Stater

Methymna, the second city of Lesbos, maintained enough political independence from neighboring Mytilene to strike its own coinage well into the fourth century — no small feat on an island dominated by one powerful polis. When Mytilene and the other Lesboan cities joined the ill-fated revolt against Athens in 428 BC, Methymna refused, a loyalty that bought it decades of relative autonomy and, critically, the continued right to mint. The McClean specimen (7987) is among the better-documented examples of this series, with the BMC Greek concordance placing it firmly within the later phase of the type's production run.