Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Drachm
| Issuer | Aegina |
|---|---|
| Year | 404 BC - 338 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Land tortoise (Testudo graeca) depicted in high relief, viewed from above, with finely rendered carapace segments and head extended at top. The tortoise is centered within a slightly raised border on the irregular flan. Greek letter Alpha (Α) appears to the left of the tortoise and letter Iota (Ι) to the right, serving as the abbreviated ethnic of Aegina. The naturalistic rendering of the tortoise shell is characteristic of the later Aeginetan series, in which the sea turtle of earlier issues was replaced by the land tortoise. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Quadripartite skew incuse square divided into four triangular sections by raised ridges meeting at the center, a hallmark of Aeginetan coinage. The upper left compartment bears the Greek letter Alpha (Α), the upper right compartment contains the letters Iota Iota (Ι Ι), and the lower left compartment features a small dolphin. The lower right compartment is plain. The incuse pattern is deeply struck, consistent with the hammered technique employed at the Aeginetan mint during the late Classical period. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Aegina's silver coinage was among the earliest struck in the Greek world, and by this late period the polis was operating under severe political constraints — expelled from their island by Athens in 431 BC, the Aeginetans spent decades in exile before being restored by Lysander following Athens' defeat in 404 BC. This drachm belongs precisely to that restoration coinage, minted after the exiles returned to an island that had been resettled with Athenian cleruchs for over two decades.
The Aeginetan weight standard — distinct from the Attic — had long made these coins the preferred trade currency across the Peloponnese and into the Levant. That commercial reach persisted well into the fourth century despite Aegina's diminished political status.