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Hemidrachm Mantineia
| Issuer | Arcadian League |
|---|---|
| Year | 450 BC - 430 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.82 g |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Facing right bust of the nymph Kallisto, depicted in three-quarter profile, adorned with an earring and a necklace with a pendant, rendered in fine early classical style. The portrait is set within a shallow incuse square, a hallmark of early Peloponnesian struck coinage. The ethnic legend A-R-K-A is disposed around the field, referencing the Arcadian federal authority. |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
The Arcadian League coinage was struck in the aftermath of the Persian Wars, when several Arkadian poleis moved toward a federated monetary system — unusual for the period and driven largely by the need to pay mercenary soldiers fighting across the Greek world. Mantineia's participation in this federal coinage is historically significant because the city would later be forcibly dissolved by Sparta in 385 BC, its population scattered across four villages in an act of collective punishment for democratic sympathies.
The hemidrachm fraction served the mercenary market directly, a denomination suited to daily soldier pay rather than large commercial exchange.