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 | Knidos |
|---|---|
| Year | 490 BC - 470 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Drachm (1) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Forepart of a roaring lion facing right, rendered in bold archaic relief. The mane is depicted with finely engraved striated lines arranged in a tiered, layered pattern, characteristic of late Archaic Greek coinage. The jaws are open wide, revealing the teeth and a curling tongue, conveying aggressive vitality. The eye is deeply incised and prominent, and the overall modelling displays the vigorous, stylised naturalism typical of Knidian coinage of the early fifth century BC. No legend or border is present in the field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Knidos sat at the southwestern tip of the Karian peninsula and operated one of the ancient Mediterranean's most strategically positioned harbors, making it a commercial node between the Aegean and eastern trade routes long before this coinage was struck. The city maintained unusual political autonomy under Achaemenid Persian suzerainty during precisely this period, which likely explains why its silver coinage — drawing on Aeginetan weight standards rather than Persian — was tolerated as a regional commercial instrument rather than suppressed.
The Cahn die study remains the primary reference for distinguishing individual emissions within this twenty-year window.