Lydia. Kroisos. Sardes. 560-546 BC. AV 'heavy' Trite (3.55g). Babelon 399; SNG von Aulock 8210. Lightly toned. Good very fine. From a European private collection; Triton 2004 (7) lot 252

Herodotos (1.94.1) famously told us that "the Lydians were the first people we know of to use a gold and silver coinage". The kingdom of Lydia lay on the western coast of what is now Turkey. Sardes, the capital, was a clearinghouse for trade between Mesopotamia and Greek cities. During their brief hegemony over Asia Minor from the 7th to the 6th century BC, the Lydians profoundly influenced the Ionian Greeks to their West.