Heritage World Coin Auctions
Long Beach Signature Sale 3067 6-7 Sep 2018
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Ancients
LYDIAN KINGDOM. Alyattes or Walwet (ca. 610-546 BC). EL third stater or trite (14mm, 4.73 gm). NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 3/5. Uninscribed, 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, four small rectangular countermarks containing varying numbers of pellets and other shapes around lower edge. Weidauer 86. Boston 1764. SNG von Aulock 2868. SNG Kayhan 1013. A pleasing example of one of the earliest type coins.
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: 2000-3000 USD
LYDIAN KINGDOM. Alyattes or Walwet (ca. 610-546 BC). EL third stater or trite (14mm, 4.73 gm). NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 3/5. Uninscribed, 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, four small rectangular countermarks containing varying numbers of pellets and other shapes around lower edge. Weidauer 86. Boston 1764. SNG von Aulock 2868. SNG Kayhan 1013. A pleasing example of one of the earliest type coins.
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: 2000-3000 USD