LYDIAN KINGDOM. Alyattes or Walwet (ca. 610-546 BC). EL 1/12 stater or hemihecte (8mm, 1.15 gm). NGC Choice Fine 5/5 - 3/5, countermarks. Sardes mint. Head of lion right, mouth open, mane bristling, radiate sun on forehead / Incuse square. Weidauer 90. Traité I 47. SNG Kayhan 1015. 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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