Achaemenid and Satrapic Coinage

Hi everyone ,

I don't know if there is an actual thread dedicated to Achaemenid or satrapic coinage, but it would be nice to share each other what we know about them. Added to this, recent acquisitions of them for the members who got some.

Persian coinage is often categorized as Greek coinage because the Achaemenid lineage started minting due to the conquest of Sardes of Lydia. They appropriated Lydian technology as their own. Moreover, it is highly suspected most coinage was for strict use in Western part of the Persian empire due to hoards disposition. Silver was a favored currency for the Greek world while gold was favored in the Middle East. There is few to none sigloi found in the Zagros and beyond (Persian administrative center).

Achaemenid coinage:
Ancient Persian coins from royal issue after few decades following the capture of Sardes (and its mint) of Lydia. The earliest issues were nearly identical to the Lydian production lines until Darius I redesigned it with the reknown "toxotai" ([running] archers). It was either made of silver (AR) (weight: siglos (plural: sigloi) or gold (named the daric). The Achaemenids themselves did not name their coins unless pertinent records did not pass the test of time.

Satrapic coinage:
Not long before the Macedonian conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great, the rights of minting coinage were slowly transferred to the satraps under the rule of the Persian king. Most likely, there could mint their own coins under condition to display on the observe the propagandist "toxotai". Hence, a great variety of coins appeared and new forms of the Great King/Hero running archers (e.g. sitting on his throne, bust, in his demonstration chariot, etc.). Some issues are made of bronze (AE).

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Here's some self-snapped photos of a part of my sigloi collection.

I uploaded on Imgur Image sharing platform (because high resolution).

We can see an example of the Type I siglos (half-length hieratic hero-king archer holding a bow and 2 arrows).



There are three fractionary sigloi (1/6 siglos), but two of them pretend to be sigloi as they are fourre (low-valued metal such as bronze coated with high-valued metal).




At last, there is a Type IIIb (subclass B) with a special relief symbol within the incuse punch; it is a lion relief. According to certain scholars, it might be the symbol for the mint of Sardes as the Croesid coinage had the "lion vs bull" iconography at the obverse.



There is such a variety of Achaemenid coinage. Does any member have some to share with all?

 

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Sweet entrance, Napata ... "welcome"

Great coin-type ... I love these running King types

Sadly, I only have one humble example ... wanna see it?

Persia AR Siglos
Date: Time of Xerxes II to Artaxerxes II (485-420 BC)
Diameter: 15.4 mm
Weight: 5.3 grams
Obverse: Persian hero holding bow and spear, X banker's mark in field.
Reverse: Incuse punch



... I like the banker's mark on the obverse (pretty sure that's why I bought it?)



I really want to score a cool "dagger" version

Oh, and I love your background!! (is that snake?)

 

Not really certain. It is the hard cover of a notebook I received from a work colleague. It looks like snake skin, but it could be fake (?). Yeah, I choose the hard cover as background; it looked nice.

BTW, I see you got #58 banker's mark. You can see the list here.


Sadly, very few of them have a clear attribution. For instance, #62, #100 and #112 are thought to be of Greek origin (Aegina).

INDEED! The countermarks are what that make sigloi even more fascinating for a collector. I think I have seen countermarks only in Republic Roman coins and ancient Indian coinage.

 

Oh wait, it was sarcastic.

 

Nice => thanks for the awesome chart of banker's marks (and yes, looks like my baby could be #58) ... you rock so far

cheers

 

ahaha => I always forget that some of you can read that (I have those things/signatures turned-off)

... yah, I'm usually sarcastic (but sometimes I'm a bit careless with my words) ... don't ever take me seriously and you'll be golden



Hey, let's see a few more of your coins ... so far, so cool (I love archaics)

 

Welcome Napata! I find these coins interesting too, but only have one example myself:


Persian Empire
Darius I to Xerxes II, r. 485-420 B.C.
Sardes Mint, AR Siglos, 14mm x 5.5 grams
Obv.: Persian king or hero, wearing kidaris and kandys, quiver over shoulder, in kneeling-running stance right, holding spear and bow. 1 counterstamp at position 3, Hill 35
Rev.: Incuse punch. Three counterstamps: position 3, Hill type 89; position 10, Hill type 42; position 12, Hill type 58 (perhaps Cypriate or Lycian Letter)
Ref.: Carradice Type IIIb, Group A/B (pl. XII, 17).

I'm a little iffy on some of those counter-marks, but that's my best reckoning.

 

I still lack the first type but am happy with my Type II - a siglos with fancy shoe.


The fourree is a one third siglos.


The Type III is with spear


and Type IV with daggar.


I only have two fractional of the later period and both are worn. At 1.0g and 0.5g I'm calling them a sixth and a twelth.


Finally is the Type IV coin I believe attracted attention to itself by being struck the wrong way on the flan resulting in a lot of countermarks including the owl at obverse left. Is it 8 or 9 and three deep punches? It is hard to tell whether a couple are separate or together. What is the record?

 

awesome

 

Terrific OP and write-up! And I really like all the subsequent posts!

I no longer have any of the type......another area I need to revisit.

 

welcome napata!

i don't have one of these..on the list.

maybe in 2016.

 

Hello, this is my first post here, and so far I haven't found out all the how-to's. But I found this thread about Achaemenid fourrées on Google.
I bought a siglos last week, and it turned out to be a fourrée. I had fallen for it because of the nice 8 on the king's shirt I'm afraid. Now I'm having doubts about keeping it. The seller told me it is an ancient fourrée, that's the crux of course.
Does anybody of you knows if that is right?

(Update). I added a pic of the rim, giving it some extra contrast for clarifying.

 

"welcome Pellinore"

Wow, it's very fricken cool, whatever it is ...

=> yah, I love ancient fourrees almost as much as ancient authentics!!

Man, the fact that the Running King is wearing a jersey with #8 on it makes it the coolest Running King coin that I've ever seen!! (very sweet addition)





Pellinore => I guess #14 would have been even better, eh?

 

Thanks, that's encouraging. In this website 'Ancient Fourrées' I found several other sigloi, although not as light as mine.

 

Welcome Pellinore!Welcome napata!

thanks to the author for an excellent overview of the theme of Persian coins !!! Your coins wonderful.

 

Welcome Pellinore! Find the Questing Beast yet?

 

The Once and Future King is one of my favorite books, and yes, Glatisant is a nickname I sometimes use, the Beast that rumbles with its belly like thirty barking dogs. I would have collected coins of King Arthur, but they don't seem to exist.
As for the siglos with jersey number 14, if you have one, maybe we can trade...

 

I'm adding a new shot of the overlapping owl/? countermark from the last coin in my post above. Neither mark seems to be on the list of 158.

 

I credit Once & Future king with my becoming a medievalist (that and a series of other influences - but I was the only one of my fellow colleagues to have been inspired by Arthur rather than Tolkein...)