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Oktadrachm
| Issuer | Ichnai |
|---|---|
| Year | 485 BC - 470 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered, Incuse |
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| Obverse description | A local hero depicted in profile advancing to the right, clad in the distinctive Macedonian kausia hat, leading two bulls walking slowly to the right. The figures are rendered in the archaic Greek style, with strong attention to the musculature of the animals. The retrograde ethnic legend ΙΧΝΑΙΟΝ appears in the field, identifying the issuing city of Ichnai. The composition conveys a solemn, ceremonial procession characteristic of early fifth-century Macedonian coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek (retrograde) |
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| Additional information |
Ichnai was a small Macedonian city in the Bottiaea region, and its coinage from this period belongs to a broader explosion of autonomous silver issues struck by minor Macedonian and Thracian communities in the decades surrounding the Persian Wars. These cities gained access to substantial silver through regional mining networks, particularly those feeding from the rich deposits around Mount Pangaion. The oktadrachm denomination itself — heavy, prestige-oriented — suggests these coins functioned more as traded bullion and inter-city exchange instruments than as everyday commerce.
The Jameson 946 specimen remains a key reference point for attribution. Ichnai's coinage as a series is poorly documented compared to its neighbors.