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 Delos
Year 530 BC - 510 BC
Type Log in to see details
Value Log in to see details
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 Round (irregular)
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 A kithara (lyre) depicted in relief, rendered schematically with six vertical cords extending between the instrument's crossbar and soundbox. The design occupies the full flan, executed in the archaic hammered style characteristic of early Cycladic coinage. No legend or inscription 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 Log in to see details
Mint Log in to see details
Mintage ND (530 BC - 510 BC)
Additional information

Delos operated less as a conventional city-state than as a sanctuary economy, its mint activity directly tied to the wealth flowing through the sanctuary of Apollo. Issues from this period predate Athenian dominance over the island — Athens would purify Delos in 426 BC, exhuming its burials and eventually expelling its population entirely. These early Delian coins circulated within a tight religious and commercial orbit, facilitating transactions at one of the Aegean's most frequented pilgrimage sites rather than funding any military or civic apparatus.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE