Prymnessos (AD 240-260) AE 24

Imperial Times, mid-3rd century AD. AE24 (7.30g, 7h). Draped bust of King Midas right, wearing Phrygian cap / Dikaiosyne standing left, holding scales and sceptre. Good VF, black-green patina with lighter green overtones, small hairline flan crack. A rare mythological type. Ex Drewry Coll.

Midas, the mytho-historical king of Phrygia and Lydia, was granted the so-called "Golden Touch" by Dionysus because the king wished for unending wealth as a reward for his guest-friendship to Silenus. Everything Midas touched turned to gold, including food. Starving and pleading for relief, the king was instructed to bathe in the waters of the river Pactolus. The water removed Midas’ “gift” and turned the sand of the river-bed into grains of gold. It was the naturally-occuring ore of the Pactolus that became the source of the metal used in the first archaic electrum coinages of Asia Minor.