DARIUS-XERXES I Ancient Silver SIGLOS Coin King w/Spear Greek Persian War 485 BC

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DARIUS-XERXES I Ancient Silver SIGLOS Coin King w/Spear Greek Persian War 485 BC:
$129.00

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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 GREECEAR (Silver) Siglos. 14mm. 5.51g.Obverse: kneeling-running right, holding spear in right hand, bow in left, quiver over shoulder; banker\'s mark left field; test punches.
Reverse:Rectangular shape ncuse punch; interesting banker\'s mark cruciform/anchor shape at edge.Ref. Carradice Type IIIa (pl. xi, 14); Carradice, \"Two Achaemenid Hoards,\" in NumChron 1998, 136-137. aVF.

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 21:59:22 PDT, seller added the following information: