1⁄24 Stater - Alyattes II

Alyattes II inherited a kingdom already experimenting with struck coinage — likely initiated under his predecessor Ardys or possibly Gyges — but it was during his reign that Lydian electrum issues became systematically standardized. The 1/24 stater denomination, among the smallest in the series, served practical small-transaction needs at a time when the Lydian economy was expanding aggressively through western Anatolia. Croesus, his son and successor, would eventually abandon electrum altogether in favor of pure gold and silver bimetallism, making these alloy pieces a finite episode in monetary history.