This is a coin type I had always wanted, ever since seeing a picture of one in a book when I was a kid! It isn't perfect, but the imperfections make it affordable.
Lydian Kingdom (pre-Achaemenid)
Croesus, 560-546 BC
AR Siglos / 1/2 stater, 14mm 5.22g
Obv: Confronted foreparts of lion and bull
Rev: Two punches
Croesus is an historical figure who became mythical upon his death. Succeeding his father Alyattes in 560 BC, Croesus continued his father's wars against the other Anatolian kingdoms and subdued Ionia and Aeolis. He is credited with being the first individual to introduce a bimetallic currency system. Previously, all coinage in Asia Minor was minted from more or less raw electrum from river deposits; Croesus heated the electrum with salt to separate the gold and silver, creating pure gold and pure silver, from which he minted staters or Croesids, with one 8.1 gram gold Croesid being worth 10 silvers of 10.7 grams.
Croesus grew to become one of the wealthiest kings in history to that point, and is said to have famously selected the Oracle at Delphi as the most truthful of Apollo's oracles, and to have conversed with philosophers who warned him that the happiness brought by his great wealth would be at best fleeting - soon after his son was killed in a hunting accident.
By the 540s, it became clear that the encroaching Achaemenid empire was becoming a serious threat to be grappled with. Croesus consulted with the Oracle at Delphi, who told him "If you go to war, you will destroy a great empire." Croesus prepared for war and fought several indecisive battles in 547 BC. In that winter, Croesus disbanded his army to resume the campaign in the spring (this was the custom at the time) but Cyrus pressed on and conquered the whole kingdom. Croesus was captured at Sardis, and it is said that Cyrus ordered him to be burned alive on a pyre. Accounts differ on what transpired next - some versions of the story have Croesus rescued by Apollo and taken away, others have Cyrus rescuing him after a sudden change of heart and making Croesus his advisor, and other sources claim he died on the pyre.
The death of Croesus marked the end of Greek dominance in Anatolia for the next 200 years. The Achaemenids saw the benefits of his bimetallic monetary system and adopted it for themselves, the gold Croesid becoming the Daric, and the similarly sized half Croesid becoming the Siglos.
Posted 01/15/2019 11:55 am
