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shape,- impressed with the figure of a man kneeling, holding a fish in his left hand, and in his right a knife hanging down, which Pinkerton takes for a coin of Croesus, but respecting which nothing more can be said with safety than that it is a very ancient specimen of Asiatic money. Its weight is 24 8^ English grains, or allo viiig for the loss of weight by wear, about that of the Attic tetradrachm, which was twice the weight of the stater. This, therefore would be a double stater. (Bockh, 1. c.) At all events, in the absence of certain specimens of the Lydian stater and of an express statement of its value, we may suppose from the very silence of the Greek writers, that it did not differ materially from the stater which was afterwards current in Greece ; and which was equal in weight to two drachmae, and in value to twenty. (Hesych. s. v. Xpvcrovs: Pollux, iv. 173 j Harpocration, s.v. Aa/>ei/c<Jy.)
1057
gives several of these, the largest of which, stamped with a <£, weighs 255*42 English grains. This is a double stater, giving a single one of 127*71 grains, or 5 grains less than the Attic, and it seems to follow the standard of the daricus. Most of the others are thirds of the stater, and of a lighter comparative weight. There was also at Athens a Phocaean coin called c’kttj, and its half yfJiieKToy, and Hesychius (s. v. skti?) mentions the e/cr?;, Tprr?7, and T€Ta/>r^, as coins of gold or silver or copper. Respecting these coins, see hecte.
5. The stater of Macedonia was coined by Philip II. and Alexander the Great after the standard of the Attic didrachm, and of very fine gold. Under those princes it came into general circulation in Greece and throughout the Macedonian empire. The extant specimens of this coinage are very numerous.
Mr. Hussey gives the following report of an assay which was made for him of a stater of Alexander.
macedonian stater. british museum.
The following were the principal Greek staters: 1. The Attic stater, which has been spoken of under aurum. The weights of the coins there mentioned are 132-3, 1327, 132’6, and 13275 grains, the average of which is 132*5875 grains, which only falls short of the weight of the Attic didrachm by a little more than half a grain. [drachma.] The gold of the Attic coins is remarkably pure.
2. The stater of Cyzicus was common in Greece, especially at Athens. We learn from Demosthenes (in Phorm. p. 914) that at a particular period (a little after B. c. 335) this stater passed on the Bosporus for 28 Attic drachmae, which, by a comparison with the then value of the daricus [daricus], would give for its weight about 180 grains. Several Cyzicene staters exist, but none of them come up to this weight. Hence we may conclude that the price of gold on the Bosporus was at that time unusually high. Some of the existing coins give 160 grains, and others not more than 120, for the weight of the Cyzicene stater ; but, allowing for debasement in the minting, and for subsequent wear, we may perhaps take 180 grains for about its true value, and if so, it belongs to the Eubo’ic standard. Its value, calculated from the number of drachmae it passed for, would be 17. 2s. 9d.
,3. The Stater of Lampsacus is mentioned in an Attic inscription of b. c. 434. Several gold coins of Lampsacus are extant; they may be known by the impression of a sea-horse upon them. There are two in the British Museum of the weight of about 129 grains, which is just that of the daricus. The weights of the Lampsacene staters are very unequal; and both Lampsacus and Cyzicus appear to have had gold coins which were multiples of different standards. It is not improbable, that the Eubo’ic and Attic standards existed together at these places.
4. The stater oi* Phocaea is mentioned by Thu-cydides (iv. 52) and Demosthenes (in Boeot. p. 1019) as in circulation in their times. Sestiiri
6 grs. 18 „ 0
Gold
Silver
Alloy
11 oz. .• 9 dwts.
133
English sovereign, or The averae is however
The silver is an accidental admixture, or, if known to be present, was not allowed for, so that this coin may be reckoned at 133 grains of fine gold, Our sovereign, after deducting the alloy, contains 1 13′ 12 grains of fine gold. Therefore the Macedo-f
OI*
nian stater
=. ^ ».i o
II. 3s. Qd. 0’672 farthing.
a little below this stater, but not more so than is due to wear. The stater of Philip was very recently current in Greece at the value of about 25 shillings. This standard was preserved, or very nearly so, under the later Macedonian kings, and was adopted by other states, as Epirus, Aetolia, Acarnania, and Syracuse.
Besides the staters noticed above, most of the cities of Ionia had gold coins, but their value is very doubtful. There are specimens in existence from Chios, Teos, Colophon, Smyrna, Ephesus, and many other places. Samos, Siphnus, Thasos, the Greek cities of Sicily, and Cyrene had gold money at an early period.
Pollux mentions a Corinthian stater as used in Sicily which he calls 5e/ccU.:Tpos arar^p, and makes equal to 10 Aeginetan obols. (Pollux, iv. 174, ix. 80.) The explanation of this statement is very difficult, and depends in a great measure on the disputed question whether the Corinthian money followed the Attic or the Aeginetan standard. [See nummus, p. 812, a.]
In calculating the value of the stater in our money, the ratio of gold to silver jnust not be overlooked. Thus the stater of Alexander, which we have valued, according to the present worth of gold, at II. 3s. 6d.9 passed for twenty drachmae, which, according to the present value of silver, were worth only 165. 3d. But the former gives the better idea of the worth of the stater, the difference arising from the greater value of silver in ancient times than now. [ argent um.]
Besides the stater itself, there were, as appears from the above remarks, double staters, and the halves (^uixpvtroDs, ^uiffTcmjpes), quarters, thirds, sixths, and twelfths of the stater. The coins of the last four denominations are, however, much less common than the single, double, and half staters.
The term o-rar^p, in later times, was applied to
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