Question On Lydian Lion Coins

According to Wayne Sayles and others, the Lydian lion types were not the first. They were preceded by the striations type with no representational imagery. CNG's blurb, at the links below, suggest an even earlier version, prior to the striations - essentially a lump of electrum that imitated natural ore nuggets. Of course none of this is certain - it seems murky.

Sayles, in Ancient Coin Collecting, writes: "at some point in the late 7th century BC, electrum pellets were acquired by traders or rulers and stamped with the intention of using them for exchange...The earliest specimens that we are aware of do not exhibit designs of any distinguishable type. They simply have striations on their surfaces and incuse marks from being struck by a crude punch. Before long, however, designs began to appear with some regularity."

So, if Sayles is correct, the striations type preceded the lion or any other representational imagery. If CNG is correct (you can read their passage at the links), there was a version that preceded even the striations.

https://cNGCoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=53423
https://cNGCoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=70041

Well, it would certainly seem that before the appearance of coinage with representational imagery (lions), there were "unmarked lumps of electrum of uniform weight" (Sayles), and some others with simple punches and striations.

The sequence of rulers of the Lydian Mermnad Dynasy, as per Sayles in his Numismatic Art of the Greek World volume, was:

Gyges (founder of the dynasty, during whose rule coinage may have begun), 685-652 BC rule.

Alyattes (WALWET in Lydian script), ruled 615-560 BC.

Croesus (son of Alywattes/Walwet), rule started 560 BC.

Sayles points out that it was Gyges who originally "adopted...the image of the lion" as the royal arms of the Mermnad Dynasty. I infer from that that the transition from non-pictorial early coin types (the "lumps" and striations) to the pictorial types, with lion depicted, occurred in the latter part of the reign of Gyges rather than with the ascension of Alyattes.

Again, this is all pretty murky.

You may find this old thread interesting, Mike, in which we discussed the earliest portraiture on coins:

http://goccf.com/t/263059