Watch List notes:

JDL Collection Part II: Geek Coins
ASIA. KINGDOM OF LYDIA..

Unknown king from THE MERMNADES DYNASTY, probably ALYATTES, 610–560.

Trite, Sardis 600–550, Milesian standard, EL 4.73 g.
Obv. Lion's head right, jaws open, with radiate globule on forehead.
Rev. Two incuse squares, side by side, containing rough irregular markings.
Literature
Traité II/1, 44, pl. II, 6
BMC Lydia 2, 7, pl. I, 6 SNG von Aulock 2869
SNG Copenhagen 449–451
SNG Lockett 2977
G. Le Rider, La Naissance de la monnaie : pratique moné- taire de l'Orient ancien, Paris, 2001, pl. IV, 6–8
L. Weidauer, Probleme der frühen Elektronprägung, Typos 1, Fribourg , 1975, 86
A. R. Bellinger, "Electrum Coins from Gordion", Essays Robinson, pl. I, 1–26
Jameson 1506
K. Konuk, From Kroisos to Karia: early Anatolian coins from the Muharrem Kayhan Collection, Istanbul, 2003, 10
N. M. Waggoner, "Early Greek Coins from the Collection of Jonathan P. Rosen", ACNAC 5, New York, 1983, 656 Jenkins 6
M.-M. Bendenoun, Coins of the Ancient World, A portrait of the JDL Collection, Tradart, Genève, 2009, 29 (this coin)
Condition
In exceptional condition for the issue. Struck on a very broad flan and complete, good extremely fine.

Provenance
Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. 368, Frankfurt/Main 2001, 205.
Bankhaus H. Aufhäuser 8, München 1991, 206.
Although it has sometimes been argued that the invention of coinage should be attributed to the Ionian Greeks as well as the kings of Lydia, today numismatists generally favor the Lydian roots. Not only are the Lydian origins backed by an- cient authors, but the presence of typically Lydian characters on some of the very rare coins found in the Artemesium, plus the geographic location of Lydia on the crossroads of East
and West, its reputation as a great nation of traders, and the territorial domination it exercised over Asia Minor all point
in its favor, as do its abundant resources of precious metals. The Pactolus River, which ran through the Lydian capital, was notably full of flakes and nuggets of electrum. Indeed, the Lydians' wealth became proverbial-even today we recall the famous phrase, "as rich as Croesus."
Some one hundred electrum coins of varying weights found in the Artemesium excavations display, on the reverse, one or several marks in the form of an "incuse square." The ob- verse may be simple and smooth, or have a striped pattern, or even feature a raised image of a figure sometimes geo- metrical - but usually an animal such as cock, horse, bull, ram, or boar-set against a smooth or striped ground. These figures are emblems of the issuing city-states. A roaring lion
is associated with Lydia, the lion being a traditional Lydian symbol. The weights of these coins, meanwhile, correspond to the weight of a stater or simple divisions thereof (half,
one-third, one-sixth, etc.) even though they belong to several monetary
systems. Since the weight of a stater might vary from one city-state or kingdom to another, the system used in the kingdom of Lydia as far as Miletus in Ionia is known as the Lydo-Milesian standard (one stater weighs 14.30 grams).
The uniform degree of wear of the coins and the fact that some of them, although having different obverses (with or without motifs), were struck with identical dies on the reverse, leads to the conclusion that all these very early coins were issued over a relatively short time-span. The emergence of coinage probably dates to just a few decades before these examples were buried, that is to say no later than the recons- truction of the temple by Croesus around 560 BCE, and no earlier than the late seventh century.