Ionian Electrum stater
Flying Bird Design
Samos weight standard, 17.32 g
mid 7th century B.C.E.
Stack's NYICS auction Jan 5, 2012, lot# 267
(photo by Stack's)
One of the World's First Coins. Catalogued by Stack's as "excessively rare", with fewer than 10 known specimens. "While Lydia is often credited with the invention of coinage, in numismatics the earliest Electrum coins are usually attributed to Ionia." Electrum and the Invention of Coinage, 2011, Joseph Linzalone, p9.
Samos, where this coin was made, was an Independent Ionian Greek city-state until conquered by the Persians around 517 BC. It is an island just off the coast of the Anatolian Peninsula or Asia Minor. Lydia was in heavy contact with the Ionian Greeks.
Electrum is described as a "naturally occurring alloy of gold & silver traceable to certain deposits found near the Western coast of Anatolia."
A paper {see below} discussing these coins includes a detailed compositional analysis. The trend is that as the denomination of the coin increases, the % gold in the alloy decreases. Thus the small denominations, such as the 1/12th staters and smaller can reach 80% gold. The full stater was analyzed at 40% gold / 60% silver and that appears to be visually the case with this specimen.
The Samos electrum coins have been found in several hoards. One hoard was found in the 1880's and included one full stater. Another hoard dates from the 1960's and only has fractional pieces.
The Electrum Coinage of Samos in the Light of a Recent Hoard
Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn, Germany, exact pub date unknown but after 2004.
Aegina, silver didrachma also called a stater
480 - 457 B.C.
(Stack's Bowers NYINCS 8 Jan 2016, #30074)
(The Syracuse Collection, Part III. Ex: Coin Galleries November 2002, Lot# 122)
Turtle stater
Aegina, silver didrachma 12.30 gms,
Milbank-pl. I#13; SNG Cop-507
smooth shelled turtle or rather T-shaped pattern pellets on back.
Darius I (r. 522 - 486 BC)
Persian gold daric
Gorny & Mosch
1992, lot# ___
Achaemenid Persia, gold daric
Macedon, City State of Akanthos
tetradrachm
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Lydia
fouree of a croeseid
(510-480 BC)
CNG, 22 May, 2014, lot# 111
These coins are attributed to the independent kingdom of Lydia where they are arguably the 1st silver coinage. They are commonly referred to as croeseids or a Double Siglos. After Persia conquered Lydia, the Persians kept using the Lydian design for a while before making their own coinage types.
Fouree (or fourree) is a contemporary plated copy of a coin. Usually silver (rarely gold) but filled with copper inside.
For some reason these croeseids have spiked upwards in price, forcing me to buy a fouree rather than a regular specimen. Fortunately prices have come down again. There is quite some variation in the design relating to the exact time when they were made.
pictures of coin
coin notes
history notes