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Obol - Ennea Hodoi
| Issuer | Uncertain Thraco-macedonian city (Thraco-macedonian region) |
|---|---|
| Year | 500 BC - 480 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Obol (⅙) |
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| 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 | A bovine figure, rendered in archaic relief, stands in profile occupying the central field of the flan. The animal's body faces left while the head is turned back to the right, a characteristic pose found on early Thraco-Macedonian coinage. The musculature and limbs are rendered with confident, if stylised, die-cutting typical of the late Archaic period. The granular surface texture of the flan is visible in the field around the figure. No legend or exergual line is present. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A quadripartite incuse square dominates the reverse, divided by raised bars into four recessed rectangular compartments of roughly equal size, characteristic of early Greek hammered coinage produced by the mill-sail punch technique. The incuse is deeply impressed and irregular in outline, consistent with hand-struck production of the late Archaic period. Alternating compartments display finely granular texturing. No legend or subsidiary devices are present. |
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| Additional information |
Ennea Hodoi — "Nine Roads" — was the strategic crossing point on the Strymon River that Athens would later seize and rename Amphipolis in 437 BC. The city's identity during this early period remains genuinely disputed; Thucydides names Edonian tribes as the dominant local power, and the attribution of these small silver pieces shifts between scholars depending on which hoard context they examine.
The Athenian attempt to plant a colony at this site in 465 BC ended catastrophically at Drabescus, where Edonian forces killed nearly ten thousand settlers.