Note 784 — Chapter V · Lydia

I incline to the view that the types are in part heraldic (e.g. the lion), but I see nothing in Macdonald’s arguments to invalidate Ridgeway’s illuminating explanation of many early coin types as indicating the previous unit of exchange (e.g. tunny fish or tortoise shell; cp. Ridgeway, Cambridge Companion to Greek Studies, § 503).