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Banner Artemide LVII
Kroisos Gold Coin
Lot # 242
Greek Asia. Kings of Lydia. Kroisos (circa 564/53-550/39 BC). AV Trite – 1/3 Stater. Light series. Sardes mint. Struck circa 550-546 BC. Obv. Confronted foreparts of lion, right, and bull, left. Rev. Two square punches. SNG von Aulock -; Walburg Group II, 3; BMC 36; Berk 6; Traité I 404; Boston MFA 2074.. AV. 2.69 g. 10.50 mm. Good VF.
Ex Chaponnière & Firmenich, auction 7, lot 43.
The 'Kroisos' type coinage is one of the most recognizable of all ancient Greek coinage. All of the issues in the bimetallic, gold and silver, series feature the same confronted lion and bull foreparts on the obverse, and two incuse punches (or a single punch in the case of small denominations) on the reverse. It is thought that the series began on a 'heavy' standard, with gold and silver staters of equal weight, around 10.6-10.7 grams, which was later reduced to about 8.17 grams for the gold. More recently, though, studies have shown that coins of both standards circulated together, but that the heavy standard was only used for a relatively short time compared to the light standard, which continued to be used into the Persian period (CNG 99, 255 note).