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Drachm
| Issuer | Tenedos |
|---|---|
| Year | 420 BC - 375 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Janiform (double-headed) conjoined busts facing in opposite directions: to the left, a youthful female head with hair bound in a laurel wreath, and to the right, a mature bearded male head, likely representing a local deity or eponymous hero of Tenedos. The two heads share a central axis, a distinctive and characteristic type for Tenedos coinage of this period. The flan is slightly irregular, consistent with hand-struck archaic Greek silver coinage. The relief is bold and well-modelled, with fine engraving detail in the hair and beard. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Tenedos, the small island at the mouth of the Hellespont, controlled one of the most strategically valuable chokepoints in the ancient world — every grain ship passing from the Black Sea to Athens moved within sight of its harbor. The island's coinage served partly as a tool of that commercial leverage, circulating among merchants and sailors transiting the straits rather than through any large domestic economy.
The HGC 6, 386 classification places this drachm within a series notable for its remarkably consistent two-faced type, a design unique to Tenedos in the Greek world and maintained across centuries of local issues.