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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Abdera (Thrace) |
|---|---|
| Year | 520 BC - 500 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Deep quadripartite incuse square, divided by two perpendicular grooves into four recessed compartments of roughly equal size, each compartment exhibiting an irregular granular texture resulting from the hammered punch technique. The incuse impression is deeply struck and asymmetrically recessed, consistent with early Archaic coinage practice in which a plain four-part punch served as the reverse die. No legend, symbol, or subsidiary device appears within the incuse field. |
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| Mintage | ND (520 BC - 500 BC) |
| Additional information |
Abdera's silver coinage begins here, in the decades immediately following the city's second foundation — the first Clazomenian settlement having failed, it was refounded by Teos around 545 BC after that city's population fled the advancing Persian army under Harpagus. The coins they struck upon arrival are among the earliest identifiable civic issues from Thrace, and the fabric of this tetradrachm reflects Ionian minting conventions transplanted wholesale to the northern Aegean littoral.
The city would later become infamous in antiquity as a byword for stupidity — an unfair reputation possibly rooted in inter-polis rivalry — but in this period Abdera was a prosperous port controlling access to Thracian silver sources.