Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 199. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of LYDIA. Kroisos. Circa 560-546 BC. AR Stater – Double Siglos (10.67 g). Sardes mint. Struck circa 550-546 BC. Confronted foreparts of lion, right, and bull, left / Two incuse square punches of unequal size. Berk 20; Traité I 407; SNG Kayhan 1018; SNG von Aulock 2874; SNG Copenhagen 455. Good VF, toned. Exceptional broad flan of good metal.

The Kingdom of Lydia, under the Mermnad dynasty, may well have been the originator of coinage in the Mediterranean world. It possessed rich deposits of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, which was the only metal used for coin production in its earliest stages. The Lydians later demonstrated their ingenuity in monetary matters by introducing a bimetallic currency system, comprising coins struck in pure gold and silver instead of electrum which was of variable intrinsic value. This development took place under King Kroisos (560-546 BC), a monarch famed for his extraordinary wealth, at which time the types of the royal Lydian coinage were standardized to depict the confronted foreparts of a lion and a bull, possibly symbolizing the sun and the moon. Coins were struck in a range of denominations, both in gold and silver, the relative value of the two metals at this time being 131/3 : 1.