Persien Dareike ACHAEMENID EMPIRE. Time of Xerxes II to Artaxerxes II (420-375 BC). GOLD Daric. TTB+

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Obv: Persian king in kneeling-running stance right, holding spear and bow, with quiver over shoulder.
Rev: Rectangular incuse punch.

Carradice Type IIIb, pl. XIV, 42; Sunrise 28.

Ex Gerhard Hirsch Nachfolger 332 (2017), lot 2317. Although it is believed that the earliest Staters in Lydia are really to be attributed to Kroisos, the most recent series should be dated to the time of Persia's conquest of the region. From the end of the 6th century BC, gold Darics and silver Sigloi appear, marked by the type of the archer king and struck for decades in the mint of Sardis. The name 'Daric' assigned to the Persian gold stater is already found in Herodotus and is mentioned in an Athenian document from 429 BC. These were well known coins in Greek environments, intended to circulate in a huge empire and therefore struck in large quantities. Gold was used by Persian kings as prestige currency, for donations and for large payments, for example to pay Greek mercenaries in their service. This is why many specimens of these staters have been found in Greece and Sicily. The Golden Daric was worth 20 silver Sigloi and corresponded as weight to the value of 1/60th of the Persian mina. The king, connoted as a warrior and hunter, is depicted first with a bow and arrows, then while shooting a bow, and finally with a bow and sword. The date of the beginning of the coinage of the Darics and Sigloi is provided by a clay tablet from Persepolis, dated to about 500 BC, on which the image of the ruler while shooting with a bow is imprinted. This type continued to be reproduced until the end of the dynasty, when Darios III was defeated by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

Condition: Good very fine.

Weight: 8.35 g.
Diameter: 17 mm.

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