• latw-31-1
    Silver croeseid twenty-fourth stater. Obverse. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-31-2
    Silver croeseid twenty-fourth stater. Reverse. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-31-3
    Group of three croeseid coins from sector MMS (one gold, two silver); obverse. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-31-4
    Group of three croeseid coins from Sector MMS (one gold, two silver); reverse. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-31-5
    Group of three croeseid coins (one gold, two silver) from sector MMS (placed on finger for scale); obverse. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-31-6
    Group of three croeseid coins (one gold, two silver) from sector MMS (placed on finger for scale); reverse. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-31-7
    Group of three croeseid coins (one gold and two silver) from sector MMS; obverse. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-31-8
    Group of three croeseid coins (one gold and two silver) from sector MMS; reverse. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Silver Croeseid Twenty-Fourth Stater

The Lydians and their World (2010) Cat. 31
Date
Second quarter of 6th c BC, Lydian
Museum
Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 19500
Museum Inventory No.
19500
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
2004.0026
Material
Silver
Object Type
Coin
Coin Denomination
Twenty-fourth stater
Coin Mint
Sardis
Issuers
Officina
Has Mint Mark
Has Control Mark
Has Monogram
Has Countermark
Hoard
Monograph 13 Catalog No.
5
Site
Sardis
Sector
MMS
Trench
MMS-III 88.A
Locus
MMS-III 87.1 Locus 6
Description
Silver croeseid twenty-fourth stater. Obverse: confronted foreparts of lion and bull. Reverse: one incuse punch. Weight 0.35 g, diameter 6.3 mm.
Comments
Found next to the skull (No. 210) of a soldier who had been killed in the battle between Croesus and Cyrus, and discarded in the destruction debris that filled the “recess” where coins Nos. 27 and 30 were found (see Cahill, “The Persian Sack of Sardis”). It was apparently common in Greece to carry small coins in one’s mouth (Aristophanes, Wasps 790; Birds 503; Ekklesiazousai 818); alternatively, it might have been in a small sack around his neck. Small as it is, the coin was worth about a day’s food or maintenance, according to Kroll. The twenty-fourth stater was the smallest silver fraction struck in Lydia.
See Also
Kroll, “Coins of Sardis”; Cahill, “City of Sardis”; Cahill, “Persian Sack”. See also: M13 Cat. 5.0001
Bibliography
Greenewalt et al. 1993, 20–1, figs. 14, 15, and 40 n. 19; Cahill and Kroll 2005
Author
NDC

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