Attica, Aegina (Saronic Gulf Islands) AR Stater (12.19g, 21.5mm, 7h). Circa 480-457 BC
Obverse: Sea turtle, head turned sideways in profile, with trefoil collar and 'T-back' design, column of pellets on shell. Banker's mark: Incuse circle with cross and four sunken compartments.
Reverse: Large incuse skew pattern with five sunken compartments.
References: HGC 6, 435; Meadows Aegina Group IIIa; Milbank period III, pl. 1, 14-15 (cf. 13); SNG Copenhagen 507; SNG Lockett 1970. Banker’s Mark: Milbank Counterstamp 15.
Pedigree: Ex-Nomos AG Obolos 16, Lot 772 (Zurich, 11 Oct 2020)
Numis. & Hist. Notes: Aegina’s classic archaic turtle Staters, probably first struck about 550 BC, were the earliest coins of Europe. They were influenced by the newly developed technology of coinage in Lydia, an ally with whom Aegina had extensive trading experience. The present coin shows a later, distinctively 5th century design.
Date ranges given vary by source (470/65-445/40 BC given by Nomos AG; see also Sheedy 2015). Milbank (1924) and others use 480-457, bracketed by the Battle of Salamis at the end of the Persian Wars, until Athens’ Siege of Aegina, during the Peloponnesian War. (See also Sheedy [2015] for a recent introductory review.)
The Banker's Mark on this example (Milbank Counterstamp 15) is an interesting complement to the incuse square imagery on the reverse of this series (see additional examples in Leu e-13, 241 [15 Aug 2020] & Elsen 138, 79 [8 Sep 2018]).
See also our later Land Tortoise coinage of Aegina
[Alternate spelling: Aigina.]