Non-European Antiquity
Persian Empire, Achaemenids, Darius I, Daric
ca. 522-486 v. Chr.
The first Persian coins were in all likelihood issued by Darius, the second Great King of the Achaemenid Empire (522-486 BC). The Greeks accordingly called them "darics." The coins bore the effigy of the Great King as an archer, for the art of archery was highly valued in Persia.
The Persian darics were the most widespread coins of Antiquity. They were issued in enormous numbers and circulated from the Mediterranean to the Black and the Caspian Seas throughout the Near East to India.
Persian Empire, Achaemenids, Darius II or Artaxerxes II, Daric
ca. 400 v. Chr.
The name "daric" for the Perisan gold coins derives from the motif on those coins. For more than 200 years they featured the Persian Great King as an archer. This is why the Greeks started to identify the Persian gold coins simply as "archers," in Greek "dareikoi." The motif on the daric had no equivalent in the western world; it was a genuine Achaemenid creation. Hence darics could easily and instantly be identified as Persian money. They were mainly used in Persian foreign policy: The Persian kings financed and supported the allied Greek cities and thus influenced Greek policy considerably.
Afghanistan, Kushano-Sassanids, Shapur II, Stater (Skyphat)
ca. 310-379 v. Chr.
Shapur II (c. 310-379 AD) was one of the greatest Sassanid kings and supposedly the youngest king of all times, as he was crowned in utero – the royal crown was laid on his mothers womb. Shapur II is depicted on the obverse of this stater. The reverse shows the Indian God Shiva in Sassanid clothing and hairstyle with the bull Nandi. The Sassanid artists did their best to make the kings they represented recognizable as individuals. Each king had his own, typical crown, with which he was depicted on reliefs and on coins. The crown of Shapur II displayed a lion's scalp and a globe in the form of an artichoke. On this coin the king is clad in typical Sassanid trousers; he stands in front of a fire altar, the symbol of Zoroastrianism, the Sassanid national religion.
Kushan Empire, Vasudeva I, Stater
ca. 200 n. Chr.
The Kushan Empire – a huge land in the region of modern Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northwestern India – was a typical land of transit. It owed its wealth and economic boom to diverse routes of trade: Overland the different routes of the Silk Road led through Kushan, and on the water the empire controlled the sea route to East Asia. Where there is trade, there is money. The Kushan issued gold coins themselves. The obverse of this stater depicts King Vasudeva (ca 192-225) making a sacrifice. The reverse shows the god Wesho together with his mount, the bull Nandi. Weshno, who corresponds to the Indian god Shiva, has three faces – two are human, and one is beastlike and horned. The legend on the coin is held in an east Iranian language, but written with Greek letters.
Kingdom of Pontus, Mithridates VI, Stater
ca. 120-63 v. Chr.
The staters of Lysimachus were used as trade coins of high quality, which everybody living on the coast of the Black Sea gladly accepted for small and large businesses from the 3rd to the 1st centuries BC. As King of Thrace, Lysimachus had issued large amounts of coins, among them gold staters with the image of Alexander the Great on the obverse and the goddess Athena on the reverse. These staters were extremely popular among the peoples living in the modern countries of Bulgaria and Romania – so popular that they were still common almost 200 years after Lysimachus' death: from 88 to 86 BC, the Pontic King Mithradates VI (120-63 BC) had Lysimachus staters minted to pay Thracian mercenaries whom he had hired to fight the Romans.
Lydia, Uncertain King, Trite
6. Jh. v. Chr.
The Lydians migrated into Asia Minor in the 7th century BC. The capital of their state was Sardis, on the west coast of present-day Turkey. Located between the Persian and the Greek world, Lydia was perfectly positioned for trade. The Lydians are therefore considered the first to use coins for facilitating business. They 'invented' coined money around 650 BC, at least for our cultural circle.
It was a Lydian king who for the first time placed a lion's head on the obverse of a coin. The symbol of the lion is very old: lions were depicted in hunting scenes already at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC.