The Coins of Sardis（The Lydians and their World・2010）

Claims Supported by This Source

1. In 1904–05, the British Museum found 93 electrum coins under the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, considered a votive deposit from the late 7th century BC. Nine of them were unstamped lumps.
2. There were more than a dozen types of marks (e.g., the seal of Phocaea), and it is believed that besides kings and cities, minor lords also struck coins.
3. Many scholars read the inscription WALWET on the lion's head coins as Alyattes (c. 610–560 BC).
4. The lion coins were valued as natural electrum (approx. 73% gold), but analysis shows 54% gold, 44% silver, and 1–2% copper. The issuer's profit was 15–20%.
5. Half of the Ephesian coins weigh less than 1.2 g. A 1/24 stater could buy one sheep or one bushel of grain.
6. In the mid-6th century BC, Croesus recalled the electrum coins and replaced them with coins of pure gold and pure silver. The first coins of pure gold were called Croeseids.
7. In the destruction rubble, 1 silver coin just in front of the skull of a young man's skeleton.
8. Persia continued to strike the lion and bull coins for about 30 years, until around 515 BC when Darius I replaced them with the daric of the same weight.

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