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!
Hemidrachm
| Issuer | Lakedaimon |
|---|---|
| Year | 85 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Two Dioskouroi piloi (conical felt caps surmounted by stars) arranged symmetrically on either side of a central pair of crossed tridents or staffs, all within a wreath of olive or laurel branches. The composition is a distinctly Lakedaimonian type, referencing the divine twin patrons Kastor and Polydeukes. A monogram or magistrate's symbol appears in the lower field. The design is crisply struck within a beaded or plain border. |
| 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 |
Sparta's coinage history is one of the strangest in the Greek world — the classical city famously prohibited precious metal coinage for centuries, relying instead on iron spits. When silver issues finally appeared under Roman dominance, they were products of a city performing its own mythology rather than a functioning monetary economy. This hemidrachm dates to the period when Sparta, stripped of real power, leaned aggressively into its Lycurgan identity as a cultural brand acceptable to Roman tastes.
BCD 865.2 places this piece within a closely documented sequence from the BCD collection sale, one of the defining reference points for Peloponnesian bronze and silver of the Achaean and post-Achaean periods.