Detail View: The AMICA Library: Gold stater
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AMICA ID:
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MMA_.26.59.2
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AMICA Library Year:
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2002
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Object Type:
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Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects
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Description:
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The stater was a standard form of currency in antiquity. There are gold, electrum, and silver staters, and their standard weight varies according to their place of issue. Thirty gold staters like this one were found in a small terracotta jug. Each is stamped with the confronted foreparts of a lion and bull. The jug was probably buried for safekeeping shortly before the Persian conquest of Sardis, the capital of the Lydian empire, in 547 B.C. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the Lydians invented coinage and that Croesus, who reigned from about 560 to 546 B.C., was the first king to issue both gold and silver coins. Excavations at Sardis have revealed workshops where gold refining was carried out.
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Creator Nationality:
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Asian; Anatolian; Lydian
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Creator Name-CRT:
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Lydian
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Title:
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Gold stater
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View:
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Principal view
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Creation Date:
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ca. 560?546 B.C.
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Creation Start Date:
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-2
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Creation End Date:
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2
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Materials and Techniques:
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Gold
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Creation Place:
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From Sardis
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Dimensions:
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No measurment
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AMICA Contributor:
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Owner Location:
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New York, New York
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ID Number:
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26.59.2
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Credit Line:
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Gift of The American Society for the Excavation of Sardis, 1926
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Copyright:
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Copyright ? 2002 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved.
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Rights:
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Related Image Identifier Link:
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MMA_.h1_26.59.2.tif
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