Heritage World Coin Auctions
ANA Signature Sale 3056 3 Aug 2017
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Ancients
LYDIAN KINGDOM. Alyattes or Walwet (ca. 610-561 BC). EL third stater or trite (12mm, 4.72 gm). NGC AU★ 5/5 - 5/5. Uninscribed issue, Lydo-Milesian standard. Sardes mint. Head of lion right, mouth open, mane bristling, radiate globule above eye / Two square punches of different size side by side. Weidauer 86. Boston 1764. SNG von Aulock 2868. SNG Kayhan 1013. Perfectly centered and sharply struck, with a detailed lion's head in high relief.
Lydia was the first kingdom of the ancient world to make widespread use of the newly invented medium of coinage. Previously, city-states along the Anatolian coast had experimented with pre-weighing nuggets of electrum and marking them with various abstract designs (see lot 30063). Alyattes, who founded the Lydian Kingdom circa 619 BC, standardized the striking of coins on a wide scale and used as an obverse design an image of the sun (shown as a "radiate globule") rising over a lion's head, the symbol of his family, the Mermnadae.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 5000-7000 USD
LYDIAN KINGDOM. Alyattes or Walwet (ca. 610-561 BC). EL third stater or trite (12mm, 4.72 gm). NGC AU★ 5/5 - 5/5. Uninscribed issue, Lydo-Milesian standard. Sardes mint. Head of lion right, mouth open, mane bristling, radiate globule above eye / Two square punches of different size side by side. Weidauer 86. Boston 1764. SNG von Aulock 2868. SNG Kayhan 1013. Perfectly centered and sharply struck, with a detailed lion's head in high relief.
Lydia was the first kingdom of the ancient world to make widespread use of the newly invented medium of coinage. Previously, city-states along the Anatolian coast had experimented with pre-weighing nuggets of electrum and marking them with various abstract designs (see lot 30063). Alyattes, who founded the Lydian Kingdom circa 619 BC, standardized the striking of coins on a wide scale and used as an obverse design an image of the sun (shown as a "radiate globule") rising over a lion's head, the symbol of his family, the Mermnadae.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 5000-7000 USD