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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Mende |
|---|---|
| Year | 450 BC - 425 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Elderly Dionysus, ivy-wreathed and draped in a himation, reclines leftward upon the back of a walking mule, holding a cantharus in his extended right hand while his left rests upon the animal's flank. The god's posture conveys characteristic Dionysiac languor, rendered in fine archaic-to-classical transitional style. In the exergue below, a grasshopper with a distended abdomen serves as a civic symbol of Mende. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Mende, a Chalcidian colony on the western prong of the Macedonian peninsula, was among the most prosperous wine-producing cities of the northern Aegean. Its tetradrachms circulated widely through trade networks that extended far beyond the peninsula, carried by merchants dealing in the region's highly regarded export vintages.
The ANS Sylloge reference ties this piece to a well-documented die study, and examples matching the Gulbenkian specimen have been used as benchmarks for establishing the chronology of the series through observed die linkages.