Lot 41
Lydia, Kings of. Time of Darios I, c. 520/15-500/490 BC. AR Half Stater, or Siglos (5.40 g), Sardis mint. Croesid type. Foreparts of confronted lion, at left, and bull, at right. Reverse: Two incuse squares of unequal size. BMC Lydia, 41ff.; SNG von Aulock 2877ff. Well centered on very oblong flan, with virtually complete devices. A particularly fine example of this historical issue. NGC graded About Uncirculated.
The Lydian kingdom was wealthy, to the extant that one could visualize in our times, as having the wealth of a mega-nation. To the ancients it must have seemed legendary. The richest and most successful of the Lydian kings was the last, the fabled Croesus. In fact, a recorded gift of bullion and precious metal ornaments that was gifted to the shrine of Apollo at Delphi, home of the revered Delphic oracle, has been calculated to have contained nearly four tons of gold!
Likely the key to his and his empire's wealth was the development and employment of a bimetallic currency system -- the first in history. The earliest coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. The obvious drawback is that the alloy was not always consistent, leaving a degree of variability to the coin's intrinsic value that could be hampering for transactions in the marketplace. Croesus began by refining his gold to about ninety-eight per cent purity, and then added a silver coin, for smaller transactions, with the silver pegged to a specific ratio to the gold -- at a rate already consistent with their market traditions. After some adjusting a rate was settled on of ten silver staters, of about 10.8 grams each, that would equal a gold stater of about 8.17 grams.
With this system of fixed rates and values, Lydian currency dominated the commercial life of the region. Croesus' Persian conquerors were so impressed by his coins that they adopted the Lydian system intact. Their only change being that their mainstay silver denomination was the half stater, or siglos (with its ratio of 20:1 in terms of silver to gold). With the siglos (still being uncovered to this day by the thousands throughout the Near East, and even in India), the Persian Great King paid his troops and built his empire.
Estimated Value $1,250 - 1,500.
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| Realized $2,099 |
