kroisos, circa 610-546 BC. Hemihekte – 1/12 Stater (Electrum, 7 mm, 1.14 g), Sardes. Head of a lion with sun and rays on its forehead to right. Rev. Incuse square punch. Rosen 654. SNG Kayhan 1015. SNG von Aulock 2871. Weidauer 90. About very fine.

The Lydians were justly famous for their coinage. Apart from this statement of Herodotus, an earlier Greek authority, Xenophanes of Colophon, explicitly attributed the very invention of coinage to the Lydians,1 and this is borne out by the evidence of the coins themselves. The earliest coins made of solid gold were known throughout the ancient Greek world as “Croeseids,” after the Lydian king who introduced them.2 All earlier coins had been made exclusively of the gold-silver alloy known as electrum. Since a number of these earliest coins were inscribed with Lydian names in the Lydian alphabet, it is perfectly evident that they, too, were minted in Lydia by Lydians.