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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Mende |
|---|---|
| Year | 460 BC - 423 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | The god Dionysos, bearded and wreathed with ivy, reclines to right upon the back of a donkey walking to right; he wears a chiton and holds a kantharos in his outstretched right hand and a thyrsos in his left hand, his head turned slightly to the left. An ivy branch occupies the lower field beneath the donkey. The composition is rendered in archaic to early classical style, with careful attention to the divine attributes and the characteristic pose of the reclining deity. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Mende, a Chalcidian colony on the western prong of the Chalkidike peninsula, was among the wealthiest cities in the northern Aegean during the fifth century BC — wealth derived almost entirely from wine exports. Mendean wine was exported across the Mediterranean in distinctive amphorae, and the city's coinage circulated on the same trade routes.
The Lockett reference places this piece among a collection assembled by Richard Cyril Lockett, whose dispersal sales between 1955 and 1961 remain landmark events in twentieth-century numismatic scholarship. Kraay and Hirmer's attribution to #403 anchors this type firmly within the mature phase of the series, prior to the city's forced synoikism with Skione under Macedonian pressure.