452, Lot: 349. Estimate $200. Sold for $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of LYDIA. Kroisos. Circa 564/53-550/39 BC. AR Forty-eighth Stater (5mm, 0.21 g). Sardes mint. Head of lion right / Incuse square. Berk –; SNG Ashmolean –; SNG Tatiṣ 920 (uncertain Western Asia Minor); CNG E-432, lot 71; Hauck & Aufhäuser 14, lot 80. Toned, typical granularity. VF. Rare.

From the Matthew Curtis Collection.

Although not originally recognized as issues of Kroisos, the lion on this piece has a style that is identical to that found on the coins of that king, and the weight of this piece (and others like it) would conform to forty-eighth staters in his coinage. It appears that this type, like the traditional lion-bull Kroiseids, was continued under the Persians, as some examples also exhibit the highly stylized form of lion: cf. CNG 103, lot 300, and CNG E-392, lot 283.