Catalog
Hemidrachm
| Issuer | Lycian League |
|---|---|
| Year | 30 BC - 27 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Hemidrachm (1/2) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Within a rectangular incuse square, a kithara (lyre) depicted in schematic form at center, flanked by the Greek letters M and A to the left and right respectively, identifying the magistrate's monogram. The design is set within a shallow square punch typical of early Lycian League hemidrachms. Additional control marks or pellets appear in the lower left corner of the incuse field. The overall style is crisp but archaic, consistent with hammered silver coinage of the Lycian League in the late Hellenistic period. |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Additional information |
The Lycian League's late autonomous coinage occupies a narrow window between Rome's absorption of the East following Actium and the formal reorganization of the provinces under Augustus. These small fractions were struck when the League still maintained nominal monetary independence — a status that would become increasingly nominal as Augustan administrative consolidation tightened. The League would lose even that fiction when Claudius finally annexed Lycia outright in 43 AD, but these issues predate that end by seven decades.
SNG ANS 2 #107 places this piece within a well-documented sequence, though the hemidrachm denomination saw limited circulation reach beyond local trans-Anatolian trade.