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Diobol

Issuer Samos
Year 480 BC - 439 BC
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Orientation Variable alignment ↺
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Reverse description Head of a ewe facing left, depicted in low relief within a shallow incuse square formed by the hammer blow of the anvil die. The fleece of the animal is indicated by a cluster of small globules arranged across the neck and cheek, a hallmark of Samian reverse types of this period. The incuse square has well-defined recessed borders, and the field within is otherwise plain and uninscribed. No legend appears. The overall style is consistent with early fifth-century BC Ionian coinage conventions.
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Edge Plain
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Additional information

Samos in this period was navigating the aftermath of its failed revolt against Persian authority in 499 BC and, later, the complex politics of the Delian League, into which Athens forcibly enrolled the island following the Samian War of 440–439 BC. That war effectively ended Samian autonomy — the city's walls were torn down, its fleet confiscated, and an indemnity imposed. Coins struck in the final years of this range were almost certainly among the last produced before Athenian financial oversight curtailed independent minting on the island.

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