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Oktadrachm
| Issuer | Bisaltai |
|---|---|
| Year | 480 BC - 465 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | A shallow quadripartite incuse square occupies the entire reverse field, divided by raised ridges into four recessed compartments of approximately equal size, the result of the punch technique employed in early hammered coinage of the Thraco-Macedonian region. The surface of each compartment is flat and undecorated, displaying the characteristic granular texture of the silver flan. This austere incuse design is typical of the large-module tribal octadrachms struck by the Bisaltai and their neighbors during the period circa 480–465 BC. |
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| Additional information |
The Bisaltai were a Thracian tribal people whose territory sat squarely in the path of Xerxes' invasion route into Greece in 480 BC. Their silver coinage — among the heaviest struck by any Thracian tribe — drew directly on the rich mines of the Strymon basin, the same regional silver sources that funded Athenian naval expansion during this exact decade. The oktadrachm standard itself was common among Macedonian and Thracian tribes of the period, a weight convention that had no Greek polis equivalent and reflects independent monetary tradition rather than imitation.
The tribe disappears from historical record after the mid-fifth century, absorbed into the expanding Macedonian sphere under Alexander I.