Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 404. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $5250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS OF LYDIA. Uncertain King. Before 561 BC. EL Stater (10.72 gm). Typeless globular ingot, the reverse with roughened surface. Good VF, with untreated granular surfaces, as cast. A unique example of early coinage production. ($3000) 

Ex Leu 71 (24 October 1997), lot 191. 

This typeless stater is more a “pre-coin” or nugget than an actual coin, as it lacks even a punch. The weight standard corresponds to the early electrum striated stater in the British Museum (BMC Ionia pg. 183, 1), or to the heavy gold stater of Croessus, all on the Babylonian standard.