Hemidrachm

Chersonesos, the Thracian peninsula colony, produced these hemidrachms in enormous quantities over roughly five decades — they became the dominant fractional silver currency across much of the Black Sea trade network. So widely circulated were they that examples turn up in hoards from Egypt to the Danube, often far outnumbering local issues. The four incuse squares on the reverse vary in their arrangement across dies, and cataloguers have identified well over a hundred distinct obverse dies, suggesting near-continuous production.

BMC Greek #17 places this piece within the later sequence, after Macedonian pressure on the Chersonese intensified under Philip II.