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Ionia, Myshemihecte

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Ionia, Myshemihecte (obverse) Ionia, Myshemihecte (reverse)

This myshemihecte, the twenty-fourth part of a stater, shows a lion's paw seen from above – a motif that might seem unusual on first sight, but in fact occurs quite frequently on early electrum coins. Perhaps these coins were struck by subordinates or relatives of the Lydian king, and were thus intended to demonstrate solidarity with the Lydian dynasty, whose emblem the lion was.

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