Persian mints

Minting and mint cities of the Achaemenids

The central problem of identifying different mint cities can be solved only through comprehensive new finds and detailed die studies. The major mint was certainly Sardis, the seat of the Achaemenid administration for the whole of Asia Minor. It had already been the mint as well as the capital of the former Lydian kings and was kept in operation by the Achaemenids. As the leading administrative center, Sardis must also have been the collection point for the annual tribute payments from the provinces of Asia Minor, thus ensuring a sufficient supply of precious metals for mint production there. On the basis of evidence from hoards, as well as typological and metrological research,  leading historians have concluded that there were also mint cities in both northwestern and southwestern Asia Minor. The fact that in the time of Alexander II of Macedonia double darics with the image of the great king were being issued in the eastern part of the empire, perhaps in Babylon, suggests that there may already have been a mint there under the Achaemenids. Exemplary die study of the 'Croeseids' (The first coins of pure gold minted in antiquity), encompassing identical obverse dies and reverse punches on both gold and silver coins, has considerably clarified Lydian minting practice, which must also have been adopted for the later production of darics and sigloi, though few overlapping series of dies and punches have so far been discovered on Achaemenid coins. In fact, identical reverse punches appear on the overwhelming majority of coins within the different typological groups, suggesting that, as the design lacked imagery, it continued in use for a very long time.