For all of our U.S. based readers we’d like to wish you a belated happy
Thanksgiving. In this article we present our first ancient coin highlight from
the January 2019 New York International Auction. It features an iconic early
type, attributed to Kroisos (or Croesus) who ruled the Kingdom of Lydia, now
part of modern-day Turkey. Through antiquity and beyond, his legacy centered
around his significant wealth, with expressions such as “richer than
Kroisos” still existing in the modern lexicon. Numismatically, he is best
known for being the first to standardize gold coins for circulation, their
composition being largely gold and silver, also known as electrum. The obverse
design of the offered coin displays a lion at left and bull at right facing
each other and pitched in battle. The reverse is simply two connected incuse
squares, with one slightly larger. The strike is great with high relief details
on an ovoid flan. Tremendous luster enlivens the surfaces, elevating this
“world’s first major circulating gold coinage” to superb quality. This piece offers
technical beauty combined with vast historical significance and is sure to find
a prominent place in the next collection it enters.
While we are no longer taking consignments for our January 2019 New York
International Auction, we are taking consignments of world and ancient coins and
world paper money for the upcoming February 2019 Collector’s Choice Online
Auction and the August 2019 ANA World’s Fair of Money Auction in Rosemont,
Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. We are also accepting consignments of Chinese
and other Asian coins and currency for our March 2019 Hong Kong Showcase
Auction. Time is running short, so if you are interested in consigning your
coins and paper currency (whether a whole collection or a single rarity)
contact one of our consignment directors.
