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!
Tetartemorion
| Issuer | Thebes |
|---|---|
| Year | 405 BC - 395 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Round (irregular) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A pendant bunch of grapes with stem and leaf at top, depicted in high relief with individual berries rendered as small raised pellets. The civic magistrate's initials Θ and Ε (abbreviation for Θῆβαι, Thebes) appear in the left and right fields respectively, flanking the bunch. The composition is compact and well-centred on the small flan. |
| 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 | ND (405 BC - 395 BC) |
| Additional information |
Thebes issued these tiny fractions during a period of acute political tension with Sparta following the conclusion of the Peloponnesian War. The city's uneasy relationship with Spartan hegemony — which would eventually erupt into the Corinthian War in 395 BC — created pressure to maintain functional small-denomination coinage for local market transactions at a time when the broader Boeotian League's monetary authority was being tested.
At 0.24g, attrition and loss rates for coins this size were extraordinary. The BCD collection specimens represent some of the finest documented survivors of the type.