Tetradrachm

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.