CNG 96, Lot: 586. Estimate $7500. Sold for $22000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PERSIA, Achaemenid Empire. temp. Darios I to Xerxes I. Circa 505-480 BC. AV Daric (13mm, 8.42 g). Persian king or hero in kneeling-running right, holding spear in right hand, bow in left, quiver over shoulder / Rectangular incuse punch. Carradice Type II (pl. XI, 11 – same rev. punch); Meadows, Administration 319; BMC Arabia –; Sunrise 19. Near EF.

The Achaemenid series began in the mid-late sixth century BC, following the Persian conquest of Lydia. The earliest issues imitated the last Lydian coinage, struck by Kroisos, but the Persians soon developed their own types, featuring the figure of the Great King or a hero, a type which lasted until the conquest of Persia by Alexander in the 330s BC. The term “daric” dates from the fifth century BC, and was used by the Greeks as a term for Persian coinage, particularly the gold (see Hdt. 7. 28). Its name derives from King Darios I, under whom the Persian coinage began. Ian Carradice’s study, “The ‘Regal’ Coinage of the Persian Empire” (in Coinage and Administration in the Athenian and Persian Empires [Oxford: BAR, 1987]) forms the modern basis for our understanding of this interesting coinage.

The Persians did not traditionally use coinage, but adopted it in connection with their conquests of Lydia and their subsequent conflicts with the Greek city states in the sixth through fourth centuries BC. During these wars, the Persians employed Greek mercenaries who, unlike their eastern counterparts, were accustomed to receiving payment in coinage.

Carradice’s Type II coinage was struck during the Achaemenid Empire’s attempt to conquer the Greek mainland under Darios I and Xerxes I. For an excellent and detailed account of the period of the Greco-Persian Wars, including specific accounts of the Battles of Marathon, Thermopylai, Salamis, and Plataiai, and the destruction of the Athenian Acroplis, as well as characterizations of the major figures of this conflict – including Themistokles, see Robert B. Strassler, The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories (New York: Random House, 2009).