Drachm

Histaia was a small polis on the northern tip of Euboea with an outsized monetary output relative to its size, largely because it sat astride the Oreoi Channel and taxed maritime traffic passing between the Aegean and the Malian Gulf. The city's silver coinage was functionally a toll-road currency. This drachm type attracted attention from major 19th- and early 20th-century collectors — de Luynes, Weber, Jameson — at a density unusual for a minor Greek mint, which has driven die studies unusually far for issues of this weight class.