The phrase rich as Croesus traces back to the Lydian king who issued this gold sixth-stater, and his mint at Sardis struck the world's first coins of pure gold. Earlier coinage used electrum, a natural blend of gold and silver that made true value hard to judge. Croesus refined the two metals apart and issued separate gold and silver denominations, a change that shaped money ever after. This Light Series fraction belongs to the later phase of that coinage, which ended when Cyrus the Great took Lydia in 546 BC.

The obverse carries the confronted foreparts of a lion and a bull, the royal badge of Lydia pressed into a small, thick flan. The lion's mane appears as rows of raised pellets, with the eye and muzzle sharp, while the bull faces it with a curved horn and strong shoulder definition. The reverse bears no legends at all, only two rectangular incuse punches side by side, left by the tools that drove the metal into the die. That spare punch work is a hallmark of the earliest coinage and gives the piece its unmistakable archaic look.

NGC graded this sixth-stater Choice About Uncirculated with a Star for exceptional eye appeal, along with 5/5 for strike and 5/5 for surface. Those are the top marks NGC Ancients awards, and a Star alongside them is uncommon on a coin more than 2,500 years old. The gold shows a bright, warm color, the devices sit well centered on the flan, and the fields stay clean under magnification. Very little wear touches the high points of the lion's mane or the bull's horn. For those seeking a high-grade example of the first pure gold coinage, this piece delivers.

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