Early electrum coins ionia lydia
The proximity of Didyma to Miletus could then explain both the similarities and, perhaps more importantly, the differences between these types and the smaller Milesian types. As a result ordinary collectors often see these coins as a bewildering confusion of unattributed types, and hence they hardly know where to start when trying to put together a meaningful collection early electrum coins ionia lydia the period. Mitchener assigns the lion face types to the period of Croesus, but these seem to be a rather limited and perhaps earlier series, and overall we don't early electrum coins ionia lydia to have enough types or denominations to fill the gap down to the first silver issues some time after B. On balance though, these types seem rather too common to have derived from a relatively small city like Didyma, and the scorpion does connect to later dynastic issues in southern Anatolia.
The crude style of these types suggests they are early issues, but the weight scale of the pebbly type is oddly low. One minor but distinctive subgroup of the Phokaic weight types worth noting comprises various rare types featuring mostly simple floral or geometric designs, but often, unlike other northern types, non-millsail reverses. For example it has been suggested that coinage was used by early electrum coins ionia lydia merchants or populist tyrants to free up markets and trade, and hence wrest control of the economy from the domination of the aristocratic elites.
To complete the picture the basic gold Croeseid types are included in the main chart, while the siglos of Darius is shown so as to confirm the transition to flattened reverses at Sardes under it seems Croesus, and to emphasise the non-flattening of the earlier Croeseids. We don't really know, but one theory is that the new controlled alloys were meant to equate to diluted verions of some theoretical early electrum coins ionia lydia alloy. As more or less pure materials, gold and silver could be simply exchanged by weight, and silver in particular had for centuries been the prime medium of exchange in the market. Rough unfigured types reassigned to Ephesus or Ionia.
On the other hand, early electrum coins ionia lydia note that the smooth unfigured types of Ionia A don't seem to fit with the general picture for Miletus, as the average weight of these seemingly early types is actually fairly low, at around Unfortunately the key literature on these types is not easily available to the average collector, and therefore I have put together a chart of images of the different issues, arranged in time, which can be found on the "The Coins of Croesus" page. Section on the Coins of Croesus added.
In particular, in Lydia we find that by the time of the lion-head issues the gold content of the alloy was quite narrowly controlled suggesting that, at Sardis at least, a completely artificial electrum alloy was early electrum coins ionia lydia used, meaning presumably that the Lydians were now routinely separating their electrum into gold and silver. It will be realised that the arrangement of the southern Ionian types here relies to a large degree on the conventional assignment of certain common early issues, in particular the striated types, to Miletus, and the obvious question is early electrum coins ionia lydia is the basis for this? Ionia, Uncertain EL Hekte. However, at some stage this system seems to have broken down, possibly due to dilution of the natural electrum with added silver, so that a new approach was needed to restore the reputation of electrum as a medium of exchange. This standard then declined to c.
The schemes presented here are my own but readers early electrum coins ionia lydia realise that they draw on the ideas of many other writers in the field. A related question is, and always has been, why was so much care taken, even right at the start, to control the actual weight of the coins? My own estimate of the "final date" of the Artemision types derives mainly from the early electrum coins ionia lydia that the coins in the find do not include examples of the common Weid. Apart from a few types like these the northern issues give the impression that before the fall of Croesus much of the northern coinage derived from limited "private" issues, often involving only one or two denominations, with only a few cities bothering with recognisably civic issues of any size.
This is an intriguing problem which surely needs further attention. As well there is the important question of how do the lion-head electrum types relate to the Croeseid gold and silver issues, particularly given that the later issues of Weid. The first Gold and Silver Coinage.
Uncertain mint in Ionia, AR hemiobol, 6mm, 0. Given the peculiarities of the various browsers, viewers may need to adjust the displayed text size for comfortable viewing. Similarly, there seem to be almost no griffin head hektes from Teos?