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Gold Didrachm - Gold Stater
| Issuer | Athens |
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| Year | 407 BC - 404 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena facing right, depicted in the Archaic style characteristic of late fifth-century Athenian coinage. The goddess wears a crested Attic helmet adorned with a decorative scroll motif on the bowl, with the cheekpiece raised. A large almond-shaped eye is rendered frontally in the convention of the period, and a small earring is visible at the ear. The neck and upper drapery are indicated at the lower border of the flan, and the hair falls in a beaded row of ringlets beneath the helmet brim. |
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| Reverse description | Athenian owl (Athena noctua) standing facing, with head turned to face the viewer, rendered in bold relief with large round eyes and detailed feathering across the breast and wings. An olive sprig with three leaves and a berry appears to the upper left of the owl, and a crescent moon is positioned to the upper right. The ethnic inscription AΘE appears in the right field, reading downward in archaic Greek characters. The design is set within a plain incuse square field on the irregular hammered flan. |
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| Additional information |
Athens struck gold coinage only under extreme duress — this issue was produced during the final years of the Peloponnesian War, when the city had been effectively cut off from its silver supplies at Laurion by Spartan occupation of Decelea. The gold itself came from melting the famous Nike dedications on the Acropolis, a decision authorized by emergency decree and recorded by Philochorus.
The series was abandoned entirely with Athens' defeat in 404 BC. Its three-year window of production makes it one of the most historically bracketed coin types in the Greek world.