ISLANDS OFF ATTICA, Aegina. Circa 510-490 BC. Stater (Silver, 17 mm, 11.77 g). Sea turtle; four bankers' marks on the carapace, one with an ivy leaf, another with a head to right, the third with a turtle, and the fourth uncertain. Rev. Windmill pattern with four sunken segments. Milbank pl. I, 11. SNG Copenhagen -. Light porosity, otherwise, fine.
The island of Aegina was probably the first state in European Greece to issue coined money (mid-sixth century BC). The Aeginetans were famed for their seamanship and were a considerable naval power in the Aegean area. Their didrachm-stater of about 12.6 grams became the accepted standard for numerous mints in the Cyclades, in Crete and in Asia Minor, as well as in Greece itself. In 445 BC, the Thirty Years Peace guaranteed Aegina's autonomy, and a new variant of the Aeginetan coinage was introduced. This depicted the turtle (now usually described as a tortoise) with a segmented carapace in place of the smooth shell of the archaic period. However, with the outbreak of Peloponnesian War in 431 BC, the Aeginetans were expelled from their homes and the island was occupied by Athenian cleruchs, a situation that prevailed until the Athenian defeat in 404 BC.