Hemidrachm

Sigeion occupied a strategically critical position at the entrance to the Hellespont, and control of the city was contested between Athens and Mytilene for much of the sixth and fifth centuries. By the time these hemidrachms were struck, Sigeion had long been an Athenian client, its coinage heavily influenced by Attic weight standards despite the city's geographic remove from Attica itself.

The BMC Greek#1 designation places this among the earliest catalogued specimens from the mint — a mint that produced relatively little coinage given the city's modest size and economic output.