Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Stater - Kleantides
| Issuer | Abdera |
|---|---|
| Year | 395 BC - 360 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Stater (2) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Griffin seated to left within a dotted border, the creature rendered in fine archaic style with wings partially spread and folded against the body. The right forepaw is raised, resting in a characteristic alert posture. The beaked head is turned slightly, with a prominent crest and a rounded ear visible in relief. A small decorative element, possibly a lyre or floral ornament, appears in the lower right field. The overall composition fills the flan with confident, sculptural modeling typical of Abderite coinage of the early fourth century BC. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A bull in full charge to the right, rendered with vigorous naturalism within a shallow incuse square framed by a raised linear border. The animal is depicted in a dynamic striding pose with head lowered and all four legs extended, conveying powerful forward motion. Above the bull, the magistrate's name is inscribed in two lines of archaic Greek lettering across the upper field. A ground line beneath the bull separates the figure from the lower border. The composition exemplifies the accomplished die-cutting characteristic of Abderite silver coinage during the early fourth century BC. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Abdera's silver staters of this period carry a magistrate's name — here Kleantides — a practice that makes Abderan coinage unusually traceable by issuing official. The city on the Thracian coast was a prosperous enough trading center that its silver circulated widely across the northern Aegean, and the magistrate-name system, rare in Greek civic coinage of the fifth and fourth centuries, has allowed scholars to construct a relatively precise sequence of issues across several decades.
May's die study remains the foundational reference for this series. His 297th listed type places Kleantides within a middle phase of the sequence.