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Stater
| Issuer | Uncertain Ionian city |
|---|---|
| Year | 600 BC - 550 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Stater (1) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Chimaera depicted in left-facing profile, rendered in bold archaic relief characteristic of early Ionian die-cutting. The mythological composite creature displays a lion's muscular body in a striding or standing posture, with a goat's head rising from the dorsal region and a serpentine tail curling upward at the hindquarters. The execution is vigorous and schematic, consistent with the earliest traditions of Greek civic coinage, with surface granularity typical of the electrum alloy's struck face. No legend or inscription is present in the field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
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| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Electrum staters from uncertain Ionian mints of this period sit at the very origin of coined money in the Western tradition — Lydia and the Greek cities of the Anatolian coast were minting before anyone else, and attribution remains contested precisely because no issuing authority yet felt the need to identify itself. The absence of a civic ethnic is itself the diagnostic feature.
BMC Greek 41 places this piece within a classification that has frustrated scholars for over a century.