Achaemenad Daric - Museum Gallery

April 2024

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Darius the Great (522-486 B.C.E.) of the Achaemenid Dynasty, of ancient Persia, issued these gold coins of ~ 8.4 gr, toward the end of the 6th century B.C.E. The gold daric and the similar silver coin, the siglos (see a matching type III silver siglos here in the Moneta Museum), represented the bimetallic monetary standard that the Achaemenids developed from that of the Lydians (Herodotus, 1.94) and King Croesus, perhaps the first western coin issuer.
These are very interesting and historically important coins. First documented by Herodotus himself there is a lot of study that has gone into these. This example is a rather nice one compared to most I have seen. Often the obverse is struck off-center but here almost every detail of a complete design is seen here. This is encapsulated by NGC as and AU example with Strike: 5/5 and Surface 4/5 due to some edge 'scruff' which I am not able to see at all. Description states ACHAEMENID EMPIRE; 5th - 4th Centuries BC; AV Daric (8.33 g). Obverse Hero-King w/ Bow & Spear (making it a Type III); reverse and incuse punch.
There is a wonderful online source [Encyclopedia Iranica] for the essential information on this series, you can visit at this [ link ]