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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Kyrene |
|---|---|
| Year | 525 BC - 480 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
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| 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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| Obverse description | Facing gorgoneion (Gorgon's head) rendered in archaic style, depicted full-face with wide staring eyes, broad flat nose, and a protruding tongue between open lips with visible fangs. The head is framed within a shallow incuse square, with the surrounding field of the flan left plain. The rendering reflects the early archaic Greek artistic convention for apotropaic imagery, characterized by bold, stylized facial features and a frontally symmetrical composition. No legend or additional devices are present in the field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Kyrene's silver coinage was among the earliest struck in North Africa, the city having been founded as a Theran colony around 631 BC and grown wealthy largely on the silphium trade — a plant so commercially vital that it appeared on nearly every coin the mint produced and was harvested to extinction within a few centuries. The tetradrachm series from this period aligns with the Aiginetan weight standard, reflecting Kyrene's commercial ties across the Aegean rather than to Carthage or Egypt.
GCV 6236 corresponds to an early and relatively scarce emission. The BMC Greek 10 specimen was acquired through nineteenth-century excavation in the region.