LYDIAN KINGDOM. Alyattes or Walwet (ca. 610-561 BC). EL third-stater or trite (13mm, 4.71 gm). NGC Choice AU 4/5 - 4/5. Uninscribed issue, Lydo-Milesian standard. Sardes mint. Head of lion right, mouth open, mane bristling, radiate globule above eye / Bipartite oblong punch with irregular interior surfaces. Weidauer 86. Boston 1764. SNG von Aulock 2868. SNG Kayhan 1013. Carefully detailed lion on pale, matte flan. Lydia was the first kingdom of the ancient world to make widespread use of the newly invented medium of coinage. Previously, city-states along the Anatolian coast had experimented with pre-weighing nuggets of electrum and marking them with various abstract designs. Alyattes, who founded the Lydian Kingdom circa 619 BC, standardized the striking of coins on a wide scale and used as an obverse design an image of the sun (shown as a "radiate globule") rising over a lion's head, the symbol of his family, the Mermnadae.

HID09801242017

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