Tetradrachm

After Thasos lost its independence to Macedon and later came under Roman influence, the city was permitted to resume autonomous coinage around 148 BC — the same year Rome dissolved the Macedonian kingdom following the Battle of Pydna's aftermath. The resulting tetradrachm series was struck in enormous quantities over several decades, flooding the northern Aegean and Thracian interior as a trade currency far beyond the island itself. Hoards from Bulgaria and Romania attest to how deeply this coinage penetrated continental markets.

The type was struck so prolifically, and by so many hands, that die quality varies dramatically across the series. Le Rider's classification distinguishes over 200 obverse dies.