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Didrachm
| Issuer | Skyros |
|---|---|
| Year | 485 BC - 480 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Silver |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A stellate incuse design centered on a large globule surrounded by four smaller satellite globules, from which two radiating rays extend toward the upper left and lower right, while two three-lobed fig leaves project toward the upper right and lower left, forming a symmetrical, pinwheel-like arrangement. The entire design is contained within a deep incuse square, a hallmark of early archaic Greek coinage technique. The fig leaf motif echoes that of the obverse, unifying the coin's iconographic program and likely referencing Skyros's local botanical or religious symbolism. |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Mintage | ND (485 BC - 480 BC) |
| Additional information |
Skyros, the largest of the Northern Sporades, controlled a strategically valuable anchorage in the Aegean and maintained enough commercial independence in the early fifth century to strike its own silver coinage — a capacity most islands of comparable size never achieved. The precise window of 485–480 BC places this issue immediately before Themistocles persuaded Athens to invest its Laurion silver windfall into a war fleet, after which Athenian monetary dominance began steadily crowding out smaller regional issuers.
Skyros itself was forcibly absorbed by Athens in 476 BC, its indigenous Dolopian population enslaved or expelled by Kimon following a pretext involving piracy accusations.