427, Lot: 195. Estimate $200. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLANDS off ATTICA, Aegina. Circa 525-475 BC. Cut AR Stater (15.5mm, 9.22 g). Sea turtle, head in profile, with thin collar and row of dots down its back / Deep incuse square of “Union Jack” pattern with eight incuse segments. Meadows, Aegina, Group IIa; HGC 6, 428. VF, toned.

Hacksilber is the general term for pieces of cut silver – coins, ingots, and jewelry – that were used as bullion or currency in pre-monetized economies. This was especially true in the East before the Hellenistic period when coinage became a common form of currency. In addition to ingots and pieces of jewelry, many of these hacksilber hoards included cut fragments of archaic and classical coins. The characteristics of the present coin suggest that it was used as Hacksilber in the East. In fact, many early hoards also contain such cut staters of Aegina.