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Stater - Kroisos Prototype
| Issuer | Kings of Lydia |
|---|---|
| Year | 560 BC - 546 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Confronted foreparts of a lion and a bull, face to face in the field: the lion forepart advances to the right with open jaws and a finely rendered mane rendered in granular relief, while the bull forepart faces left with curved horns clearly delineated. The two animals occupy the full flan in a dynamic heraldic composition characteristic of early Lydian royal coinage. The surfaces are uneven and the flan irregular, consistent with archaic hammered production. No legend or inscription is present. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Two incuse square punches of unequal size impressed into the reverse field, a hallmark of early Lydian minting technique used to authenticate the metal content. The larger punch dominates the upper left, while the smaller occupies the lower right, both exhibiting a rough, striated interior surface resulting from the striker punch. The reverse is entirely uninscribed and devoid of figurative imagery, conforming to the standard fabric of the Kroisos-era gold stater series. The flan surface surrounding the punches retains the characteristic lumpy, unstruck texture of archaic hammered coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Kroisos of Lydia is credited with issuing the first true bimetallic coinage in history — parallel gold and electrum stater series struck to a fixed weight standard, a deliberate monetary reform that allowed exchange ratios between metals to be officially controlled. His kingdom's access to alluvial gold from the Pactolus River made the output possible at scale. The Persians ended it abruptly in 546 BC when Cyrus the Great took Sardis, reportedly after Kroisos misread a Delphic oracle predicting that a great empire would fall.