Miletus silver Obol-Diobol or 1/12 Stater, late 500s-early 400s BC, NGC VF

Description: Miletus silver Obol-Diobol or 1/12 Stater, late 500s-early 400s BC (meaning about 510 BC to 480 BC), NGC authenticated / graded / encapsulated as Very Fine. This is a notable specimen, part of a buried hoard that was found, with the city of Miletus' symbol of the lion on the obverse and the sunburst design with one side filled in punched on the reverse, a peculiarity of that city. This coin represents a key era of Eurasian history, and some background may be helpful. Miletus, on the Ionian coast (the western shores of what is now Turkey) was a strong city amid a string of Greek settlements with ties to the "original" Greece on the Peloponnese. At the time of these 1/12 staters' minting about 510 BC, Miletus had been under Persian rule for some time, after the defeat of King Croesus earlier in the century. These were watershed times for Miletus, as even under despot rule, it was thriving, and had sent out colonists to other shores, including what is now Italy. Native son and scholar Thales, and later Anaximander, published their breakthrough theory that the world's reality was not directly caused by the gods - a belief that was global, including among Native Americans far away - but were either correlated or caused by something else in nature. Their positions made science possible! Miletus was fated to be doomed, though - these 1/12 Staters (they weigh between an obol and diobol, so they are really 12 to a stater, Greek for "something that balances in our scales") were minted to pay for a rebellion against the Persians. This failed, and the city was depopulated and buildings knocked down - and perhaps these silver coins were hidden but never recovered. The obverse depicts a roaring lion, typically aggressive for the age. The reverse indicates that THIS IS ONE OF OUR DAVID MA COINS STORE'S OLDEST COINS. For the first two centuries after the invention of coins, only the obverse had a design and the reverse had a unique symbolic punch so the value and origin could be affirmed. This is really among the world's oldest coins, minted at the dawn of our era of using coins for the storage and transfer of value and wealth. We welcome your consideration to acquire this as a prominent addition to your coin or artifact collection.

Price: 189 USD

Location: Phoenix, Arizona

End Time: 2023-12-12T05:10:01.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5 USD