Ephesos issued gold staters only intermittently, and this series dates to a period when the city was navigating the competing pressures of Attalid Pergamon and Roman administrative reach following the settlement at Apameia in 188 BC. Gold coinage from Ephesos at this level of weight closely follows the Attic standard, a deliberate choice that eased trade across the Aegean without subordinating the city's monetary identity to any single patron power.
The SNG Copenhagen 259 reference places this firmly within a small, well-documented group. Surviving examples are few — Ephesian gold from the mid-second century BC turns up in hoards far less frequently than the city's prolific silver issues.
Ephesos issued gold staters only intermittently, and this series dates to a period when the city was navigating the competing pressures of Attalid Pergamon and Roman administrative reach following the settlement at Apameia in 188 BC. Gold coinage from Ephesos at this level of weight closely follows the Attic standard, a deliberate choice that eased trade across the Aegean without subordinating the city's monetary identity to any single patron power.
The SNG Copenhagen 259 reference places this firmly within a small, well-documented group. Surviving examples are few — Ephesian gold from the mid-second century BC turns up in hoards far less frequently than the city's prolific silver issues.