Croesus of Lydia was responsible for one of the greatest innovations in coinage, but he did not invent coinage itself, an act with which he is often credited. If we assume that coinage was invented in 650 B.C. (of course we know it was only approximate), we take Croesus’ accession as 561 B.C., and then we relate Croesus’ times to our times in 2001, then on a relative basis, coinage would have been invented in 1907 during the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. What Croesus was responsible for was the introduction of pure gold and pure silver as coinage metals (instead of electrum) and the invention of the first bi-metallic interrelated coinage system in the Greek world with denominations going from 10.75 gram gold and silver staters to fractions weighing as little as 0.36 grams in gold and silver. Croesus’ coinage type is familiar to most of us: a bellowing lion facing a seemingly placid bull. It seems that a fair amount of experimentation was done before final types were settled on, and I would not be surprised if more prototypes than I have identified yet exist in the earth or may have existed but not survived.

The earliest prototype in the Croesus series is a heavy gold stater (#120/1) of which I have owned two examples. It is such a perfect missing link that I would have been fearful of it had I not discovered a worn example in the Ashmolean Museum collection, placed there almost 100 years ago. In a way the Ashmolean specimen has been a negative for me personally as dealers in Europe and the U.S. have plagerized this idea by quoting the Ashmolean and stating, “Like Ashmolean must be the earliest Creosus gold Stater”. The prototype is of somewhat rough, crude style with the lion in a stretched, leaping position resembling the silver staters of Caria which had been found in hoards with coins of Croesus. The bull has a head similar to that of an Uncertain Ionian silver tetrobol (Rosen 376). The crowning glory that establishes this missing link is the fact that the lion has a wart on the bridge of the nose, just like the 1/3 staters of Lydia that preceded the coinage of Croesus. It is important to note that on the prototype piece the protomes are extremely animated in lifelike poses. On the regular issues (#120/2), while the protomes are well done, they are somewhat immobile and the front leg of the lion, as well as the front leg of the bull, are rather stiff acting like pedestals.

In the silver series, I have recently discovered a prototype earlier than one that I had identified in 1990 when I first published my work on Croesus. (#120/16, 10.41 grams) This silver stater is later than the earlier gold prototype in that the lion has no wart on the bridge of its nose. The type is very animated and much more elaborately resolved than the prototype I identified in 1990. (#120/17, 10.67 grams) The second prototype, a silver stater of 10.67 grams, is also very animated in that the four legs of the lion and the bull are in natural positions, but less elaborated than the first prototype. The second prototype stater was found with a prototype siglos (#120/21) which is struck from the same dies. All of these three prototype coins are the only specimens recorded of their types. (Recently another die of the second prototype was discovered and is in this collection #120/18)

In the regular issues of silver coinage (#120/20) a silver stater weighing 10.68 grams has a heretofore unrecognized banding on the top of the head below the horn extending down the forehead of the bull. I have studied this coin very carefully. The banding is not a die-break or an undertype, but may have been ribbons or some type of ceremonial dressing placed on the bull’s head. Confirming this, the silver siglos (#120/23) of 5.35 grams has the same banding. Other silver Croesus coins of excellent quality (EF or better) show no banding. The “banding” is probably some sort of ceremonial draping placed on the bull. (This led to my idea that the lion and bull were not fighting but represented the two strongest aspects of the Lydians as they perceived it. The lion normally represents strength, military or otherwise and the bull represents fertility.) Since they are more elaborate, I call them Class I of the regular silver issues. This is thought of as a regular issue because the lion’s foreleg is rather stiff and straight like a pedestal. The silver stater (#120/20) of 10.74 grams is the standard regular issue silver stater of Croesus with no banding on the bull’s horn; therefore, it is Class II.

Going back to the gold issues, #120/2 is a standard heavy gold stater of 10.76 grams where the lion’s front foot while somewhat modeled, is still pedestal-like. #120/3 is a light gold stater of Croesus of 8.07 grams which should be distinguished from #120/4, a light Persian gold stater of 8.06 grams. The difference between the Persian and the Croesoid gold staters is the fact that the protomes, the lion and the bull, are very delicately rendered in the Croesus model and rather large and somewhat clumsy in the Persian version. The Persian type also has a somewhat less intelligent look to the lion. This is attributable to the fact that possibly a Persian die-cutter may have been cutting a type that was meaningless to him.

Denominations of less than a siglos from a 1/3 stater to a 1/24 stater were made in relatively small quantities for local use. This is indicated by the fact that when you study examples 120/10, 120/11, 120/12 1/12 light gold Staters 120/13 and 120/29 1/24 silver Stater, we discover they were even struck with the same die. This denominational and metallic crossover in coin striking indicates a small issue which is not something that would be exported. Small Greek coins are not struck for export; and normally only circulated locally.

In studying the coinage of Croesus in general, I noticed a very interesting characteristic. The lion always has his skin tightly pulled over his skull as though he were a well-toned hunter and the eye of the lion is a raised, round dot within a diamond-shaped recess. Look for this when obtaining a coin of Croesus as forgers seem to miss this nuance. The collection plated in this article does not contain a light weight 1/24 stater which would weigh approximately 0.36 grams. The reason that I do not have this coin in the article is that it has not been discovered yet, but knowing the consistency with which Croesus operated, a 1/24 light stater of 0.36 grams existed, and hopefully, one still exists. (It was discovered in 1998 and I bought it. It is #120/30)

From time to time, scholars and collectors like to say that what is obvious is not and that what is true is in fact false. In the case of the coinage of Croesus, there are those who say that all of Croesus’ coinage was struck by Darius, the conqueror of Croesus. This is simply not the case. The coinage Darius struck was an accommodation to the Greek people that he had conquered since he issued no coinage in his homeland. The coinage that depicted a kneeling, running king, which was from 510 to 330 B.C., is a bi-metallic, bi-denomination issue: a gold Daric and a silver siglos. Fractional denominations exist but only in extremely rare situations. The regular issue was the Daric and the siglos. Backing up one step to the lion and bull types, the heavy large foreparts of the lion and bull which were Darius’ issues of Croesus’ types, can be rather easily separated from the much more delicate work of the Lydians. It would seem the height of improbability for Darius to issue this complex coinage system of Croesus’ just to accommodate people whom he had conquered then stop it. Croesus accomplished what no one in the Greek world ever did. He created a large, bi-metallic, interrelated coinage where silver coins traded for gold coins at a rate of 13:1. Only under Berenike did the Ptolemies came close to what Croesus accomplished. The Romans had a multiple metallic denominational system for a sustained amount of time, but did not have as many denominations. The Romans had nine denominations while Croesus had 16. The coinage of Croesus was simple in concept yet very versatile. Croesus was a mercantile genius or his treasurer was.

This is the first time a complete denominational set of Croesus has ever been assembled. This is also the first time all of the denominations have ever been identified. The coins in this collection took 14 years to find and they are either the finest known or equal to the finest known in almost every case.

This is a revised and updated version of the article published in SAN 1997 which itself updated the yet earlier 1990 Celator article.

Copyright @ 1997 by Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. - http://www.harlanjberk.com - E-Mail: info@harlanjberk.com
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