Watch List notes:

IONIA. Uncertain. Circa 600-550 BC. Hemihekte – 1/12 Stater (Gold, 7 mm, 1.15 g), Lydo-Milesian standard. Head of a roaring lion to right, 'sun' with no rays on forehead. Rev. Incuse square. Cf. Rosen 654, SNG Ashmolean 757 and Weidauer Group XVI, 90 (for Lydian protoype). Possibly unpublished. Nearly extremely fine.


This is a curious coin: it copies the well known Lydian issues from the time of Alyattes to Kroisos with a roaring lion, but the style is distinctly different, indicating that the coin originates from an uncertain mint in Ionia that imitated the coinage of the Lydian Kings.