Glass Mounted Warrior Coin Motif Ring (Cobalt Tone)

This handcrafted glass jewelry collection, by Michael Michaud, features motifs from an assortment of coins in the Getty Museum’s antiquities collection. Each piece captures the exquisite detail in vibrant cast glass, showcasing the original artistic quality of each ancient coin. Made exclusively for the Getty Museum.

- Dimensions: 3/4 inch diameter
- Materials: Glass, 24K gold plate, brass
- Made in the USA
- Item#:  119K

Coinage was invented around 650 BCE in the kingdom of Lydia (in present-day western Turkey), a region rich in gold. Nearby Greek cities soon copied the practice of minting coins, and by 500 BCE the fashion had spread to all parts of Greece and southern Italy. Carefully weighed lumps of gold and silver were stamped with a depiction of the city’s patron deity or another emblem with local significance. The images are often of superb artistic quality, reflecting civic pride.

Obverse: A nude, helmeted horseman astride rearing horse holding shield and spears; he lances with another spear downwards to right. Inscribed below horse: ΣΑ [SA].

Stater
Greek, South Italy, 224-302 BCE
Silver
2.5 cm
82.NB.118.5