Greek coins - AR STATER Smooth-shelled sea turtle 520-480 BC (N2247)

AEGINA: ca. 520-480 BC, AR stater (11,66 g), cf.  S-1849, smooth-shelled sea turtle / quadripartite incuse square, Good Fine.

Though it is technically impossible to know which city-state was the first in Greece to strike coins, it would seem that the honour belongs to Aegina, an island off the coast of Attica whose people excelled as sailors and merchants. The first type of Aeginetan stater, now attributed to c. 555-550 B.C., has on its obverse a turtle with spider-like flippers and a narrow, shield-shaped carapace decorated with a row of pellets along the central ridge; the reverse features a small, deep incuse square with raised, thin criss-crossing ridges .This is a later version.