IONIA. Miletos. Late 6th-early 5th century BC. Obverse Coin Die for a Diobol (Bronze, 22 mm, 30.60 g). Forepart of a lion to left, head turned to right (engraved in incuse and mirrored). Rev. Blank. Unpublished and unique. An exceptionally important discovery, one of the very few known Greek coin dies, and by far the earliest. A few minor deposits and with faint scratches on the obverse, otherwise, good very fine.



As one of the great Ionian metropolises, Miletos thrived in the 6th century BC by forging favorable relations both with the nearby Lydian kings and later with the satraps of the far more distant yet vastly more powerful Achaemenid Empire. The city-state, with its prime harbor at the mouth of the vital Maeander Valley, greatly benefited from trade with these major territorial powers. Much like the Phoenician port cities' relationships with the great empires of the Fertile Crescent, this was a mutually advantageous arrangement: Miletos provided its seafaring and commercial expertise, receiving in return protection, access to extensive markets, and internal autonomy. This period also saw the flourishing of Ionian philosophy, with renowned thinkers such as Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, as well as the geographer and historian Hekataios, formulating their ideas in this cosmopolitan city. However, this prosperous era came to a sudden end with the Ionian Revolt from 499 to 494 BC, which concluded with the Persian conquest and destruction of the city.

The importance of archaic Miletos is also evident in its coinage, which is among the oldest in the Greek world. While its earliest electrum coins still reflected Lydian influence, this changed with the well-known silver lion diobols of the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. Struck in large quantities, these coins were undoubtedly intended for trade, reflecting the increasing monetization of Aegean and broader maritime trade routes. It is from this significant series that our remarkable coin die originates - the oldest known coin die from the Greek world. Dating from the late 6th to early 5th century BC, it carries a terminus ante quem of 494 BC, the year Miletos was destroyed by the Achaemenids.

The beautifully preserved obverse die, with its attractive olive-green patina, depicts the protome of Miletos’ emblematic animal, the Milesian lion. During the minting process, the obverse die was placed into an anvil, a heated blank was set upon it, and the coin was struck with a hammer using a reverse die held by tongs. If the obverse die broke or became too worn from constant use, it could easily be replaced. This early method of mass production allowed for the rapid conversion of large quantities of precious metals into coins, integrating them into the city's economy in a convenient form.

Although tens of thousands of such dies must have been produced in the great power centers like Athens, the Hellenistic kingdoms, or even Rome, ancient coin dies are exceedingly rare today. This rarity is unsurprising, as, just as modern banknotes are protected against counterfeiters with watermarks, ultraviolet numbers, transparent windows, and microprinting, and no central bank relinquishes control over its printing presses, so too were coin dies in antiquity strictly guarded. Retired dies were melted down to prevent misuse while allowing the valuable metal to be reused. Consequently, very few dies have survived. This is particularly true for the archaic period, from which only one other coin die was previously known - the obverse die of a Lydian trite sold in Leu 13 (2023), 131. The present piece, from the golden age of archaic Miletos, now stands as the oldest known Greek coin die, making it a highly significant artifact for the study of early coinage.