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Hemidrachm - Poly[...]
| Issuer | Thessalian League |
|---|---|
| Year | 150 BC - 100 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.19 g |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Zeus facing right, rendered in fine Hellenistic style with curling hair and beard elaborately detailed; the thick locks fall behind the neck in naturalistic waves. A wreath of oak leaves crowns the deity's brow, and the facial features display the robust idealism characteristic of late Hellenistic coinage. A partial magistrate's monogram or letters (ΓΑΥΑ) appears in the left field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Athena Itonia advancing right in a dynamic martial pose, clad in a short chiton and wearing a crested Corinthian helmet; she holds a long spear horizontally in her right hand and a large round shield on her left arm. The figure is rendered with movement and musculature typical of late Hellenistic die-cutting. The ethnic legend ΘΕΣ ΣΑΛΩΝ is distributed in the field to the left and right, with the magistrate's name ΠΟΛΥ appearing in the lower right field. |
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| Additional information |
The Thessalian League coinage was revived under Roman supervision following the defeat of Perseus of Macedon in 168 BC, when Rome reorganized Thessaly as a nominally autonomous client region. The League's renewed minting authority was carefully managed — Rome permitted local issues but kept a close watch on the scale of production. Hemidrachms of this period circulated primarily for regional transactions and religious sanctuary fees, not for the larger commercial flows that the full drachm served.
The BCD collection, assembled by a single specialist over decades, remains the definitive reference for Thessalian issues precisely because so many of these small fractions survive without secure provenance.