Achaemenid Empire Darius I to Xerxes II, circa 485-420 BC. Gold Daric, Sardes. Persian king or hero, wearing cidaris and candys, quiver over shoulder, in kneeling-running stance right, transverse spear in right hand, bow forward in left / Rectangular irregular incuse punch. 8,39g. BMC Arabia pl. XXIV, 26; Carradice Type IIIb. Extremely fine. Provenance: Privately purchased from Spink & Son in November 2005. Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. After the conquest of the Lydian kingdom around 546 BC, the Achaemenids quickly adopted the Lydian concept of coinage and transformed the newly invented gold stater into a new denomination: the daric, named after the Persian Great King Darius. Darics depicted a stylized image of a man in a martial pose, probably the Great King. This coinage enjoyed great success in maritime trade, with darics found in mainland Greece, Crete, Egypt, and Phoenicia. When, in 331 BC, in the aftermath of the Persian defeat, Alexander seized the treasuries of Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, the Achaemenid darics were melted down and restruck according to the Attic weight standard. The quantity of precious metal was so immense that Alexander and his successors possessed enough precious metal to sustain the monetary economy of the Hellenistic kingdoms for more than a century.