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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Athens |
|---|---|
| Year | 86 BC - 84 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena facing right, rendered in the late New Style idiom, wearing a crested Attic helmet whose bowl is adorned with a griffin in relief. The portraiture reflects the transition of Athenian coinage toward a more stylized, slightly degenerate treatment characteristic of the New Style tetradrachms of the late second and early first centuries BC. The field is plain, with no surrounding legend. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
These pieces belong to the "New Style" coinage Athens introduced around 166 BC, but this particular issue dates to the catastrophic years surrounding Sulla's sack of the city in 86 BC. Sulla's siege cut off Athenian silver supplies and effectively ended the New Style series as a functioning civic coinage. Examples from this terminal phase are struck on noticeably reduced flans, a direct consequence of metal shortages rather than any administrative reform.
Thompson's die study remains the authoritative reference for sequencing these late issues. The specific magistrate names on this piece place it firmly in her final groupings.