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Hemidrachm
| Issuer | Gergis |
|---|---|
| Year | 400 BC - 300 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Facing gorgoneion (Medusa head) depicted frontally in high relief, filling the entire reverse field. The visage displays large staring eyes, a wide grimacing mouth with protruding tongue, and serpents arranged radially around the head, their bodies intertwining to frame the face. The rendering is bold and apotropaic in character, consistent with the archaic gorgoneion type common to Troad coinage. The incuse square technique typical of early Greek hammered coinage is visible in the treatment of the surrounding field. |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (400 BC - 300 BC) |
| Additional information |
Gergis was a minor settlement in the Troad, the region of northwestern Asia Minor surrounding ancient Troy, and its coinage is among the most localized of any Greek civic mint — produced in small quantities for a community that barely registers in the literary sources. The type is closely associated with the Sibyl Herophile, said in ancient tradition to have been born at Gergis, which gave the town an outsized religious significance relative to its political weight.
Specimens turn up almost exclusively in a handful of institutional collections, the Boston MFA and Fitzwilliam among them.