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Drachm
| Issuer | Knidos |
|---|---|
| Year | 490 BC - 465 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Forepart of a roaring lion advancing to right, rendered in bold early Classical style, with jaws open wide and tongue visible; the mane is depicted in finely detailed rows of overlapping scales or tufts, conveying volume and texture. The musculature of the shoulder and foreleg is vigorously modelled, filling the flan with commanding presence. The field is plain, with no legend or exergual inscription. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Head of Aphrodite facing right in fine archaic-to-early-Classical style, her hair drawn back and falling in a long lock down the nape of the neck, tied at the end; she wears a pearl necklace around her throat. The entire design is set within a square incuse punch, characteristic of early Greek coinage of Karia. No legend is present. |
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| Additional information |
Knidos occupied a strategically awkward position on the tip of the Carian peninsula, and its early fifth-century coinage reflects a city caught between Aegean Greek commercial networks and Achaemenid Persian pressure from the interior. The dating of this issue places it squarely within the period of Ionian submission to Persia following the failed revolt of 499–493 BC, yet Knidian silver continued circulating freely westward — a sign of the city's stubborn mercantile independence despite political compromise.
The Cahn die study remains the essential reference for sequencing this series, identifying over a dozen obverse dies across the type.