The gold stater (Egyptian: 𓄤𓋞 nfr-nb, "Nefer-nub", meaning "fine gold") was the first coin ever minted in ancient Egypt, around 360 BC during the reign of pharaoh Teos of the 30th Dynasty.
Under Teos Teos introduced the gold stater in order to pay salaries of Greek mercenaries who were at his service. Gold stater with the same weight of a Persian daric (around 8.42 grams), with an owl on the left, modelled after the Athenian model, and a papyrus on the right. Gold stater as a tetradrachm, with an owl on the left and an olive branch on the right, with the Demotic writing "Teos... Pharaoh".
Under Nectanebo II Teos' successor Nectanebo II kept this practice, though coining his personal gold staters. Gold stater as a daric (about 8.42 grams, a little over troy ounce), obverse with a prancing horse on the right,Schulz, Seidel, 1998. Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs, Editors, Regine Schulz, Matthias Seidel, Konemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne, English translation version. p. 370. (obverse, reverse) (hardcover, ) reverse with the hieroglyphs nfr-nb. Nefer depicts a heart and trachea; it means "perfect, complete, good." Nub depicts a gold necklace whose ends drape off either side and six pearl pendants dangling from the middle; it means "gold."Schumann-Antelme, Illustrated Hieroglyphics Handbook, p. 166. Small gold stater (about 2.56 grams, troy ounce; diameter 14–15 mm, 0.6 inch), with a probable picture of a leaping gazelle. Its attribution to Nectanebo II, however, is not confirmed.
See also
Egyptian pound Ptolemaic coinage
Sources
Ernst Gölitzer, Entstehung und Entwicklung des alexandrinischen Münzwesens von 30 v. Chr. bis zum Ende der julisch-claudischen Dynastie. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2004, , p. 6.
External links Gold stater/daric of Nectanebo II