King Croesus Gold 1/6 Stater “Heavy Stater” NGC CH VF

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Kingdom of Lydia King
Croesus 561-546BC
Gold 1/6 Stater “Heavy Stater” NGC CH VF
Lion & Bull
Ultra Rare

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Kingdom of Lydia King Croesus 561-546BC Gold 1/6 Stater “Heavy Stater” NGC CH VF Lion & Bull. Ultra Rare
Within the series, the “Heavy Stater” are the rarest and most sought after in any size. The Heavy Staters were the first to be struck for only a short period of time. King Croesus decided his first coins were too “heavy” and made the change to a “Light Stater” that had less gold.

Croesus of Lydia was one of the most famous kings of antiquity. Although we know few concrete facts about him. Lydia was already the dominant power in Asia Minor before Croesus (often rendered as Kroisos) attained the kingdom’s throne in about 561 BC as the son of Alyattes, who had reigned for the previous half-century. The most important reform attributed to him was the introduction of a bimetallic coinage in gold and silver, first augmenting and then replacing the previous smaller electrum issues.

The 'Croesus ' Gold Stater is one of the most recognizable of all ancient Greek coinage. All of the issues in the bimetallic, gold and silver, series feature the same confronted lion and bull foreparts on the obverse, and two incuse punches (or a single punch in the case of small denominations) on the reverse.

Croesus fractional Gold Staters were the first pure gold coins of the Ancient world. A museum quality piece that deserves to be tucked away in the finest of rare coin collections.