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Heritage World Coin Auctions
Hong Kong Signature Sale 3065  28 Jun 2018
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Lot 30019

Estimate: 1500 USD
Price realized: 2800 USD
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Ancients
LYDIAN KINGDOM. Alyattes or Walwet (ca. 610-561 BC). EL third stater or trite (12mm, 4.74 gm). NGC AU 4/5 - 4/5.  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. A high-grade specimen from around the dawn of coinage.

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. 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: 1500-2000 USD
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