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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Orielensis, post: 7927561, member: 96898&quot;]Most people on this board have a different definition of &quot;old&quot; than the general population. This coin, though, is very old even in ancient coin collector terms:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1370130[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Kings of Lydia, under King Croesus, AR ⅙ stater, <b>565/53–550/39 BC</b>. Obv: confronted foreparts of lion and bull. Rev: two incuse square punches of unequal size. 8–11mm, 1.76g. Ref: Berk 25; SNG Kayhan 1019; Sunrise 13.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>Due to the numismatic importance of this series as well as the mythology surrounding King Croesus, I had wanted an example of this type for my collection for a long time. My coin is a silver 1/6th stater with great detail and attractive black toning that I unfortunately find very hard to photograph.</p><p><br /></p><p>Legend often credits Croesus, the last king of Lydia, with the invention of minted money. That certainly is false. Though coinage was indeed invented in Lydia, coins struck from electrum were first introduced in the mid-7th century, abouth 100 years before Croesus&#039; reign. Croesus was the first, though, to mint pure gold coins and introduce a bimetallic monetary system. Croeseid coinage is based on a gold and silver stater. Both staters initially weighed 10.75 g each, though the gold stater was soon reduced to about 8.1g. Silver fractions range from sigloi or half-staters (5.37g) and 1/3 staters (3.58g) to 1/24 staters (0.45g). Ten silver staters were valued at one light gold stater, corresponding to an exchange rate of gold to silver of 1:13.33.</p><p><br /></p><p>All of Croesus coins show the same iconic design: The foreparts of a lion and a bull facing each other. Different interpretations of this motif have been proposed: The animals might represent the sun and moon, spring and winter, fertility and strength, Asia Minor and Europe, Lydia and Phrygia, or Zeus and Baal. As of now, none of these interpretations is generally accepted.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1370131[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Lydia during the reign of Croesus and before the Persian conquest</font></p><p><br /></p><p>After having been outbid at auction several times, I saw my chance to aquire a Croesus coin when a medium-sized auction house (Teutoburger) offered what I assume to be an estate collection in several large lots. In one of these lots, comprised of 11 Greek silver coins, I spotted a Croeseid fraction accompanied by a 1970/80s auction ticket from the well-known firm Münz Zentrum Albrecht&amp;Hoffmann. I decided to bid high on this lot and won it in the end. That absolutely blew my coin budget for the rest of the year but was totally worth it. To give you a glimpse of what else was in the lot, here is a quick group shot. Expect to see write-ups on some of these coins soon!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1370134[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Please post your own Croeseids or other &quot;really old&quot; coins!</b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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