Stater

Electrum staters from uncertain Ionian mints of this period sit at the very beginning of coined money in the Western tradition, produced within a generation or two of the first coins ever struck anywhere. The attribution problem is genuine — Ionian civic identity in the mid-sixth century was fluid, and several poleis shared iconographic conventions closely enough that firm assignment remains contested among specialists even with hoard evidence.

The Weidauer grouping (138–139) places this type within a die-linked sequence that suggests a single mint of meaningful output, not an emergency or one-off issue. Lydia's conquest of the Ionian coast under Croesus likely shaped the weight standard in use here.