Gold daric

The gold coin that Darius I established as the money of his empire. Metal of high purity carries a single image — the Great King running with bow and spear — and no inscription at all. Paid out in salaries, tribute and diplomacy, it earned a nickname among the Greeks: "the archers". A Spartan king is said to have remarked that he was driven out by archers. The design stayed almost unchanged for some two hundred years, until the conquest of Alexander.