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Stater
| Issuer | Aegina |
|---|---|
| Year | 456 BC - 431 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Sea turtle depicted in high relief, viewed from above in dorsal perspective, occupying the full field of the flan. The carapace is rendered with fine naturalistic detail, showing a clearly segmented shell with a central row of scutes flanked by symmetrical costal plates. All four limbs are extended outward, with the forelimbs and hindlimbs carefully articulated. The head of the turtle projects slightly at the top, and a small pellet or knob is visible at the neck. The type transitions the earlier land tortoise design to the sea turtle form, a chronological marker characteristic of the mid-fifth century BC Aeginetan coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain (irregular) |
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| Additional information |
Aegina was the first Greek polis to strike coinage on a wide scale, pioneering the "Aeginetan standard" — a weight system adopted across much of the Peloponnese and central Greece for over a century. By the time this stater was struck, the island's commercial power was already in terminal decline. Athens, viewing Aeginetan naval and mercantile strength as an existential threat, had been systematically strangling the island's trade since the 450s. The final blow came in 431 BC, when Athens expelled the entire Aeginetan population at the outset of the Peloponnesian War.
These late turtles — as collectors have always called them — were struck on the island's last gasp of independent production before the dies went cold permanently.