Ancient GREEK SIGLOS Silver Coin 485 BC Hero King DARIUS I-XERXES I Persian War

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Ancient GREEK SIGLOS Silver Coin 485 BC Hero King DARIUS I-XERXES I Persian War:
$89.00

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Click picture to enlarge image KINGS

of PERSIA

Time of Darios I to Xerxes I. Circa 485-450 BC.

TIME OF THE WAR WITH GREECE

AR (Silver) Siglos

16mm. 5.57g.Obverse: Persian king or hero in kneeling-running stance right, holding spear and bow.
Reverse: Incuse punch.Ref. Carradice Type IIIa (pl. xi, 14); Carradice, \"Two Achaemenid Hoards,\" in NumChron 1998, 136-137. VF. Several interesting ancient banker\'s marks including a larger one on coin edge seen on image of reverse at 8 o\'clock.In 546 BC, the Persians conquered the Lydian Empire of King Croesus. At the timeof the conquest, Croesus had already established a well-organized coinage system in his realm.
The Persians quickly realized that coins were very useful–not only for trade,but also for politics: One could pay mercenaries, also buy allies & bribe enemies.The coins that the Persians soon started to issue did not depict the image of a god as the Greek coins usually did, but showed the Persian king–not as a person withindividual traits, but as archetype. The design represented the great king as \"Lordof the Bow\"–this being one of his official titles–preparing to hurl his spear & thenthrow an arrow to shoot it against his enemy.
This silver siglos bears the typical image of the Achaemenid coins, the Persian Great King in Persian garments, with a serrated crown, a bow and a spear. Serving as pay for the Persian mercenaries in Asia Minor, these coins with their representation of the Great King were clearly means of propaganda. This is one of the major reasons why the depictions on the Persian imperial currency remained unchanged deep into the 4th century BC. This continuity, however, is again the reason why these coins are often difficult to assign to a particular ruler.

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On Aug-24-15 at 22:02:20 PDT, seller added the following information: