Kings of Lydia, Time of Kroisos AR Half-Stater (Siglos) 561-546 BC Ancient Greek Silver Coin Museum Reproduction CSGDS0007

The ‘Kroisos’ type coinage is one of the most recognizable of all ancient Greek coinage. All of the issues in the bimetallic, gold and silver, series feature the same confronted lion and bull foreparts on the obverse, and two incuse punches (or a single punch in the case of small denominations) on the reverse. It is thought that the series began on a ‘heavy’ standard, with gold and silver staters of equal weight, around 10.6-10.7 grams, which was later reduced to about 8.17 grams for the gold. More recently, though, studies have shown that coins of both standards circulated together, but that the heavy standard was only used for a relatively short time compared to the light standard, which continued to be used into the Persian period. The Kroiseids have also traditionally been broken down into two stylistic groups, ‘realistic’ and ‘stylized’, with hoard evidence suggesting that the former belonged to the time of Kroisos, while the latter were of the time of the Persians.

DESIGN:
Obverse side
Confronted foreparts of lion right and bull left
Legend:
Anepigraphic

Reverse side
Two square incuse punches of unequal size
Legend:
Anepigraphic

A perfect choice for Numismatists, Historians, Military Veterans, Collectors.