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Tetartemorion
| Issuer | Teos |
|---|---|
| Year | 460 BC - 420 BC |
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| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Forepart of a griffin advancing to the right, rendered in archaic Greek style with boldly modelled musculature. The creature's beak is open and its ear is prominently raised, with a small ball finial visible at the tip of the upright wing. The design fills the small flan, characteristic of Ionian fractional silver coinage of the fifth century BC. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Teos, the Ionian Greek city on the Aegean coast of Anatolia, was home to the poet Anacreon and, more practically, one of the ancient world's principal sources of kition — a bitumen-like substance traded across the Mediterranean. These fractional silver coins funded a local economy operating on genuinely tiny transactions. At roughly a quarter of an obol, the tetartemorion was among the smallest denominations struck anywhere in the Greek world, and Teos produced them with a consistency that suggests real commercial demand rather than ceremonial issue.