Very Rare Eighth Stater

354, Lot: 168. Estimate $150. Sold for $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of LYDIA. Kroisos. Circa 564/53-550/39 BC. AR Eighth Stater (11mm, 1.33 g). Sardes mint. Confronted foreparts of lion right and bull left / Two incuse squares of unequal size. Berk –; Traité I –; SNG Kayhan 1019 corr. (denomination); SNG von Aulock –; Boston MFA –; Rosen –; CNG E-296, lot 49 corr. (same); CNG 60, lot 780b corr. (same). VF, toned, granular surfaces, light mark on obverse. Very rare denomination.

The fractional silver of Kroisos is poorly represented in most published collections, so a full understanding of is is not yet clear. A canvass of the records in CoinArchives reveals that there are two groups of coins typically cataloged as silver sixth staters under Kroisos, distinguished by their weight. One group lies around 1.70 grams, while the other is around 1.35 grams; the majority on CoinArchives belongs to the former group. A similar situation exists regarding twelfth staters, with two groups lying around 0.85 grams and 0.65 grams, respectively. Berk noticed these two, and called them, respectively, twelfths (Berk 27) and sixteenths (Berk 28). Finally, a review of the twenty-fourth staters in CoinArchives reveals a similar situation, with groups around 0.4 grams and 0.3 grams. If these coins do comprise a single weight system based on a stater of around 10.50 grams, the “sixths” of the 1.35 gram group should be considered as eighths, while the second group of “twenty-fourths” around 0.3 grams should actually be thirty-seconds. Another possibility exists, though, that there is a heavy and light standard for the silver as there is in the gold of Kroisos, where a light stater would weigh around 8 grams. While this dual-weight system is evinced by these small fractions, we still lack a stater or third that was struck on this theoretical light standard. Until either come to light, it seems that the recognition of the lighter coins as new denominations of an eighth and thirty-second stater are most likely.