Miletos diobol - lion silver Greek coin, 600-550 BC, Minoan Period Obverse: lion, the emblem of Miletos city; Reverse: a star in the square; Diameter: 28 mm x 20 mm; Weight: 1.23 g; SM 8 #2481; Provenance: private collection in St Petersburg, FL, USA One of The World’s Oldest Coins! This beautiful Diobol coin from Miletos—one of the most important Greek city-states in Asia Minor—dates from the mid-6th century B.C., making it one of the world’s oldest coins in existence. It depicts a lion, the emblem of the city, on the obverse and a square with a star on the reverse. Rather than a realistic depiction, however, the Miletos Lion has an artistic flair. Additionally, unlike the very first coins made of electrum, (a silver alloy), this Diobol was struck between 550 and 500 B.C. from pure silver! The Tragic Fate of Miletos By the 6th century B.C., Miletos (also referred to as Miletus) had carved out a maritime empire that had established many colonies including the Greek colony of Naukratis in Egypt, and more than 60 settlements on the shores of the Black Sea. A major trading center of the ancient world, this city state was also home to philosopher Thales of Miletus (624–545 B.C.), who was known as one of the legendary Seven Wise Men of antiquity and remembered primarily for his cosmology based on water as the essence of all matter, with Earth a flat disk floating on a vast sea. Unfortunately for the people of Miletos, their empire brushed up against the Persian Empire and sat firmly in Darius the Great’s crosshairs. Following an unsuccessful uprising against Persian rule in 499 B.C., Darius exacted a terrible punishment on the city and its inhabitants: He had all the adult men killed, sold all of the city’s women and children into slavery, and made eunuchs of all the adolescent males thus assuring that no Miletian citizen would ever be born again.