Ionia or Lydia, uncertain mint EL Trite - 1/3 Stater. Circa 600-560

Ionia or Lydia, uncertain mint EL Trite - 1/3 Stater. Circa 600-560 BC. Lydo-Milesian Standard. 'Schematic', linear outline of conjoined, roaring lions' heads / Double incuse punch with 'horse shoe' pattern. Unpublished in the standard references; for similar obverse style and type cf. Weidauer 117-125; for similar obverse and reverse types cf. Gorny & Mosch sales 104, 2000, 384 and sale 115, 2002, 1171 (1/6 Stater); cf. also CNG 61, 706-8 (1/6 Stater) and eAuction 235, 186 (1/6 Stater). 4.57g, 14mm.



Near Mint State. Extremely Rare; unpublished in the standard references, and of very considerable numismatic interest.



From the collection of an antiquarian, Bavaria c. 1960s-1990s.



As noted in Roma XIX, the schematic engraving style of these issues is very primitive, but the weight standard is consistent with that of Lydia and has affinities with the early confronted lion heads series of Lydia (cf. Weidauer XVII, 91-6; Roma Numismatics VIII, 2014, 637). The issuing authority may be somehow connected to the aftermath of the defeat by Alyattes of the invading Cimmerians after 619 BC, with these coins struck at an unspecified mint north of the Maiandros in the early 6th century BC.