STATER (cassia, a standard of value), or Chrysus (omeoro, ;phi money), was the name of a Greek gold coin, which, after being used from it very early period in some states, became, in the time of Philip IL and Alexander the Great, the general gold currency of Greece. It is said to have been first coined in Lydia, to which the origin of silver money also is attributed by an ancient tradition. (Herod. 1. 94.) The stater of Crcesus seems to have been the first gold money seen in Greece. (Herod. i. 54.) No undoubted specimen of this Lydian stater is in existence. According to Meld], it was formed of the pale gold or electrum (1 gold and silver) contained in the sands of the Pactolus.
Of the better known gold coins, most were of the same standard of weight as the Attic drachma, the Attic silver having at a very early period obtained a general circulation throughout Greece, and being reckoned extremely pure. The stater was generally equal in weight to two drachmas, and In value to twenty. This was the case with the Macedonian stater, which the influence of Philip and Alexander brought into general circulation in Greece, and which continued to be coined by the later Macedonian kings after the same standard, or very nearly so. Many specimens of it exist.
The average weight of the staters of Philip and Alexander is a little under 133 grains. An assay of a stater of Alexander, made for Mr. Hussey, gave 115 grains of fine gold and 18 of silver, with no alloy. The silver here ought not to be reckoned as an alloy, and therefore the coin is equivalent to 133 grains of fine gold. Our sovereign contains 113.12 grains of fine gold. Therefore this stater was worth of a sovereign, or a very little more than 1/. 38. 6d. If we calculate its value by the number of drachma it was worth, we find it only 16s. 3d. The reason of this is, that silver was much dearer in ancient times than it is now. The higher value of the stater is the true one, as no material change has occurred in the value of gold.
In the states of Greece proper the chief standards of money followed were those of Athens and "Egina. In both, the principal denomina tions of money were coined in silver, and it does not appear that the JEginetau system contained any gold coin.
At Athens there seems to have been no gold money in the flourishing times of the republic, if we except a coinage mentioned by the Scholiast to Aristophanes (` Frogs,' v.719). There are however a few Attic gold coins in existence, but only about a dozen. Of these, three, which there is every reason to suppose genuine, are in the British Museum, and one in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow. Their weights agree exactly with the Attic standard, being respectively 132'6, and grains, or on the average grains, which is only about half a grain less than the Attic didrachm. The character of tho impression is exactly like that of the old Attic silver, but the form of the coin is more like the Macedonian.
It is very clear however that foreign gold was in circulation at Athens quite as early as the Peloponnesian war. It was obtained doubtless in commerce, and as the tribute of the allies, nany of whom had gold currencies. Among the denominations so used, the chief were the darks of Persia (Dame] and the staters of the Greek cities of Asia and the neighbouring islands. In fact, the Greeks got nearly all their gold from Asia. The following were the principal coins of Greek states in circulation at Athens :— Demosthenes (in l'horm.,' p. 914, Rehire) informs us that a little after 835 n.o. the stator of Cyzicus passed at Bosporus in the Tauric Chersoneso for twenty-eight Attic drachma. The existing coins vary from 160 to 120 grains, the former of which is greater, the latter less than the Attic, and both apparently derived from an element of 40 grains. The existing coins seem however to have been multiples of different standards. As the heaviest of tho existing coins does not come up to the weight answering to the value assigned to the Cyziceno stater by Demosthenes, we must suppose that gold was dearer or silver cheaper than usual at Bosporus at the time referred to.
The Staters of Lompoc-us, which may be recognised by the impres sion of a sea-horse, are of the standard of the dark. Two in the British Museum weigh about 129 grains each.
The Stater of Phoetres also appears, from tho specimens given by Sestini Degli Stated Antichi '), to have followed the standard of the daric. It was divided into sixths (frrrai) and twelfths (hutetera), of which the latter were equal in value to eight obols, and in weight probably to one, since the obol bore the same proportion to the didrachm in the silver coinage, that the ii.detrrov did to the stater in the gold.
Most of the cities of Ionia coined staters. Those of Chios, Teos, Colophon, Smyrna, Ephesus, and other places, now exist. There were also gold coins struck in games, Siphnus, Thasos, the Greek cities of Sicily, and Cyrene, at an early period. After the Macedonian coinage of staters, many Greek states coined them according to the same standard; we may mention Epirus, Acarnania, YEtolia, and Syracuse.
The coins in the system of the stater were the single, double, and half staters ; these were very common : there were also, less commonly, quarters, thirds, sixths, and twelfths of staters.
The Attic silver tetradrachm was called stater in later times, but it is doubtful whether it was so called in the best ages of the republic. The term stater was also applied to weight, meaning apparently any standard of weight. The Mina and Sicilian Litra were so called. (Hussey, Ancient 1Veights and Money; Wurm, De Pond., ; Bockh, Metrologische Untersuchungen ; Humphrey, Coin Collector's Manual.) STATES-GENERAL. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.]