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Obol

Issuer Uncertain Ionian city
Year 480 BC - 450 BC
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Currency Drachm
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Obverse description Corinthian helmet rendered in profile facing left, depicted without crest, the cheek-guards and neck-guard clearly articulated in low relief. The design is set within an irregularly shaped, unstruck flan typical of early archaic coinage. The helmet occupies the majority of the obverse field, executed in a bold, schematic style characteristic of small Ionian silver fractions of the early Classical period. The surface displays an attractive blue-green patina consistent with prolonged burial.
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Mintage ND (480 BC - 450 BC)
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Rosen 109 remains unattributed to a specific mint, a situation that reflects the broader difficulty of fifth-century Ionian coinage — numerous small coastal poleis struck near-identical fractional silver with little distinguishing iconography and no inscriptions to anchor them. The years bracketing this issue correspond to the period immediately following the Ionian cities' reabsorption into the Achaemenid sphere after Xerxes' campaigns, when local civic minting continued under Persian tolerance but without the political confidence to assert strong identity.

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