Tetradrachm

Akanthos, a Macedonian coastal colony founded by Andrians, sat astride one of the most strategically critical stretches of the northern Aegean — close enough to the Athos peninsula that Xerxes chose to canal through it in 483 BC rather than risk his fleet rounding the headland again. The city's silver came from mines in the Thracian interior, and its tetradrachms circulated widely as trade currency precisely because that bullion source was reliable and the weight standard trusted by merchants moving between the Aegean and the Black Sea routes.