Siglos - Artaxerxes II to Artaxerxes III

The siglos was the standard silver coin of the Achaemenid Persian Empire for roughly two centuries, yet the type changed almost not at all — the same imagery repeated across reigns with a conservatism that was almost certainly deliberate policy. Artaxerxes II presided over a weakened empire following the revolt of Cyrus the Younger in 401 BC, the march of the Ten Thousand, and decades of costly conflict with Sparta, yet the coinage projected unbroken continuity throughout. His successor Artaxerxes III briefly reversed Persian decline, reconquering Egypt in 343 BC after decades of independence — the last Persian pharaoh ruling there before Alexander ended everything.

Sigloi circulated widely in Anatolia and the Levant but were notoriously absent from Persian domestic commerce, which ran largely on weighed bullion and commodity exchange. Greek mercenaries were among their most consistent recipients.