Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 564. Estimate $4000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $5200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PERSIA, Achaemenid Empire. Time of Darios I-Xerxes I. Circa 505-480 BC. AV Daric (8.27 gm). Persian king or hero in kneeling-running stance right, shooting bow / Incuse punch. Carradice Type II (pl. XI, 11); BMC Arabia -; SNG Copenhagen -. VF, well centered. Very rare. ($4000)

The Achaemenid series began in the mid-late sixth century BC, contemporary with the famous Kroisid coinage, and lasted until the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great in the 330s BC. The term “daric” dates from the fifth century BC, and was used by the Greeks as a term for Perisan coinage, particularly the gold (see Herodotos 7. 28). Its name derives from that of the Persian 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. BAR International Series 343. Oxford. 1987) forms the modern basis for our understanding of this interesting coinage.

The Persians did not traditionally use coinage; instead, they employed the age-old systems of barter and trade-in-kind. Their eventual adoption of coinage was related first to their conquests of Lydia and then to their 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.

There were a number of conflicts between the Greeks and Persians with which this type IIIb coinage may be associated. In 480 BC, the Persians under Xerxes I invaded mainland Greece, thereby inaugurating a series of battles between the Hellenic League and Persia lasting until 467 BC, when Kimon destroyed the Persian fleet in the Battle of the Eurymedon. From 460/459-454 BC, the Athenians supported the Egyptian revolt against the latter’s Persian satrap. Finally, from 450-449/8 BC, Kimon campaigned against and defeated the Persians in Cyprus. This event prompted the Peace of Kallias in 448 BC, in which the Greeks and Persians recognized their mutual spheres of influence.