A couple of weeks ago I shared my Ionian 1/24th gold stater dated between 650-600BC with you guys. That coin arrived from HA a few days ago and I absolutely loved how it looked in hand. Well today I had an opportunity to pick up some similar coins at a reasonable price. Allow me to introduce the 1/12th and 1/6th staters that I won today! IONIA. Uncertain mint. Ca. 650-600 BC. EL 1/12 stater or hemihecte (8mm, 1.12 gm). NGC XF 4/5 - 3/5. Lydo-Milesian standard. Uncertain design / Incuse square punch with irregular interior surfaces. SNG Kayhan 687. IONIA. Uncertain mint. Ca. 600-550 BC. EL sixth-stater or hecte (10mm, 2.34 gm). NGC VG 3/5 - 4/5. Lydo-Milesian standard. Head of lion or seal left, pellet or sun on forehead / Two incuse square punches, side by side, with irregular geometric interior surfaces. Weidauer -. cf. Linzalone 1108 (Phocaea, seal, hecte). Now I have the 1/24th stater, 1/12th stater, and 1/6th stater! I'm just missing the 1/3 stater and 1 stater as well as the 1/96th and 1/48th stater. My goal one day is to try to collect all of them (although the 1 stater is unlikely) so I can have a 600BC Ionian gold type set! ^_^ The 1/6th stater is pretty worn down in VG condition but I don't mind since the designs are difficult to see even in AU condition and for the price I got it I can't complain about anything.
According to the slab the 1/24th stater has 0.56 grams. The 1/12th stater has 1.12 grams. The 1/6th stater has 2.34 grams. But these are electrum coins so they aren't pure gold. From what I've read the average gold content of these coins is about 55% which is interesting because the natural electrum in the area was about 70% gold so it proves that the temptation to debase the coins was too strong to resist.
55% Gold, 44% silver, 1% copper. The mix was intentional, since it was more stable than pure gold and could circulate longer. Quoted and translated from https://www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/news/den-aeltesten-muenzen-im-mittelmeerraum-auf-der-spur the incuse on your second EL coin reminds me of this reverse http://www.abload.de/img/ionia650kbie3.jpg
I don't think I'll ever fully complete it. There are only 6 known examples of the full 1 stater coin and they tend to sell for 6 figures on the rare occasions when they come to auction. I could probably get the rest though. The 1/3 stater would be expensive but not unrealistically expensive.
Yup if I recall correctly the natural gold content of the electrum in the area was ~70% so it serves as proof that it was debased prior to being coined.
