The Croeseid, anciently ''Kroiseioi stateres'', was a type of coin, either in gold or silver, which was minted in
Sardis
Sardis () or Sardes (; Lydian: 𐤳𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣 ''Sfard''; el, Σάρδεις ''Sardeis''; peo, Sparda; hbo, ספרד ''Sfarad'') was an ancient city at the location of modern ''Sart'' (Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005), near Salihli, ...
by the king of
Lydia
Lydia ( Lydian: 𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish pro ...
Croesus
Croesus ( ; Lydian: ; Phrygian: ; grc, Κροισος, Kroisos; Latin: ; reigned: c. 585 – c. 546 BC) was the king of Lydia, who reigned from 585 BC until his defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 547 or 546 BC.
Croesus was r ...
(561–546
BC) from around 550 BC. Croesus is credited with issuing the first true
gold coin
A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia, Canadian Maple Leaf, and American Buf ...
s with a standardised purity for general circulation,
and the world's first
bimetallic monetary system.
Precedents
Before Croesus, his father
Alyattes had already started to mint various types of non-standardized coins. They were made in a naturally occurring material called
electrum
Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Its color ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has been produced artificially, and ...
, a variable mix of gold and silver (with about 54% gold and 44% silver), and were in use in Lydia, its capital city Sardis and surrounding areas for about 80 years before Croesus' reign as King of Lydia.
The unpredictability of electrum coins' composition implied that they had a variable value, which greatly hampered the development of standardised coinage.
The royal symbol stamped on the coin, similar to a seal, was a declaration of the value of the contents in gold, silver or electrum.
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known fo ...
mentioned the innovation of coinage, and standard coinage, made by the Lydians:
Characteristics
Croesus replaced all the electrum coins by gold and silver coins using a single coin type: the facing foreparts of a lion and a bull.
Compared to later copies made by the Achaemenids, the original Croeseid use a more natural rendering of the two animals.
The reverse was struck with two
incuse squares.
The coins were minted in Sardis.
The gold and the silver were refined in Sardis from raw electrum in workshops in Sardis.
Recent archaeological excavations have shown stratigraphically that the first Croeseids were indeed issued by Croesus before the Achaemenid invasion, and not after the Achaemenid as has sometimes been suggested.
The gold coins had an initial weight of 10.7 grams.
The silver coins also were issued in 10.7 grams, together with many smaller denominations, from 1/3 to 1/48.
This makes it the world's first
bimetallic monetary system
though the idea of
smaller silver denominations had originated in
Cyme (Aeolis)
Cyme ( el, Κύμη) or Cumae was an Aeolian city in Aeolis (Asia Minor) close to the kingdom of Lydia. It was called Phriconian, perhaps from the mountain Phricion in Aeolis, near which the Aeolians had been settled before their migration to A ...
under
Hermodike II.
Soon after however, the gold coins were struck in a lighter standard of 8.1 grams.
The modification of the weight may have been the result of a policy to exchange and remove all electrum coins in circulation with the heavier format, the 10.7 grams corresponding to the nominal weight of gold in a standard 14.1 grams electrum stater (about 70%).
Once this was done the coins were lightened to 8.1 grams corresponding to the true weight of gold in the electrum coins, which had often been voluntarily debased.
Reducing the weight of the gold stater to 8.1 grams also allowed to simplify the exchange mechanism between gold and silver, as now 1 gold stater of 8.1 grams corresponded precisely in value to 10 silver staters of 10.7 grams, or to 20 silver coins of 5.35 grams (weight of the future Achaemenid
Siglos), since the current exchange rate on a weight basis was 1 to 13.3 at the time.
The great advantage of the Croeseids compared to their electrum predecessors is that they were very reliable: the pure gold and pure silver coins all had a clear intrinsic value, entirely guaranteed by their purity and clearly defined by their weight, which, as an added benefit, was standard. On the contrary, the actual composition of various electrum coins was very hard to determine, so that the true intrinsic value of each coin could not be easily estimated.
The royal symbol, or stamp, created by Aylettes gave the coins a declared value and today we still use a token currency, where the value is guaranteed by the state and not by the value of the metal used in the coins.
Symbolism
Alternatively, the lion - symbol of
Lydia
Lydia ( Lydian: 𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish pro ...
- and the bull - symbol of Hellenic
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...
(from the
Seduction of Europa) - are facing each other in truce; Note that hunting lions attack from the rear, also imagery of a predator and prey lying down together in peace is reflected in other ancient literature, e.g. "...the calf and the lion and the yearling together..." c.700BC. In the historical context of Lydia’s alliance with
Agamemnon of Cyme, an arrangement sealed by the marriage of Greek
Hermodike II, possibly Croesus’ mother, to his father, Alyettes (AKA a later Midas). However, any peace between Lydians and Greeks is not to be confused with Croesus’ attempted conquest of
Miletus
Miletus (; gr, Μῑ́λητος, Mī́lētos; Hittite transcription ''Millawanda'' or ''Milawata'' ( exonyms); la, Mīlētus; tr, Milet) was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in ...
. Notwithstanding, the croeseid symbolism of peace between the Greeks of Asia Minor, Lydians and later
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...
persisted long after Croesus’ death - until
Darius the Great
Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...
introduced new coins c.500BC.
Achaemenid Croeseids
When the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...
ruler
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia (; peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Under his rule, the empire embraced ...
invaded Lydia, together with the rest of
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, he adopted the bimetallic system initially introduced by Croesus, and continued to strike gold and silver coins at
Sardis
Sardis () or Sardes (; Lydian: 𐤳𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣 ''Sfard''; el, Σάρδεις ''Sardeis''; peo, Sparda; hbo, ספרד ''Sfarad'') was an ancient city at the location of modern ''Sart'' (Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005), near Salihli, ...
according to the model of the Croeseid until around 520 BC.
The design of the animals though was more rigid, less natural, than the original Lydian issues.
These coins were found in very fresh condition in the
Apadana hoard, coins deposited under the foundation stone of the
Apadana
Apadana ( peo, 𐎠𐎱𐎭𐎠𐎴) is a large hypostyle hall in Persepolis, Iran. It belongs to the oldest building phase of the city of Persepolis, in the first half of the 6th century BC, as part of the original design by Darius the Gr ...
in
Persepolis
, native_name_lang =
, alternate_name =
, image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.
, map =
, map_type ...
, dated to circa 515 BC, confirming that they had been recently minted under Achaemenid rule. The deposit did not have any Daric and Sigloi, which also suggests strongly that these Achaemenid coins only started to be minted later, after the foundation of the
Apadana Palace.
Replacement of the Croeseids by Achaemenid coinage
Under
Darius I
Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his ...
, the minting of Croeseid in Sardis was then replaced by the minting of Darics and Sigloi, probably around 515 BC. The earliest gold coin of the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...
, the
Daric
The Persian daric was a gold coin which, along with a similar silver coin, the siglos, represented the bimetallic monetary standard of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.Michael Alram"DARIC" ''Encyclopaedia Iranica'', December 15, 1994, last updated N ...
, followed the weight standard of the Croeseid, and is therefore considered to be later and derived from the Croeseid.
The weight of the Daric would then be modified through a metrological reform, probably under Darius I.
Sardis remained the central mint for the Persian Darics and Sigloi of
Achaemenid coinage, and there is no evidence of other mints for the new Achaemenid coins during the whole time of the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...
.
[ ] Although the gold Daric became an international currency which was found throughout the Ancient world, the circulation of the silver Sigloi remained very much limited to Asia Minor: important hoards of Sigloi are only found in these areas, and finds of Sigloi beyond are always very limited and marginal compared to Greek coins, even in Achaemenid territories.
References
{{reflist
Coins
Lydia
Achaemenid Empire