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Dichalkon
| Issuer | Thelpusa |
|---|---|
| Year | 370 BC - 350 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 5.76 g |
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| Obverse description | Youthful male head facing right, depicted in fine archaic-to-classical transitional style, with elaborately rendered wavy hair pulled back and secured, a characteristic feature of Arcadian coinage. The fleshy, rounded facial features display a naturalistic quality typical of late 5th- to early 4th-century Peloponnesian bronze coinage. The field is plain, and the incuse border frames the type closely. The portrait is executed with considerable artistic skill for a minor Arcadian mint, suggesting the use of a competent local engraver. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Thelpusa was a minor Arcadian polis on the Ladon River, absorbed into the newly founded Megalopolis around 371–368 BC when Epaminondas and the Arcadian League forcibly synoikized much of the region. That this issue exists at all suggests either minting before the synoikism was fully enforced or a brief reassertion of civic identity afterward — the chronology remains genuinely unresolved among specialists. The BCD collection contained only a handful of Thelpusan bronzes, reflecting how little coinage the city managed before losing autonomous status.