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Didrachm
| Issuer | Kalymna |
|---|---|
| Year | 260 BC - 205 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena facing right, rendered in fine archaic-influenced style typical of Karian island coinage. The goddess wears a Corinthian helmet pushed back on her head, with a prominent cheek guard and a decorative scroll-curl visible above the ear. The hair falls in a gentle wave beneath the helmet rim. The portrait is boldly struck in high relief, occupying the full field of the flan with no surrounding legend. |
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| Reverse description | A lyre depicted facing, rendered in fine detail with seven strings visible between the two curved arms of the instrument, which terminate in volute scrolls at their upper ends. The crossbar at the top connects two lateral projections, and the base of the lyre rests on a plain ground line. The ethnic legend KAΛYMNION is inscribed in Greek characters beneath the lyre, curved along the lower rim of the coin. A border of dots surrounds the entire design. |
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| Additional information |
Kalymna — the island now known as Kalymnos — operated as an independent polis with its own mint during this period, though its output was modest compared to neighboring Rhodian issues that increasingly dominated Aegean commerce. The island's sponge-diving economy and strategic position between Kos and the Dodecanese gave it enough commercial activity to sustain a coinage, but the mint ran intermittently rather than continuously, which accounts for the relative scarcity of surviving examples across all types.
HGC 6, 1283 is among the scarcer Kalymnian didrachm references, with few specimens appearing in major auction records.