Kings of Lydia, time of Alyattes circa 610 – 560.   Hecte, Sardis circa 610-560, EL 2.33 g. FALFEL retrograde in Lydian characters Lion's head r. with open jaws, solar-disc above forehead, confronting open jaws of lion's head l. (the latter out of flan). Rev. Rectangular double incuse punch. Weidauer 98 (this obverse die). SNG Kayhan 2012.
Very rare. Very fine

Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 60, 1992, 226 and NGSA 6, 2010, 99 sales.
This early electrum trite is remarkable in that it gives the name of the issuer, Walwel, in Archaic Lydian script. It is widely accepted that Walwel is the Lydian form of Alyattes, the Greek name of a powerful Lydian king whose reign is recorded in the Histories of Herodotos. According to the Father of History, Alyattes spent much of his reign expanding the territory of the Lydian empire before he died and was succeeded by his famous and tragic son Croesus. While he lived, Alyattes made annual campaigns against the Ionian Greeks of Miletos, but never actually conquered them, although he did manage to seize Smyrna and Kolophon. The Lydian king made additional conquests in Phrygia and inflicted a sever defeat on the Cimmerians, a mysterious warlike Indo-European people who had previously burned the Lydian capital at Sardis and killed the Lydian king Gyges (c. 687-652 BC). In c. 590 BC, Alyattes embarked upon a war against the Medes, who had only recently overthrown the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This grand conflict, which dragged on for five years, famously came to an end thanks to a solar eclipse during a battle on 28 May 585 BC. Both the Medes and the Lydians were so shaken by this apparent sign of divine displeasure that Alyattes and the Median king Cyaxares made peace. When Alyattes died, he was buried by his son in a great tumulus tomb in the plain of Sardis that is still visible to this day. The obverse type features two lion heads, which may or may not have been intended to allude to Alyattes. Although the king’s name is thought to derive from the Lydian word walwi, meaning ”lion,” lion heads were a common type for early Lydian coins. Indeed, Alyattes is considered the first of the Lydian kings to have struck a coinage in electrum (an alloy of silver and gold) while his son was the first to strike coins separately in gold and silver. This particular electrum issue was regularly struck using obverse dies that were larger than the coin flans. On this coin only a small part of the muzzle of the left-facing lion is visible.